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Flame-of-the-Phoenix [2010-07-21 07:11:51 +0000 UTC]

I see you already got a critique from us, but here's my take on it. Sorry about the really late reply, by the way!!

Critique from- #Critique-It

My Take- First things first, for your first time experimenting with night photography, this is really excellent! The patterns the light makes are fully in focus and interesting, and the kind of ghost-like quality that the model has makes it more interesting. In a way, it almost looks like you took two images and put one on top of the other or used a double exposure.

Tripods and ISO- I would suggest, however, getting a tripod for future shoots. It really comes in handy, especially in cases like this. For this photo, I don't really see much hand shake or blurriness, but it could be a little clearer. After all, you have a few things moving, you don't want your hand shake to get in the way! Along the same lines, if you have a tripod you can try lowering the ISO. A high ISO creates graininess, but allows you to take images in darker situations or with models in motion. Interestingly enough, I'm not really sure if your Camera Data on the right side is correct, because it seems to me you actually used quite a low ISO (I know personally, I can hardly ever use an ISO200 because the subjects I take pictures of tend to be in motion and/or not always the best lighting conditions). In my opinion, though, you did the right thing with improvising and experimenting!! That's the best way to learn what look you like in your shots and how to get certain effects.

Lighting and Backgrounds- I think with this shot, the lighting is pretty much ideal. The model's face is lit up, but the main focus really is the pattern that is being made with the light. Have you tried taking a similar picture maybe in a field or in a forested area (I'm not sure what the landscapes are like near you)? As it is now, in the street, the lines and the sign on the left take the focus away from the subject a bit. If you are in an area with less "distractions," it might give the photo more impact. The thing with taking such shots in a dark room (as I have seen many people do), is that often times the room isn't empty. Though it may look dark when you are standing there taking the picture, in reality the flashlight can light up a sofa or a TV or something of that sort, which gives almost an amateurish feel, in my opinion.

As for the images you've seen that have no person and just the lights, I'm not really 100% sure how they did those, but my assumption is that they had the light farther away from the model's body and tried not to shine the light on themselves. Again, the higher the shutter speed or ISO, the more will be seen in the final image because it is using what little light you give the camera to create an image- so any little bit of light shone on the person will be seen. They could have also produced the effect in post-processing by using Photoshop (or something similar) to heighten the contrast in the photograph and perhaps darken the model's face and/or body. Again, this really all comes down to experimentation (unfortunately, I've never experimented with something similar to this, so I can only take educated guesses). You might want to try differently colored lights, or to create actual patterns instead of random lines. For example, I have seen some people who have written out words or drawn images with the lights they used.

Cropping- I can't really decide when it comes to the cropping on this shot. I would like it to be more focused on the model, but I feel as though that would take away something. So, I'm going to have to go with keep it as it is for now.

Last Suggestions- As one last suggestion, I was thinking maybe if you try taking this type of shot again in a different area (a field would probably be ideal), you could try having your model a little farther away and have him draw/write something with the light. Another thought is you could use a tripod and have it lengthwise so that you can show the star movement as well as your model and the light drawings.


I hope this helped out a little! Sorry for the novel... If you have any more questions, please let me know! Hopefully it won't take as long to get back to you (sorry again about that). Good luck with your future photo shoots!!

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Argolith [2010-07-10 09:46:27 +0000 UTC]

Hi. I’m *Argolith and this critique is brought to you by:



You said that you experimented with night photography for the first time, so I think it would be a good idea to discuss some of the basics first. I’ll start with the ISO setting. This setting controls how sensitive the camera’s sensor reacts to incident light. A higher ISO setting results in a brighter image given the same aperture and shutter speed. But there’s a drawback: It also generates more noise. Therefore it is usually advisable to use the lowest available ISO setting for night photography and compensate for the low light sensitivity by using a slower shutter speed. The EXIF data of this photograph tells me that you had the ISO set to 200 and used a shutter speed of 13 seconds. As far as the noise is concerned, it would have been better to use ISO 100 and double the exposure time.

You asked if there’s a way to improve clarity and focus in a shot like this (slow shutter speed, moving model). I’ll address the focus issue first. When you’re taking pictures in the dark, your camera’s autofocus may fail to focus properly. In this case you basically have two options: You can either focus manually instead, or help the autofocus by illuminating the subject while focusing (for instance with a flashlight). Getting a clear (i.e. not blurred) picture of a moving model while using a slow shutter speed, is an entirely different problem. There is only one way to accomplish that: You have to illuminate the model with an intense light source for a short time, thereby freezing the motion. You can do that by setting the camera’s flash to fire at the beginning or end of the exposure time. Of course, getting the right ratio of flash exposure to ambient light / flashlight exposure is not an easy task and will take some experimenting. You may also want to consider using an external flash, since the in-camera flash tends to create quite unnatural lighting conditions.

You asked if I think that this shot would be better if it was taken in a dark room instead of the middle of a street. Well, that entirely depends on what background you want to have in your picture. Personally, I don’t like the background of this picture a lot because I don’t find it aesthetically appealing. If there was a city in the background with a lot of lights in different colors, it would look a lot more interesting in my opinion. A dark room, on the other hand, may have the advantage that the viewer’s attention is – for the lack of other picture elements – entirely on the model.

One more thing: Central composition often makes pictures appear boring. I think this photograph would be more appealing if you had placed the model on one of the vertical third lines or golden ratio lines. I hope you found this critique useful and will create more night shots in the future. By the way, you might want to check out the group #NocturnalPhoto – they have some good night photography in their gallery.

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exarobibliologist [2010-07-02 17:04:25 +0000 UTC]

Very neat experiment!

As regards your requested critique: It wouldn't really matter where you placed the subject of your photo (dark room or dark street). The purpose of an experiment like this is to play with light. So varying the location might be in order just to keep your inspiration up, but have fun at it! As an idea, try new things and longer exposures. Here's a deviation I faved a long time ago to give you an idea: [link]

The D3000 allows for long exposures of up to 30 seconds. Another idea I've used to get interesting pictures in the past is to buy a bolt of very dark light-weight fabric and make a drape for the camera and tripod. While you and camera are concealed under the drape (this will look reminiscent of a old-style camera ), depress the shutter release and open the lens. Then lift the fabric, and let the camera capture some of the light. Dropping the fabric back over the camera with be like closing the lens, but the camera will in only be recording black (no exposure). Lifting the fabric again can allow you to capture more light. This is very useful for fireworks or cloud lightning photography because it allows you to overlay multiple exposures and capture as much light detail as possible in one picture. It also allows for exposure overlay (which is amazing in fireworks pictures cause it makes the sky look like hundreds of fireworks went off all at once).

These are just a few ideas on location and technique you might try.

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IndiePurple [2010-07-02 09:17:44 +0000 UTC]

really cool pic

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LightrayPhotography [2010-07-01 18:19:51 +0000 UTC]

Great exposure for an experiment. How many of these are there?

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andalite-friends [2010-06-30 10:46:02 +0000 UTC]

Love the effect..

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twphotography [2010-06-29 15:44:43 +0000 UTC]

nice! good job. Experimenting is always a good thing!

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marcremih [2010-06-27 20:10:47 +0000 UTC]

Cool !!!

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LiZtHePiRAtEgIrL [2010-06-27 05:46:00 +0000 UTC]

that is pretty trippy

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SnowBnny [2010-06-22 08:26:45 +0000 UTC]

SNAP.

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illogan [2010-06-21 19:27:05 +0000 UTC]

I did this on haloween night with my boyfriend when we officially started dating on his camera This style means a lot to me
Really awesome job with this!

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treyk4 [2010-06-21 18:42:14 +0000 UTC]

AAh! A ghost!! Hahaha

I'll have to try something like this sometime! Good job!!

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WIRTA [2010-06-21 10:05:56 +0000 UTC]

really cool!!! awesome

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