Under the Bridge
by vawendy

Comment by posthumous:
Beautiful color and deft composition.

Posthumous Art Gallery

Detention
by vawendy

Comment by ladyhawk22:
That was always so much fun :-)

Detention
by vawendy

Comment by tanguera:
Love the graininess the dust produces. And the lighting is terrific.

le cochon
by vawendy

Comment by Melethia:
Still one of my favorites of yours!

Detention
by vawendy

Comment by bmartuch:
The lighting on this is perfect. Excellent job. 10

The Star Gazer
by vawendy

Comment by David Ey:
I like it just the way it is, color and all. Even the star movement. Hey, that's what happens with long exposures without special apparatus. The camera to telescope guy is remarkably sharp considering the 35 sec exposure. Much closer to him and he would have likely been blurred. I gave it a 6.

The Star Gazer
by vawendy

Comment by Ann:
The shot is basically good, but I agree with what the others have said about the exposure time and the star trails, and the comment about maybe using a wide angle lens and getting in a lot closer to the guy, so that he has more of the frame, but there is still lots of sky.

The thing that I would add, though, has to do with the white balance. The sky is really orange, and the guy is really purple. Neither color is very natural looking. I think what I'd do is to put an orange gel on the flash, to match the orangeness of the sky (or possibly go even a little more orange than the sky), then compensate for the orange color with white balance. The idea is to get the sky a nice normal nighttime color (or at least what we imagine to be normal), and have the guy maybe a little warmer. It might take some experimentation to get it right.

The Star Gazer
by vawendy

Comment by Mike:
i agree with the other commenters, the stars "look" out of focus with the short trails, they either need to be really long or pin points. also the stargazer just seems to be there, i would have had him on more of an angle from behind, so that he aimed to the far distant right and set him on the left part of the frame so that he and your camera are seeing the same part of the sky.

The Star Gazer
by vawendy

Comment by tanguera:
Hi Wendy,
I find that most of my night images have this same reddish cast - and most of the time it is not desirable. I do like the composition, but as others have pointed out, I'd have preferred more commitment towards either star trails or points of light. The sky seems a tad smudged. Good luck! These are really, really tough for me.

The Star Gazer
by vawendy

Comment by bobonacus:
I'm not going to read the other comments first to apologies if I say the same :)

Initial 1s reaction ... there's nothing there, just lots of stars that seem a little out of focus. It takes another second to realize they are star trails and then see the guy at the bottom. For me he is too far down the frame a bit too small. From f2.8 I assume you used the 50mm? Maybe get in much tighter with the 10-22 and have him fill a bit more of the frame ... or just a little closer with the 50mm.

The exposure is too short for me, there is not enough movement in the stars. I think maybe a 2 minute exposure would work better ... though is he stood still or was there a pop of flash? If you have a speedlight you could use that to stop him from having to stand dead still for 2 mins!

I like the colours and the gradient in the sky

eta. Duh, of course there was a pop of flash, I didn't look to see what the challenge was ;)

Message edited by author 2010-10-18 12:48:26.