Night Captures

[selig1656]

RSF_6229 edited by Raymond Friedman, on Flickr

Pic 2
RSF_6221 edited crop by Raymond Friedman, on Flickr

From my series on steeples in my county,MD

[Manfred M]

Sorry Raymond, these images are not working for me. Night shots like these are by definition high dynamic range images; very deep shadows and very bright highlights. The lit up parts of the buildings just seem to be floating in mid-air. Kind of strange and spooky...

Images like these usually work out better when it is not quite as dark out; shooting towards the end of golden hour and through blue hour will likely give you more to work with. If you want something this dark, shooting HDRI or having strong post-processing skills will come in handy.

[FootLoose]

I have to agree with Manfred's comments about the first shot, but not the second one. I think that one works quite well. I think it might look better in a vertical format - 10x8. More dark space would make it look more "spooky".

[Wavelength]

Surprisingly, i really liked the first image; in the second image, i really desired if the roof is illumined somewhat to suggest its presence there; without that it looks incomplete

[selig1656]

Manfred, I understand your perspective, however that is not mine.I will attempt to work on them, yet to me represent the awe of darkness and beauty in it. You know I truly appreciate your insight and you have aided me in growing.

[Manfred M]

Manfred, I understand your perspective, however that is not mine.I will attempt to work on them, yet to me represent the awe of darkness and beauty in it. You know I truly appreciate your insight and you have aided me in growing.

Raymond - what and how you do your images is totally up to you. I can only tell you what and why the images are not working for me. I've done a lot of night photography and it is a very challenging genre because of the extreme dark and light areas that the photographer has to contend with.

In my view the first image has more potential because there is interesting material there to fill the frame, but it is so underexposed that it really does not do much. In the second, the subject takes up a very small part of the frame and most of the shot is negative space, i.e. night sky. Do a much harder crop on this image and some of the issues will go away.

My favourite quote from the famed photojournalist, Robert Capa applies here. "IF your image isn't good enough, you're not close enough".

[DanK]

I have to disagree with Manfred here. The very large dynamic range in urban night photography opens up a large number of creative choices, and people follow different paths. Some people bracket and composite to compress the dynamic range. Many expose for the darks and let lights blow out, sometimes using a narrow aperture to create starbursts. Some people expose for the brightly lit areas and let other areas fade into black. Although this last isn't one of my styles yet (I plan to experiment with it once COVID is less of a constraint), I've seen it used effectively.

With respect to the first, however, I'll offer two suggestions. First, the lack of detail between the steeple and the bottom section doesn't work for me. It makes the steeple look disembodied. I think I would experiment with lightening that area enough to make the two parts connected. That might require exposure bracketing for a shot like this. Second, if you let things fade into black, the use of negative space becomes even more important that it normally is. I would play around with cropping to see if there are more effective ways of using the negative space. For example, it might work better to reduce the amount and to make the building more off-center, with more space to its front. I'd have to play with it to have a firmer idea.

[selig1656]

Manfred as usual you are on target in your responses to my captures and so helpful.