From synapse to sensor (1 photo, CC please!)

[Austin Greene]

Yesterday morning I had a photo come to mind of a lake I visited a few days prior when searching for bugs. Last night I visited said lake, trying to make the photo I had seen in my head become a reality.

A few hours later, and I had exactly what I had imagined! I'd love to hear your thoughts

1. Potential

Potential by TogaLive, on Flickr

The only thing I wondered was what it would have looked like with a tiny bit of moonlight to illuminate the lake. I will likely try a reshoot purely out of curiosity. Composition of being off-center was a conscious choice for those wondering.

Very best,

Austin




Edit: Settings... 154 images at ISO4000, 20", f/4.5, one at ISO4000, 30", f/4.5. All taken across 52 minutes.

 

[Gavjenks]

I don't really like the inky black bottom half of the photo. It's SO black that it makes me just sort of feel like the bottom of the photo was ripped off. Not that it's an oh-so-dark night scene. Makes me feel uncomfortable and sort of claustrophobic in the top half of the photo that actually has anything.

If that's your goal, great. If not, then I suggest next time taking a normal exposure or three first, then doing the star trails. So that you can combine them in post processing to get some detail below without screwing up the stars.

 

[Gavjenks]

Actually looking at this now on a different monitor at home, this isn't nearly as dark on the bottom and looks a lot better than before. I couldn't even tell that you did seem to have done more than one exposure. That was some sort of horrible screen I was on.

 

[GDHLEWIS]

Like Gav Iv had to view this on a bad monitor and will have to re-check when I get home, but what I see so far I love! Well done.
If I had to be critical Id say shorten the exposure time when shooting the lake as the star reflections have ever so slight trails on them, and Id attempt to remove the shooting stars or what ever other object that caused the straight lines on the left hand side of the photo, this is me being overly critical tho.

Keep it up

 

[jenko]

Interesting capture. It does not make sense to me, though, that you would see star trails in the sky and the reflection of individual stars on the water (instead of trails.) The lack of logic is the first thing I notice and I am struggling to make the leap imaginatively. If the water were brighter, the disconnection would not be as obvious.

 

[amolitor]

I quite like it as a concept. I think it would be better with a somewhat brighter bottom half, just to make it clearer and less dependent on having a a good screen.

It's subtly surrealist.