Ghostly Orb

MWHCVT

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Matthew
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I've been a bit quite on the forum and with my camera of late but I've recently added a lot of new light painting tools into my collection and here is some of those new acquisitions in use..this is an orb and a smoky white ribbon of light in a local church's grounds, was out shooting with @the dodo and this image was from his camera and posted with his full permission (editing) was by me

30156001853_689b1faa80_o_d.jpg


It's a little over 100 seconds at ISO800, f/11 and 24mm
 
89 views and no comments? I am going to stick my neck out here and say it's not really working as an image Matt.
For a genre that we have seen so much of, I think for this style to work, it really has to have a wow factor about it but I'm not sure how one achieves that nowadays.

Your (the dodos) image I feel is a mish mash of lighting, no real balance, symmetry or cohesion.
The background is quite 'muddy' too, perhaps if it was darker it may have been 'better' but even then it still wouldn't help due to the points above IMHO.

I feel that for you both to portray yourselves as The Night School that the bar should be set higher, this is a miss for me I'm afraid.
 
89 views and no comments? I am going to stick my neck out here and say it's not really working as an image Matt.
For a genre that we have seen so much of, I think for this style to work, it really has to have a wow factor about it but I'm not sure how one achieves that nowadays.

Your (the dodos) image I feel is a mish mash of lighting, no real balance, symmetry or cohesion.
The background is quite 'muddy' too, perhaps if it was darker it may have been 'better' but even then it still wouldn't help due to the points above IMHO.

I feel that for you both to portray yourselves as The Night School that the bar should be set higher, this is a miss for me I'm afraid.

I don't mind those comments at all Iain, this was more a play and test of new tools if I'm being brutally honest we were more just cocking about..and probably paying a lot more attention to how to use the tools that we were to what image we were creating...

As to the views vs comments part, sadly there seems to be less and less interest in photo threads these days at least in my experience, I cannot really talk on that front though as I so rarely comment much myself, I'm a lot less active in the forums than I used to be
 
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I'll add to this if okay, being a newbie and no skills to speak of. I love the church pic but find the light and orb almost an afterthought, maybe to bright and look like added afterwards. I'd love to see them more washed out if almost appearing in the pic not dominating it. Hope doesn't offend but just my take and I only hope I can get an image with light in lol
 
I'll add to this if okay, being a newbie and no skills to speak of. I love the church pic but find the light and orb almost an afterthought, maybe to bright and look like added afterwards. I'd love to see them more washed out if almost appearing in the pic not dominating it. Hope doesn't offend but just my take and I only hope I can get an image with light in lol

Any comments are always appreciated and I take your point on board the light painting certainly does dominate the image mainly as for me the exercise was more about the light painting than the location per se (y) but I like the idea of making the light painting element more ghostly
 
I also don't like the words in the sky, totally unnecessary as they are already in the bottom left hand corner.

Have you considered creating multiple exposures against a totally black background then combining them in Photoshop?

You would get a far greater degree of control over the finished image.

BTW I like the glowing orb and the small degree of light from it on the ground - I think that's quite effective and maybe the way to go next time.
 
I also don't like the words in the sky, totally unnecessary as they are already in the bottom left hand corner.

Have you considered creating multiple exposures against a totally black background then combining them in Photoshop?

You would get a far greater degree of control over the finished image.

BTW I like the glowing orb and the small degree of light from it on the ground - I think that's quite effective and maybe the way to go next time.

To create an image in photoshop would totally defeat the object of light painting though, I may as well just create a CGI image

The watermarks is what it is, it's there because it's online, on my social media etc

I'm glad you like the orb element at least (y)
 
I know you don't need a whole load of comments along the same lines but for me there is something of a disconnect between the colours and, assuming you have the option to vary the colours, it might be worth trying to get the various element to compliment each other a bit more. I can see the idea working with a much more subtle white ghostly trail between the grave stones and either no orb or a fainter or more distant orb. But as you said it's about learning the tools
 
I know you don't need a whole load of comments along the same lines but for me there is something of a disconnect between the colours and, assuming you have the option to vary the colours, it might be worth trying to get the various element to compliment each other a bit more. I can see the idea working with a much more subtle white ghostly trail between the grave stones and either no orb or a fainter or more distant orb. But as you said it's about learning the tools

You can indeed vary the colour and also the brightness depending on what you want to achieve, and in hindsight bright amber maybe was not the best colour to convey the idea, maybe something in the cooler range of colours
 
if i can chip in Matt.... orb, not for me... BUT the light streak is (y) ...EXCEPT....(as Chris said) if it was more dancing around the headstones like the scary thing sin Raiders of the Lost Ark, u know the ones (if you don't, i don't know u, never heard the name Matt before in my life) .. something to expand upon, then leave the light hanging to create a bolder apparition at the end
 
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