Night foraging

[MiniChris]

Trying to challenge myself with longer exposures, lower ISO's and diverse lighting. I think I've looked at them too much to be overly effective in analysing the merits or lack thereof and am seeking C&C. The bridge shot in one of the competitions was a 5 sec exposure, Joe's a 2 sec and the boats are 10 sec. Too noisy? Too bright? Too anything, or are they pretty close to okay? Both of these are shot at f/11 aperture priority, spot metered, ISO 100. About 8:00 PM EST.





Thnis shot is only a 100 yards to the left of Joes, but considerably different lighting. That's what made the PP so interesting.

[jeeperman]

Chris, I like the second shot, quite sharp reflection. The first shot however seems a to have a bit of blurr, or glare. Was this handheld? I think the shot could be fantastic if a bit more clearity. I do love the colors however.

[MiniChris]

Not hand held...I think that is due to the neon lights as they cycle enough to have a blurring effect over a 2 second exposure. I might go back and reshoot that with a higher ISO and see if I can get past that "fuzz" though in the master, it is not very prevalent at all.

[Shadowman]

Was that shot on the Dead River?

[MiniChris]

no...at the Tarpon Dock Marina in Panama City...and here is a revised version of it with better sharpening...I think.

[jeeperman]

Ah yes Chris a noted improvement. Nice work.

[ilovelucydog]

They are both great but I really like the second one and the sharpened first one is really nice. Great work.

[GeorgeM]

Nice shots. I like the colors and reflections.

[Peter Ryan]

Hi Chris,

Not sure of the light in #2. Seems a bit too bright but I wasn’t there.

In #1 you might try a much tighter crop to remove the darkness surrounding the building and the boat at far right. I think crop from the top of the sign to each side of the building and down into the reflections and it becomes much more abstract.

[MiniChris]

Tried that and it didn't look good at all...the one with all the boats is a little brighter than it was, but no matter how much I tried to keep the brightness in check, it kept wanting to go there anyway...and not look totally wacked out. I'll play with it again later on...suspect it was the 10 second exposure at ISO 100 that caused the over saturation of blue tones....it was a domino effect.

[MiniChris]

Here is the first one with a slight desaturation and some more selective burning, specifically in the upper middle right to lower the overall impact of the lighted buidings in the background.

[jamn4ex]

I really like this picture. The masts are very detailed and the blueing tones makes me wanna dive right in.

[Stinky]

Very nice, but what are the bright lights on the right in #2? I find them to draw my eye as a slight distraction. Also the ligh above bayou joes takes a little away from it. Just my comments. Great Job. I love night photography