This is kinda weird NOT C&C

[zombiemann]

I took this shot about 20 minutes ago. I know the composition is off, the exposure is off. I was playing around with different F stop values and exposure times just for the heck of it. This is a 30 second exposure. The weird thing is, as the shot was exposing a guy rode a bicycle right down the sidewalk on the other side of the street from me. Right through the frame of the picture.... When I opened the RAW in photoshop imagine my surprise when there isn't a trace of the guy on his bike. I resized the shot for posting but thats it. No other processing has been done

 

[MLeeK]

Wow. That is different! I'd expect it with longer exposures, but not that short!

 

[FanBoy]

You'd think there would be a reflection off of the bicycle thus creating some streak. Maybe he was "ghost-riding"??

 

[unpopular]

The composition is off. It would be nice to have the street perpendicular with the sign.

(harhar)

 

[zombiemann]

I jokingly told my girlfriend either we would see a ghost in the pic or he was a ghost lol

 

[AaronLLockhart]

This is not uncommon. I shoot shots that result in this all the time. I'll have to post one later of a bridge I took a 30 sec exposure of that there were about 20 or 30 people walking on... In the final result, you don't see a single trace of any of them.

 

[rokvi]

I think it all depends on the speed at which someone goes through the frame.

 

[LaFoto]

Well, I once took a 30-second exposure of a night street in Stockholm and a group of persons wandered THE LENGTH of the photo and they don't show - they didn't even "ghost" the picture. Nothing. As if they hadn't been there. Empty street. So yes, I've had the self same effect myself, too.

 

[PhotoWrangler]

Think about it. The street and building had to stay still for 30 seconds for them to be lit enough to show up in the photograph. A person riding a bike wouldn't even be in the same spot for 1/2 a second if they were moving. Even reflections off the bike itself wouldn't have been bright enough to cause a ghost.

 

[Jaemie]

It's happened to me as well. Here's a 30sec exposure in which several people walked directly in front of the camera. (ignore comp, technique, etc. - just an example)

 

[unpopular]

Yep. The amount of time that the pedestrian was in the frame at any given position, relative to the time of exposure is not sufficient to make any measurable impact. The change in accumulated luminance is there, but not likely recorded.

Remember, it takes time to allow light to accumulate on a sensor or film in order to allow sufficient electrical or chemical reactions to occur. Movement inherently takes place over a period of time. The cyclist's projected image was not in any one position long enough to make an exposure.

There's probably some way to calculate exposure value per millimeter per millisecond and determine exactly how fast something has to travel before it will be visible ... if you really wanted to get technical about it.

 

[ceejtank]

It's not weird.. it's understanding basic light properties..

 

[AaronLLockhart]

It's not weird.. it's understanding basic light properties..

Man you are on a roll today.

The four basic properties of light are:

Intensity
How bright the light is. highly intense lights are much more attention-getting than dim ones, obviously, and you can use this to direct your viewers.

Quality
Whether the light is "hard" (sharp shadows) or "soft" (diffuse). Volumetric behavior, like beams of light through fog and haze, is also an aspect of quality.

Direction
Where is the source of the light in relation to the object it's lighting? Is it coming from the front, the side, from behind?

Color
This one's more subtle than you think. Is the light in your home white? If so, what about sunlight? Note that even sunlight varies greatly, from warm yellows all the way to clear blues. In addition to being red, green, or blue, we can think of light as varying from "warm" (reddish/orange/yellow) to "cool" (blue/white).




So, please elaborate how any of the above has ANYTHING to do with the exposure of the above image? It doesn't. The result you see above has to do with the aperture and the amount of light let into the lens. The light stays the same... it's the object that you're using to capture the light that is important.

 

[jaicatalano]

This is one of my favorite lines I have read in a while. Is this your and if so would I be able to quote you? "It seems your vocabulary is bigger than your brain."

I think I want to use this one on my wife.

It's not weird.. it's understanding basic light properties..

Man you are on a roll today.

The four basic properties of light are:

Intensity
How bright the light is. highly intense lights are much more attention-getting than dim ones, obviously, and you can use this to direct your viewers.

Quality
Whether the light is "hard" (sharp shadows) or "soft" (diffuse). Volumetric behavior, like beams of light through fog and haze, is also an aspect of quality.

Direction
Where is the source of the light in relation to the object it's lighting? Is it coming from the front, the side, from behind?

Color
This one's more subtle than you think. Is the light in your home white? If so, what about sunlight? Note that even sunlight varies greatly, from warm yellows all the way to clear blues. In addition to being red, green, or blue, we can think of light as varying from "warm" (reddish/orange/yellow) to "cool" (blue/white).




So, please elaborate how any of the above has ANYTHING to do with the exposure of the above image? It doesn't. The result you see above has to do with the aperture and the amount of light let into the lens. The light stays the same... it's the object that you're using to capture the light that is important.

 

[AaronLLockhart]

This is one of my favorite lines I have read in a while. Is this your and if so would I be able to quote you? "It seems your vocabulary is bigger than your brain."

I think I want to use this one on my wife.

It's not weird.. it's understanding basic light properties..

Man you are on a roll today.

The four basic properties of light are:

Intensity
How bright the light is. highly intense lights are much more attention-getting than dim ones, obviously, and you can use this to direct your viewers.

Quality
Whether the light is "hard" (sharp shadows) or "soft" (diffuse). Volumetric behavior, like beams of light through fog and haze, is also an aspect of quality.

Direction
Where is the source of the light in relation to the object it's lighting? Is it coming from the front, the side, from behind?

Color
This one's more subtle than you think. Is the light in your home white? If so, what about sunlight? Note that even sunlight varies greatly, from warm yellows all the way to clear blues. In addition to being red, green, or blue, we can think of light as varying from "warm" (reddish/orange/yellow) to "cool" (blue/white).




So, please elaborate how any of the above has ANYTHING to do with the exposure of the above image? It doesn't. The result you see above has to do with the aperture and the amount of light let into the lens. The light stays the same... it's the object that you're using to capture the light that is important.

Go for it