Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I go down to Nokomis Beach early every morning to catch some birds in flight. This morning I was earlier than usual. I had to fiddle with the settings, I am not at all experienced at night photography. I am pleased with the result, but I am sure that it could be improved in many ways.
Technical Details
Nikon Z9 +100mm (Nikkor Z 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 VR S)
1/160 sec at f5.0, ISO 25,600
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
- Vision and Purpose:
- Conceptual:
- Emotional Impact and Mood:
- Composition:
- Balance and Visual Weight:
- Depth and Dimension:
- Color:
- Lighting:
- Processing:
- Technical:
Pieter, this has a fine, peaceful feeling as presented. The full moon is very bright, so getting detail in a full moon means settings that are -1 or -2 EV lower than full daylight setting, which makes getting detail in the land very hard. The partially hidden by thin clouds likely reduces it’s brightness by 1 or 2 stops, which can help with seeing any land. Based on the height of the moon, it looks like it may be an hour or more before sunrise. As sunrise (or moonset) gets closer, balancing the brightness of the moon and the land becomes easier. The clouds add well to the peaceful atmosphere.
Hi Pieter - I love your composition here. It feels very well balanced to me, and the moonlight reflecting off the water is really nice. The moodiness of the clouds is also very appealing. One thought I had about this image is that it might look nice converted to black and white. I hope you don’t mind, but I downloaded the file and experimented with that a bit. I didn’t do much to it–just converted to black and white in Lightroom and played with the tone curve a bit to add a little contrast. Here’s what I came up with:
Not sure if it’s to your liking, but I just wanted to offer it as an idea. I really enjoyed the image as is. Thanks for sharing it!
Thank you, John. I did consider that, and your edit does look very nice. However, I am rather taken with the delicate colour shading from the as-yet unborn day in the clouds in an otherwise monochrome scene.
Thank you, Mark.
I would have liked to wait for the moon to get lower (and less bright). However, there was a bank of clouds (not visible in the photo) that would have obscured the moon entirely. I took what I could get.
