My first night shot

[Whitethorne]

Here's my first night shot.How does it look? Railpix rejected it for - Poor Esthetic Quality: This rejection reason means that the photo is of low esthetic qualities, or is simply not the type of material we are wishing to publish.
This was a 30 second exposure,ISO 100,and the aperture was 6.00.

Thanks

[ssw9662]

Not bad for a first try. Just a couple of things worth noting:

The photo appears shaky; this is particularly noticeable where the Radford sign is. Were you using a tripod or did you just stick your camera on a hard, solid surface? For night shots it's best to use a sturdy tripod. Cheaper tripods work fine for P&S cameras but they cannot hold a DSLR well without shaking. Also, the photo looks slightly overexposed, that could be alleviated by using a smaller aperture (higher f/number) or by using a slightly faster shutter speed. For the composition, I would have moved the camera up slightly so that the entire signal cantilever appeared in the frame. The only other things that jump out at me are the glare and the thin red and blue lines in the sky (they commonly appear in long exposure and night shots). Unfortunately there isn't much of a way to fix the glare as far as I know, but the lines can be cloned out in Photoshop.

Railpictures generally does not like these streak shots, but then again their opinion is meaningless. I personally like these types of photos as long as there are some objects of interest aside from the train's headlight (which you accomplished by including the station sign and signal bridge).

[Whitethorne]

Thanks for the help! I did use a tripod.But I don't have a good one yet.

[JCagle]

What may have made the photo look shaky is the slight bit it moved just after you hit the shutter.  I would recommend using a remote release for your camera for night shots if one is available for it. Most of them are corded and they aren't that expensive (usually 15 or 20 bucks).  If a remote release isn't available you could always use the countdown mode and time the shot to start when you want it.