practicing photography again. need to work on my editing, this one came out a bit too dark
https://www.flickr.com/photos/146768524@N05/32364742225/in/dateposted-public/
edit: how do i get the nice formatting on flickr links to work?
What camera + lens + settings did you use? If that photo would be (almost) unedited, it looks a bit like you need a large aperture to let in more light (smaller f-stop) and/or longer exposure time (using a tripod of course, preferably a remote trigger button, and if DSLR with the mirror fallen already to prevent shake). Also, it looks a tiiiny bit grainy, suggesting you could use a smaller ISO-setting. But that also depends on your lens, aperture, and quality of the sensor of course.
I never got nice formatting in flickr, don't know why. It's a mystery to me.
5dmkii, 17-40mm lens, f/11 4s 3200
I used a tripod for this image. My editing was what let down the photo, I compressed the highlights, added more darkness and a vignette for a more grimy feel but looking back at it the original is much more vivid and interesting. I used a larger f-stop for a large depth of field (although I think I could have had a smaller f-stop without too much compromise), and I used that exposure time as it was short enough that I could estimate how long the train would take to appear in the viewfinder so I could release the shutter so that the train would not have travelled across the whole width of the image to create an illusion of direction in the motion.
I see now yes. That lens is beautiful and with a tripod that f-stop should work fine. The motion in the picture is beautiful btw. I still try to use prime lenses for night photography though, because it is much clearer and I can use larger apertures / lower iso / lower shutter times, for instance:
These were both shot with my 50mm f/1.4 prime lens at f/2-f/4 with a tripod, shutter time approx 1 sec (using my Nikon D7200). Now, these objects weren't so long, so I didn't need that much depth. But because the lens is so clear with little distortion, I could use a relatively large aperture without compromising too much on depth (I think).
I never managed to get motion correctly captured though.