Something unique: Fluorescent Plankton in Cambodia

[Raj_55555]

Impressive.

VERY cool!

That is incredible Raj!

Thanks Jaca, John and Barb!

Welcome back, beautiful shot.

Thanks Sarmad, glad to be back!

That's amazing!

Thanks Scooter

Very nice! I know the ISO was probably pushed up a bunch, but maybe you could try luminance masking on the foreground water to help with noise?

Yeah, that noise sucks! But I've already done some pretty heavy noise reduction to the point that the details are almost gone from the waves. I've realized that a really long exposure has it's downsides. This is a situation where I missed having a FF.

 

[Derrel]

I'd remove the (4) lights on the horizon.

Yeah, that would help to eliminate all sense of location and strip away the sense of realism that people expect of a long, timed exposure made at night in the 21st century. Make it look like the image was shot in an area where millions of people were eliminated from the face of the planet, but their old piers and stuff were left behind.

 

[fotomarc]

Great shot! What were your settings/lens? Was the sky and foreground taken without moving the camera? The lights don't bother me.

 

[Braineack]

I'd remove the (4) lights on the horizon.

Yeah, that would help to eliminate all sense of location and strip away the sense of realism that people expect of a long, timed exposure made at night in the 21st century. Make it look like the image was shot in an area where millions of people were eliminated from the face of the planet, but their old piers and stuff were left behind.

sounds pretty cool to me.

I really think the lights are distracting, especially the one dead center and the one to the left of center showing through the poles.

after a quick edit, and looking at it without at least those two, I'm still convinced.

 

[pgriz]

Raj, beautiful, beautiful photo. Love your composition, too. with the pier pointing to the center of the apparent Milky Way arc. The luminescent algae echo the stars above. As for the lights, this image feels authentic to me, with the lights. Eliminating the lights makes it a different image.

 

[Raj_55555]

Great shot! What were your settings/lens? Was the sky and foreground taken without moving the camera? The lights don't bother me.

Thanks fotomarc, the ocean was an 8 minute exposure, and the sky something about 25 seconds I think. I used the 18-55 VRI kit lens for both the shots, and yes it was taken at the same spot with a tripod.

@Derrel & @Braineack , Thanks to both of you I had to stop being lazy and actually give it a try. After looking at the changes side by side, I think the middle ground is the best way to go. For me, the image looks better when we remove all the light source except the right most one, right below the milky way. It somehow balances out the image as far as I can see.

Raj, beautiful, beautiful photo. Love your composition, too. with the pier pointing to the center of the apparent Milky Way arc. The luminescent algae echo the stars above. As for the lights, this image feels authentic to me, with the lights. Eliminating the lights makes it a different image.

Thanks a lot Paul, appreciate your kind words as always!
I played around with the lights, what do you think about the image I just posted vs the one posted at first?

 

[Braineack]

I like that better. I left that one orb in place when i was fooling around with it too.

 

[pgriz]

Raj, leaving the rightmost light leads one's eye to assume that the bright light is the "source" of the Milky Way orb! Love it!

 

[Braineack]

here's what my eye does now:

 

[Raj_55555]

Raj, leaving the rightmost light leads one's eye to assume that the bright light is the "source" of the Milky Way orb! Love it!

I always knew I was a genius!

here's what my eye does now:

Makes sense, thanks Brains!

 

[fotomarc]

Can you do a retouch without any lights, then post all 3 versions together? Then we can have a vote.

What was the ISO and f-stop?

 

[Raj_55555]

I could do that, but even if everyone said that the other two versions are better, I don't see changing my mind.

ISO was 3200, at f4.5; I wish I had a faster lens, that way I could have kept the ISO a lot lower for the exposure.

 

[jkzo]

welcome bak Raj.... we look forward some of the stuff from Cambodia......

 

[weepete]

Wow, thats an awesome shot Raj. Well done

 

[Raj_55555]

welcome bak Raj.... we look forward some of the stuff from Cambodia......

Absolutely, I'll post a lot more sometime soon.

Wow, thats an awesome shot Raj. Well done

Thanks for the kind words weepete!