[kNox]

I took this shot with a 5 second exposure at f/14 - any more and the wind would have definitely shaken the camera so bad that the photo would have been ruined. Any ideas on how to improve the shot?

[EnglishBob]

Long exposures are always hard in wind, I would probably of gone with F/8 and a shorter exposure. Weighing down the tripod helps stabilize it in windy conditions, I hand a two gallon water jug from the bottom of the center pole on mine, but make sure the tripod can handle the extra weight.

[EdMak]

Realistically, take it again. Ed.

[MrB]

The image is quite soft, probably due to motion blur caused by the wind so, if you can, it would be better to take the shot again in calm conditions. However, it is also very noisy and you would get a better image at a much lower ISO than 6400, which you could do if your camera is not subjected to wind movement, and then you could safely extend the time of exposure. Perhaps you might try when it is not quite dark, when there is still a bit of interest in the sky. The skyline also suggests a more panoramic format - e.g. An image crop to 2:1 -

   

Cheers.
Philip

[kNox]

Wow, awesome crop! What other changes did you make - for instance, how did you reduce the noise?

[MrB]

As you might recall from some of my other posts, Andrei, the image editing software used is PaintShop Pro (Version X6). I can't remember exactly what the order of processing was here, but in summary - noise reduction applied to the sky and water; white balance made slightly cooler (blue); sharpening of the buildings; increases in saturation and contrast. The adjustments are usually small, selective, and repeated if necessary, until it looks OK to me. Hope that is of some help.

Cheers.
Philip

[EdMak]

Read somewhere that noise was random, not always in the same place. tried it once, took 2 pics, perhaps should have taken more, and combined in P/S. did see a betterment. Also tried to isolate a noisy sky and then blur it a bit, again seemed better. Ed.

[kNox]

As you might recall from some of my other posts, Andrei, the image editing software used is PaintShop Pro (Version X6). I can't remember exactly what the order of processing was here, but in summary - noise reduction applied to the sky and water; white balance made slightly cooler (blue); sharpening of the buildings; increases in saturation and contrast. The adjustments are usually small, selective, and repeated if necessary, until it looks OK to me. Hope that is of some help.

Cheers.
Philip

I think I need to learn more post processing - I tried to remove the noise myself in Lightroom but failed at it.

[kNox]

Read somewhere that noise was random, not always in the same place. tried it once, took 2 pics, perhaps should have taken more, and combined in P/S. did see a betterment. Also tried to isolate a noisy sky and then blur it a bit, again seemed better. Ed.

Gradient filters for isolating skies is what I currently do, although it's not perfect.