First attempt at shooting at night

shawnxstl · May 15, 2008

eh?

Pointers? I'd like to eliminate that slight shadow to the right of the statue.

DRoberts · May 15, 2008

I think it would have been better at the subjects eye level...and maybe an external light on the cherub to enhance it, and eliminate grass.

such a sad and lonely looking thing though.

Battou · May 15, 2008

Flashed?

MBasile · May 15, 2008

I think a lower POV would be awesome.

KOrmechea · May 15, 2008

shawnxstl said:
Pointers? I'd like to eliminate that slight shadow to the right of the statue.

Did you use an on camera flash (it looks like it)? To move/improve the shadows, you'll need to get that off of the camera and move it around.

And, as others have stated, kneeling down would have improved the shot a good deal.

manaheim · May 15, 2008

This is interesting. Nowhere near what I expected. Usually pictures at night are some kind of excercise in taking existing light sources and doing long exposures on them and whatnot.

For me, the flash sort of takes all of that away. Certainly, you can employ a flash to do some interesting things in night shots, but in this case the particular pic might just as well have been taken in daylight.

Just my opinion, of course.

shawnxstl · May 16, 2008

manaheim said:
This is interesting. Nowhere near what I expected. Usually pictures at night are some kind of excercise in taking existing light sources and doing long exposures on them and whatnot.

For me, the flash sort of takes all of that away. Certainly, you can employ a flash to do some interesting things in night shots, but in this case the particular pic might just as well have been taken in daylight.

Just my opinion, of course.

Well, if the picture was taken during the day, it wouldn't give the dark/depressing feeling the statue gives off. To you, what fits that scenario better? A bright environment with flowers and a trampoline in the background or a complete blackness surrounding the sad looking figure? I'm not trying to shoot down your opinion or anything but I'm just telling you why i shot it at night .

DRoberts said:
I think it would have been better at the subjects eye level...and maybe an external light on the cherub to enhance it, and eliminate grass.

such a sad and lonely looking thing though.

How would I go about eliminating the grass?
and...wouldn't it just look like it's floating in nothingness if there was nothing visibly supporting it?

KOrmechea said:
Did you use an on camera flash (it looks like it)? To move/improve the shadows, you'll need to get that off of the camera and move it around.

And, as others have stated, kneeling down would have improved the shot a good deal.

Yeah I used a nikon speedlight. How is it possible to use that off-camera?

the statue is right outside my backdoor. I'll take a new POV shot tomorrow night.

Thanks for the comments/suggestions! keep them coming.

manaheim · May 17, 2008

^^^ Yeah, I understand what you were going for... the point I was trying to make was that the flash killed the spookiness for me.

If you had some other light source (like the moon would have been AWESOME) it might have given you more of the effect you were looking for, or at least made more of an effect on me, personally.

What this looked like was someone taking a picture in the dark using a flash.

100% my take on it... if it works for you and you get the spooky feel, then awesome.

I have a picture on my wall at work of some statues on the side of a church (taken at night). 1/2 the people who see it say it looks peaceful... 1/2 the people who see it say it looks spooky. I personally think it looks spooky, but pics hit different people differently.

BTW, my statues are illuminated by hideous blaring incandescant lights from overhead. LOL Figures, right?