City skyline

[phugiay]

Hello all,
I live in San Francisco. I am new in the photography (less than one year) and my first post and I appreciate all your comments. I took on the top of Corona Heights Park and I think this is the best shot but it turns out not exactly what I want. The upfront is clear and sharp but the background. It happens couple time when I take the city skyline but I am not sure what wrong with my set up. Thank you




Nikon D7000 F13 65mm ISO 100 0EV

[Ludwig]

Welcome to CiC!
You have a fine spot for photos. Your picture was taken at a time when there was much aerial haze. There will always be some, but sometimes it shows up too strong. Try this shot again on a crisp sunny day, also at evening time or at night. The sky is rather bland, unless you can get the shot with nice clouds, it would look better with the large sky area cropped out.
You have a good eye for pleasant composition of the skyline. Keep practicing!

[dje]

Hello Phugiay and welcome. I think all your image needs is a bit of post processing to "bring it to life". I hope you don't mind but I edited it with a view to illustrating what can be done in just a few pp steps.



Firstly I cropped some of the sky. A 2:1 aspect ratio often works well with cityscape panoramas.

Secondly I adjusted the tonal properties of the image with the Levels Adjustment in PS. As you can see from the histogram, black slider is up to 15, white slider down to 229 and midtone at 0.33. This latter adjustment is fairly extreme but it is the main contributor to improving the contrast which is what this image needs.

Thirdly I added some sharpening.

I can't see any EXIF info for your image but could you tell us what equipment and settings were used ? Also what were the shooting conditions - it seems like it might have been hazy.

Hope this helps, it is a good example of the "power of pp".

Dave

PS ; Click on an image to bring it up to full size viewing.

[Donald]

I was about to reply a couple of hours ago, but got called away. And in the meantime, Ludwig and Dave have captured, in my view, the key points.

[phugiay]

Thank you ludwig. I will try again next time. Thank you for you feedback

[phugiay]

Thank you for your feedback, dje. I learn a lot from you.