TV Tower Photo | TrekEarth

Photographer’s Note

This is the highest building in Shenyang, the TV tower. I do not have many details about the tower. I know that almost every city in China has a tower like this, and as this one as well, a rotating restaurant at the top. Written on the on the tower is "Snow Beer", the local beer in the city.
This is shot about half an hour after sunset, before it became real dark. I took the same picture about 10 minutes later and the sky turns black and red, but I liked these colors better. It was a little windy, so tried to take an extra long exposure time to get the flat surface of the water.
Let me know what you think.

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Critiques | Translate

gringofil (0) 2004-05-07 5:21

I do like the location/angle for this shot and the mirror reflection is a good idea. You also picked the right time of day to shoot and it appears that your shutter speed is bang on to achive the "flat water" effect you were after. My concern, though, is that when you're working with reflections it would be nice to show all of it and not crop the top off as you did here. Also, the crane (I'm guessing it's a crane) on the upper right side of the frame is a huge distraction. A few moves in PS would solve it without any problems and it would not get in the way of your composition. Anyway, this is good work, just some details need to be looked after. Also, when your're doing post-pro work in PhotoShop be more careful about the details and see how well the composition plays out on your screen. Sometimes the little things are what make a shot great.

BTW: for night shots you might want to consider buying a ND Filter for your camera. ND filter controls the lights and does not make them blown-out (like the white of the tower is a bit harsh here). Not a huge expense, but when working with night photography (or anything involving bright subjects) it's a nice tool to have in your camera bag. If not an ND filter try to underexpose the shot and, once doing the RAW conversion, bring out the shadow details.