'twas a braw bricht moonlight nicht ...

[Lexie in NZ]

I am putting together a portfolio of night-time images for an assignment - here are a couple for comments and critique from the learned folks out there

This was taken looking over the garden fence - a very bright moon refelcting on the neighbour's roof. When I took the picture I could only see the brightest star at the top of frame, but on screen there seem to be quite a few more stars.



Light trails of traffic over a bridge - this was a big truck, so the headlights are higher and show through the railings of the bridge, and the lights on the top of the cab left a colourful streak too. I dodged the trees behind the bridge, and have burned a few of the brighter lights on the left hand side - anything else I could/should do?



all feedback gratefully received,
thanks

Lexie

[Mark von Kanel]

Hi Lexie,

Id crop most of the sky out and submit the roof! nice image, the bridge works fine for me.

[Donald]

Lexie

I agree with Mark on this. I'm not sure that having the star at the top included actually adds anything. The image is the roof. That's the main point of interest and what, I suggest, you want to showcase.

Also, I'd work some more on the crop. Not sure about the satellite dish being there and it's very close to the edge of the frame. What grabs me are: a) the roof; b) the chimney and, c) the two brighter stars to teh left of the chimney stack.

Building a, say, 5:4 or 7:5 ratio crop around them, with the chimney stack on the vertical third (right or left - need to try both) would, I think, maybe give you an image worth thinking about.

On the bridge, my only question (because it's a good 'un) is what would it be like if you kept the same ration, but re-composed to include just a bit more above the bridge and little less of the reflection at the bottom? Would that produce a different 'balance' that was an improvement or not?

[Dizzy]

Hi Lexie,

I am presuming you took that image sometime in Sept. or Oct.?

The "star" at the top is actually the planet Jupiter, and the two stars to the lower left
are Mesarthim (top) and Sheratan (lower). If you had waited another 30 min., you would
have also captured the star "Aries" underneath Sheratan.

By using the 25s exposure, the camera's sensor was able to collect enough photons
to show the other stars, as the sensor is much more sensitive than our eyes are.

You can clone out the star trails, and make them much sharper. The trails happen
because the Earth is rotating on it's axis while your camera lens is fixed in one spot,
and it is difficult to provide any sidereal tracking when using a standard tripod mount.

Mike

p.s. Removed just the star trails in the pic attached.

[Lexie in NZ]

Thanks everyone for all the feedback and suggestions I can't do anything with the images at the moment (at work) but I will try some of the suggestions tonight and post them.

Donald - I'll try a few different placements and ratios for the crop, making sure not to get the chimney dead centre I want to try and leave the light stripes on the roof at the right hand side, so may need to clone out some of the satellite dish, rather than crop it completely.

The sky was very overcast and boring the night I took the bridge picture so I wanted the focus to be on the swirling water (river running very high, fast and muddy!!) but much of the swirling effect in the water is lost with the long exposure, it actually looks fairly flat and tranquil in the picture which it certainly was not (it's one big scary river!!).

Dizzy Mike - thanks for the astronomical information The picture was taken in the deep south of NZ just a couple of nights ago, looking in a roughly north-easterly direction. I did make some more images about an hour or so later, but the moon had moved so much that the light on the roof was not as spectacular. There are a few trees that I was trying to get silhoutted in the image but it was so windy that that idea didn't work!

thanks for your help,
Lexie

[Lexie in NZ]

I cropped most of the sky from the roof picture - not sure it is quite right yet, the chimney is a little too central for my liking.



The sky is very clear tonight and should stay clear after dark too - I'll try this shot again.

Here is another image I made in Wellington, hand held, one of the first night shots I attempted (I didn't have a tripod at the time) Before any tidying up, as shot -



After a wee bit of tidying, cloned out the street light on the left hand side, tried to reduce the bright glare from some of the lights on the buildings, but I don't know if I have overdone it - this looks rather pale when put side-by-side with the original

[Donald]

I cropped most of the sky from the roof picture - not sure it is quite right yet, the chimney is a little too central for my liking.

I agree. You are going to have to sacrifice some of the roof to get the chimney in the right position.

[Lexie in NZ]

I agree. You are going to have to sacrifice some of the roof to get the chimney in the right position.

it's not quite dark yet, but the sky is still very clear - another 30 minutes or so and the moon will be above the roof so I can try again for this shot - will keep posting

[Donald]

Lexie

I hope you don't mind, but to, hopefully, help you think through the possible cropping options, I made up some suggestions for you to ponder upon. They might give you some ideas........

I used a rule-of-thirds grid to determine the composition in each case.

7:5 ratio




4:5 ratio



1:1 ratio



5:4 ratio

[Lexie in NZ]

Hi Donald,

I don't mind at all, all suggestions are welcome I hadn't thought about removing so much of the hedge, but once it is gone the eye is drawn much more to the lines of light on the roof.

thanks,
Lexie

[Mark von Kanel]

the 7:5 crop works best for me