Fortnightly competition #34 - LONG EXPOSURE

Competition is now closed.

Prieni

Disclaimer: Criticizing your entry does not mean that I criticize you personally (why should I, I don't know you at all). All comments are my opinion only, if you tend to disagree I have no problem with you voicing it (even if it is not about your shot).

Hyram - Italianate tower
What a grand start to the competition. I like the colour, the composition and that play with light and shadow. Below the sill you can see how the reflection lights up the wall, above it the shadow makes a stark contrast (without blackening).
The same game happens on the window tops. And the structure of the wall is wonderfully enhanced by the grazing light. I would have chosen a square crop probably but even with this crop it is magic.

GlynM - Light rings around a paperweight
I hope to find some "making of" instructions in the comments thread when I can read it eventually.
Excellent image, almost black & white. I have some theories on how you made the rings, but whatever you did, it works really good. A fine little Saturn you created.

JudithAnn - Haunted Pantry
Interesting shot, more like a double exposure. What a dimly lit pantry, 30 s exposure needed. I wonder what a 30 s exposure might reveal in my kitchen...
Good idea and certainly a ghostly appearance of your model. Overall the colours and the white border give this image a bit of an instant photo feel (I read that a company is planning to produce instant film again!), which makes the "ghost" even more eerie.
I have to admit that at first sight I didn't like this very much, the longer I look at it, though, the more I like it.

Belinda B. - Lighting Up Time
You picked the right ambient light for this shot, I like the balance of light levels of the background, the bulb and the shadows (lantern and brickwork), there is still some definition left. So well done on exposure.
The composition is good as well, it's only that it doesn't really create that spark in me (pardon the pun).

thoughton - Time
It is an oyster after all, no lemon...
After seeing the shot on your Flickr account I am a little bit cross with you. The one on Flickr is soo much better (but maybe that's just me). I'll try to forget about that one for now...
Interesting subject with that moving hand, which certainly is the main feature of this shot. Composition wise I am not happy with the lower part, too much white with nothing interesting in it, and no match to what goes on in the top portion. I tried a square crop on the top (just a teeny weeny bit under full width), desaturated the image (the Tammy left a bit of a fringe in the centre part of the watch) and made it a bit darker with levels. The result was much more to my liking.
The second hand is terrific and I like how you see the lettering through it.

mikew - Escalators
Lovely colours, nice diagonal carrying the viewer up and down the escalators. Lovely motion blur of the two figures on the escalator. So it could have all been well.
There are some niggles, though: The crop on the left is a tad too tight. While the vertical on the right side is ok (i.e. vertical) on the left the verticals lean outward. From the EXIF I understand that the shot was almost as wide as you could get it, so that would explain the tight framing. But the verticals on the right can be cured by distorting in Photoshop or the likes. I tried pulling the lower right corner out to the right until the vertical was ok again. That way you also loose the toilet sign and I think it improves the image.

hefty1 - Bourg Walk By Night
Here is the "famous" Saab again. For a car ad shot the model needs a bit of a polish, I'm afraid (for that time of year it looks very clean and shiny, though). Nice stars on the lights and the glimpse of a light trail on the right. The low angle of view is good, could have been even a bit deeper.
I tried lighting up the lower right corner a bit (and then take that back on the inner part of the wheel). Also lightened the upper part a bit. I think that worked better to bring out the blue theme.
I do like the atmosphere of that misty day that is conveyed by the shot. Good try!

womble - Ayot St Lawrence new church by moonlight
Excellent shot, makes me proud of having set the theme (I'm afraid that is where my involvement stops...).
I think the moonlight makes this shot very special indeed.
You could have lightened up the lower portion with the grass. It does emphasize this strange feeling that something is not right (i.e. it looks like daylight but the sky clearly tells you it isn't).

bwichmawr - camera
EXIF says 0.6 s, which is less than > 1.0 s. Sorry, too short for this competition.
Overall the image does give a coherent impression, the post processing is fitting the subject. I think the vignetting is a bit strange (if that is what it is thought to represent; maybe it's a defective enlarger?).

Darkmunk - 15 seconds of tranquillity in Sutton Harbour
Really glad that you were able to take that shot. And surprised to see that you risk your camera again!
You had luck with the calm conditions in that harbour, the boats seem to be reasonably sharp for a 15 second exposure. It would have been a calm scenery without the swan, it really becomes special with the swan in it. Well done! What is the light on the swan? Were you trying your luck with a torch?
I'm not sure that this image, good as it is, has a lasting effect with the viewer. Only time will tell.

Tozza27 - Moonshine
I wondered how you can shoot the moon at 5 seconds at f8 (or is it f9.5 with the converter?). And the EXIF says you didn't and claims 1/40 s. That still sounds a long time for shooting the moon but more believable than the 5 seconds.
Whatever it is, the shot itself is quite soft and I have seen better shots with 300 mm lenses and cropping. Interesting to see that you still run the 1.00 firmware on the *istD.

pnjmcc - Washing up
Now that's the sort of ghost JudithAnn would be glad to welcome haunting her pantry.
This shows that you can do action shots at 30 s exposures! Good idea and competent realization. Must be a dimly lit kitchen, though, even at f22 you don't need a lot of light to overexpose at 30 s. I like the composition with the left half filled by the white cupboards and appliance (where are all the knobs on this cooker gone?). That shiny white is balanced with that shining knight fighting his way through the dishes. Who says that photography gets in the way of housework (or vice versa)?

Dr. Mhuni - Restaurant
Not too shabby for a test shot. You certainly got your exposure right with this one (as well as time of day judging by the sky). The light is excellent and the restaurant looks very welcoming (more welcoming than the reception they gave you apparently). Could have been the start of a nice series of shots of the restaurant. It's a shame that this is the only shot you managed. I think the view is a bit too much upward here and I think it would have been better to have the broad openings symmetrically left and right. And yes, a bored waiter would have been the icing on the cake. Nice little stars around the lamps!

So, that was the easy part. Ranking the shots is definitely difficult (again) as there is such a nice variation of interpretations to the theme...

I looked through the shots a few times now and I have one coming up tops once and again:
First place: Hyram - Italianate tower
Second: womble - Ayot St Lawrence new church by moonlight
Third: GlynM - Light rings around a paperweight

Special prices:
pnjmcc - Most useful activity carried out while shooting
JudithAnn - Instant film feel
Darkmunk - Trust in mankind (and swankind)
GlynM - Creativity

To illustrate some of my comments I uploaded variations of some of the entries in this Picasa Album. I will remove them in a weeks time (if you don't request that any earlier).

Hyram, over to you!

Oh wow, thank you. I wasn't expecting that, and second place is always good in my eyes Well done all, some lovely shots, and well done Prieni for quick and excellent judging.

K.

Excellent and fast judging there Prieni, and your version of my photo is indeed a great improvement!

Well done Hyram - a very nice graphical shot and I really like the colours. Look forward to the next theme!

Wow swift judging and excellent comments to all entries.

Well done Hyram (and of course the others).

Mike

Appreciate the comments - I`ll look into upgrading the firmware.

I can`t understand the timing as the camera was on M and I had the lens pre-set at f22 ( I described the lens as it says on the front f=500mm f:8 )
If it stops raining/sleeting I`ll have another go though.

Regards

Tony

Good (and fast) work Ralf - many thanks. And congrats to Hyram and the others.

Crikey - I was so busy reading your comments on the various entries that I nearly forgot to look at the results

Many thanks Ralf for selecting my entry as the winner and for setting a challenging competition.

I am at work still at the moment but later on, when I am back home, I will choose the next topic.

TOZZA27, I just took another look at the EXIF data on flickr. It seems that the 1/40 s is what the camera would have suggested for an aperture of f0.1 (at least that is how I understand the numbers).
So I am glad that I didn't discard your entry on that ground.

Could have been the same thing on bwichmawr's entry...

Prieni

Hi Prieni - I`ve been on to the website and the only Firmware updates/downloads refer to the *istDL,DS,and DL2 - no mention of the bog standard *istD bought originally in December `03

Any views ??

Appreciate

Tony

Many thanks for third place and special mention for creativity.

Thanks also for such an interesting subject. I thought that this subject was amongst a few in these competitions that provoke doing some research to find out what can be achieved. The Abstract competition had a similar impact.

On how-it-was-done the shot was achieved by hanging a small LED camping torch from a microphone stand. The torch had conical reflector for sideways illumination and I did mask off some of this and the end of the torch. The bright lines are the point on the conical reflector. The paperweight was standing on a black tube on & against a black cloth but I had to tweak the shadows in Photoshop Elements to hide the stand.

Originally I wanted to produce a spiral by puling the string as the torch rotated. While I managed to achieve this the results did not seem to have as much impact as I expected. So I introduced the paperweight. Then I had problems with the start & end of the spirals and slowly worked toward just doing rings. You can see the last spiral attempt here.

The torch not only had to produce the rings but also illuminate the paper weight so it took a little bit of experimentation.

Congrats to Hyram who has proved that the first submission can win & every one else for some fantastic shots.

Glyn

Thanks Glyn for that explanation. I suspected an LED dangling from somewhere and doing circles. Wasn't that far off then.

Interesting that the illumination of the paperweight also was done by the LED light only.

And this spirals look great, love the reflections of them on the paper weight...

At least you were having fun and that is the most important bit.

Prieni

I did try separate lighting onto the front of the paperweight but because it has lots of bubbles in it I got loads of point reflections that messed up the shot. Just using the rotating torch created good illumination as it passed behind the paperweight although it did produce a line reflection on the front. I guess that if I had a much bigger room I could have used some hidden static illumination from behind but otherwise it seemed to work well.

Glyn

Well done all round, especially to Ralf for his expert judging and Hyram for his worthy winner. I particularly enjoyed Tim's entry and loved the idea behind Glyn's paperweight picture but they were all great photos. Sorry I didn't enter, I tried two different ideas and neither worked out. The quality of my results just wasn't up to the high standards of everyone else in this competition.
david

Thanks Prieni,
Well done Hyram!

The Swan was quite brightly lit by street lights. I tried several shots but this left the best, ethereal swan shapes. It was a beautiful still night