Vegas Night Shots

[flipmode]

So I'm finding more locations to shoot here in Vegas, as I'm still fairly new to the area. This is one particular spot where you can see an absolute clear view of the strip. I'm also fairly new to taking night shots and shot these with a tripod and shutter speeds varying from 1 sec to 20 seconds. Thoughts anyone?







Not sure what the best way to post panoramic shots, as this was my first time putting one together so if anyone has any tips, I'm open to any suggestions.

[Alis]

Very good shots, Chris! Isn't anything else to do in Vegas, something better than taking long shot images of the whole city? Take us inside the gambling rooms at least

I like the first and second one. The last one has too much of those dark empty areas at the bottom.

In the first picture, I would just keep the focus on the tower which is captured very well. Specially in the middle of that shot, you have too many bright spots too close to each other which has made it a big mass of light, I would like to see them a little bit more sparse.

Cheers!

[Shadowman]

When I visited Vegas last fall I stayed at the Stratosphere shown in your photos. You should take the trip up to the observation tower. Be aware that there is a lot of security you have to go through, a small fee, and they have metal detectors. You can bring camera equipment but if you plan to go on any of the rides you should limit your gear to a point and shoot that will fit into a belt pouch.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Chris,

Picking up on Ali's comments on #1 about the excessive bright lights clumps, I think the whole shot is a stop or two over-exposed, I can see it would be difficult to get right and is a good time to bracket like crazy, as you really cannot judge exposure these sort of shots from histograms or even blinkies.
Additionally I think #1 would benefit from a small counter-clockwise rotation, the buildings are leaning right slightly - however, there is 'an illusion' ocurring though; as zooming in, it's not as bad as I thought it might be.

Is #2 a stitched pano, or a crop from a wide angle?
I'd love to see it 5 or even 10 thousand pixels wide and be able to pan along it with browser scroll bar

#3 is great, the classic image, but done very well, looks good bigger - thanks,

[flipmode]

Thanks guys for your input.

I agree with the comments on #1, now that I look at it again. The lights in the foreground are a bit distracting. I also forgot to fix the crop as it was tilted a bit as pointed out.

@ Dave, the second one is a panorama shot. It's cropped at a 9000 width; perhaps I should increase it?

Would love to take photos in the casinos. I've seem some discussion on the topic and how most casinos enforce the rules on professional photography, unless you play the tourist role big time. Just recently I was asked to leave from shooting at the top of a parking structure as I was just trying to get some sunset shots. Go figure, right.

Here's photo #1 fixing the tilt.

[Shadowman]

You should definitely try your hand at photographing the Sirens of Treasure Island show held three times nightly on the strip. You will have the opportunity of photographing pyrotechnics, action, and architectural structures, etc.

[rick55]

Very nice, Chris!

Is that third one from up on I-15, north of the city? We were there at the end of March, and when we came back from Valley of Fire in the evening, there was a pretty good view as we came down into the city, but a lot of mist. The next day was worse, and then we left.

I didn't try anything in the casinos, but I did see quite a few signs, as I'm sure you have.

Cheers,
Rick

[flipmode]

Hey Rick,

Actually all of those were taken from one location, north las vegas (charleston and hollywood). There's literally a wide view of the strip from this location. I definitely plan on going back and taking some more.

Sorry to hear about your recent trip. At least it gives you an excuse to come back, right?