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2024 August Entries
Topic: LONG EXPOSURE Judge: Donna Osborne
(Double Click on any image below to start slide show)
BASIC LEVEL ENTRIES
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- 1st – 5.0 – I find this to be a moody and captivating image. The negative space around the moon directs my eye to the subject. I may try some alternate placements for the moon. Not being directly in the center of the frame is good, I think, but maybe placing it in the upper left of the Rule of Thirds with the negative space at the bottom, eliminating the ‘heaviness’ at the top of the frame. The subject appears to be out of focus to me; change the focus point. Though the image is a bit noisy, some may find that contributes to the moodiness. Good job on a subject not easily captured.
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- 2nd – 3.0 – What a lovely veil of water you captured! And as what I see as thefocus of your image, nicely placed in the frame. Both the top of thewaterfall and the river below are blown out, drawing my eye to thosehot-spots rather than the waterfall. Probably a neutral density filterwould allow the slower shutter speed for the waterfall and not blow-out the top and river. Also, some targeted post-processing can pulldown those over-exposed areas. Capturing the image earlier or later inthe day may have helped, as well. A different f-stop may haveeliminated the soft focus on the rocks along the edges of the frame. I think this well-composed image just needs a little tweaking to be top-rate.
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- 2.0 – The bright colors in this image certainly capture the eye of theviewer. To my eye the burst at the upper right is the main player and assuch, I would like to see it positioned elsewhere in the frame, say alonga rule of thirds intersection. I find the long trail in the upper leftdistracting from the main elements. A change in cropping (even the leftone-third of the image) or the Remove Tool in post-processing are acouple of ways to eliminate that. The image reveals a lot of noise,often a difficulty in night photography; so, use your Noise Reductionsoftware to clean up the image a bit. You chose a difficultcombination—night photography and fireworks; kudos for yourambitions.
ADVANCED LEVEL ENTRIES
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- 1st – 6.0 – Absolutely beautiful waterfalls! I believe this is a lovelycomposition, well-cropped and positioned. The touch of color along theupper edge gives a sense of time and place to the image. It appears tome the rocks and background trees lack detail. A smaller aperturewould provide a greater depth of field and, thus, more detail; or maybetune down the detail slider. Some may think the very blue water wouldbe better represented more green, like the surrounding water; certainlya personal preference. A very lovely image.
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- 3.0 – A nicely composed image. Ideally, a night-time long exposurewould demonstrate light trails, a smooth sea of clouds, shadowy figuresor some other indicator of a long exposure, which I am not seeing. Inthe post-processing I do detect an effort to remove powerlines, somedistractions on the far side of the road and the sky, and the green areato the back left of the sign. However, these areas are blurs of pixelsrather than being sharp. The bright areas along the horizon (clouds anda building, I think) could be eliminated as I feel these draw my eye fromthe overall subject matter. With more careful post-processing andsome light- or cloud-trails, you could have a winning image.
MASTER LEVEL ENTRIES
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- 1st – 10.0 – Oftentimes it is a combination of well-done techniques that makean image. This is a good example of that. Notice how the camera ispositioned so that the stopped cars are in full view; and the makerchose to finish the long exposure at that time. Notice how the exposureis long enough to capture lots of lights; important if your object is tocapture light trails. Notice the level horizon. Notice the lack ofdistracting elements (maybe the red light behind the three white lightsat the upper left). Notice the sharpness (maybe just a half-pinch soft onthe background). Excellent long-exposure image.
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- 2nd – 9.8 – Simply an excellent image. I must question whether this was a‘long exposure’ or a ‘low light’ image. My experience says the watershould be less detailed and the people in the background blurred if thisis truly a long exposure. Of course, night photography in itself requiresa long exposure. Focus from front to back is excellent. I enjoy thecomposition with the big, blue clock tower; I might have cropped offthe right edge about half-way between the two street lights in order to move the clock; personal preference. This is a well composed andtechnically sound image.
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- 3rd – 9.6 – This is a beautifully composed image. I questioned whether this was a ‘long exposure’ or ‘low light.’ I came to the conclusion the lightsin the back were captured with a long exposure rather than being abackdrop. There are a few distractions on this image: white and a reddash along the edges and perhaps a reflection at the middle bottom. Iexpect attention could be called to the dark black and red lines alongher fingers, arms, and feet, as well. Timing this image must have been achallenge and you handled it very well.
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- HM – 9.4 – This is a classic example of long exposure street photography. Tomy eye the background is a little soft and tilted a bit to the left. Ifstraightening the building throws the sidewalk off, you may have to doa Perspective Warp. I guess it is too much to ask for the door to say,‘Casper!’ This is a well composed and executed image.
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- 9.0 – I find this to be a striking image. The dark, dark blues with thegreens on the building really grab my attention. Of course, I appreciatethe level horizon. Compositionally, if you had raised your camera anglejust a bit, it would have included the top of the roof and eliminated thebrown structure and touch of blue stones in the lower right corner. Theroof is part of your story; the brown thing is not. Those distant lights onthe horizon? I think they best be taken out of your final image; not partof your story and draws my attention away. The long exposure createda lovely star effect on the lights. Very well created image.
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- 8.5 – To me this is a beautifully composed image. I questioned,however, whether the image was a ‘long exposure’ or ‘low light’ image.I came to the conclusion the lights in the back were captured with along exposure rather than being a backdrop. You may considerremoving the bright lights at the bottom of the image—one right, oneleft. If this were my image, I would try to correct her skin color to amore natural color; your call. There is a dark bar running down the leftside which is a little distracting. Love the image; hate her flexibility!
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- 8.0 – Thank you for a straight horizon. This is a lovely image of SanDiego, though I think a bit too dark. There are a number of ways tobrighten the cityscape. I think the dark trees (maybe lightened just atouch) of the foreground and a brighter background of buildings wouldreally offset each other. I like your choice of building-to-sky ratio. Thefocus on the buildings is a little soft. A very enjoyable image.
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- 7.0 – There is no doubt—this image is a long exposure. The curve of thelights makes a nice compositional element. I am guessing one big trailertruck coming up that mountain. The focus on the background is soft. Asharp focus on the background would really make the trailing lightspop. The highway has some hot spots which draw my attention fromthe trailing lights. I would try to tone down the haze on the backgroundmountains. A well-composed image.
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- 6.0 – I think this is a very clever interpretation of ‘long exposure.’ Youcaptured just enough of the table to tell the story. The image doesseem to me to be leaning a bit to the left. There are some distractingelements in the upper left and right corners of the image. Both theblurred hands and wheel demonstrate the topic. A very good image.
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- 5.0 – The large rocks to each side draw my eye to the back of theframe—a good compositional technique. You may have severalexposure times of this same composition. Some may prefer the moreveiled water whereas this image has just a touch of a longer exposure;a personal preference. I see several highlights bordering on being over-blown; maybe a less direct angle of the sun would help, that is,later/earlier in the day. Even with the large rocks (slightly out of focus)framing the image, my eye still wanders seeking a point of interest;cropping the lower one-third of the image, or at least the blurrywater/rocks on the lower right, may benefit. Thank you for the straighthorizon!
