Wool light painting. C&C please.

[theeph]

I am going to submit one of the follow pictures for a class assignment regarding movement and I would really appreciate any and all thoughts on them.

1: My initial first choice.
Pros: The circle is tight, the sparks look fantastic.
Cons: However, it's a bit bright, forgot to put the hood on, spinners lips look bright pink, and I wish he was either more in focus or less in focus.

2. Darker version.
Pros: Circle is tight, I think the spinner looks far more interesting, the sparks, though scarce, look really cool.
Cons: It may be a bit too dark and the sparks are much less intense.

 

[Haya.H]

I would go with the first for sure, its by far more interesting. only my opinion of course
oh and that light up top kinda bugs me because its almost as bright as the circle and sparks so its kinda disracting.

but this is an awsome shot.

 

[KBM1016]

I think the fact that your subject in #1 is blurred gives it more of a "movement" feel. If that's the assignment, I would go for #1

 

[o hey tyler]

I did a few of these images as well. Same setup, different approach.

I shot my images in the darkest area I could possibly find. It was an attempt to eliminate all the ambient light that I could during the exposure. It lead to having the wool spinner far more underexposed, almost so that they're invisible. I also used landscape orientation as I found that the majority of the sparks were going out to the left and right due to centrifugal force, and not so much upwards. The last thing I did was shoot between f/8 and f/11 at 35mm for 20-30 seconds. Using a small aperture makes the light trails more defined and sharp.

I definitely would have at least shot in landscape orientation in your shoes, and tried to get a bit wider of an angle. There's always a next time though, it's a fun summer night shoot to do!