Lights Lights

[alwaysjerricky]

1. in what area is critique to be sought?
I want to know how to make the bokeh look nicer and emphasise on the beautiful night lights

2. what one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?
I hope to highlight the lights outline of the Singapore Flyer and the Red Domes through the bokeh

3. under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
I was just walking past and the lights stroke me and I turned the lens to MF (shifted the focus to 0.25m). As I was using the kit lens (17-55 still under repair), I had some trouble producing the best bokeh and it was only limited to 55mm, hence I could not zoom in further. I tried cropping but it was worse than expected, so I had to increase the contrast.

4. what the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture
I think that it can be improved a lot on and would like to consult the experience landscape shooters from CS

Original pic:

Edited pic:

Lights Lights by alwaysjerricky, on Flickr

 

[thoongeng]

The bright, blown lights along the stream are grabbing attention away from your intended subjects... as you mentioned zooming in will probably help

Also since the lights on the flyer and the red supertrees (I think you mean supertrees instead of the 'domes' which are lighted white here) are only of a few colours, I don't think a blurry treatment will help to emphasize them, they will just turn into blops of blue/red

It's an interesting experiment, do try with other subjects and thanks for sharing

 

[alwaysjerricky]

Hey thanks a lot for you input nevertheless!

The bright, blown lights along the stream are grabbing attention away from your intended subjects... as you mentioned zooming in will probably help

Also since the lights on the flyer and the red supertrees (I think you mean supertrees instead of the 'domes' which are lighted white here) are only of a few colours, I don't think a blurry treatment will help to emphasize them, they will just turn into blops of blue/red

It's an interesting experiment, do try with other subjects and thanks for sharing

 

[Shizuma]

to be honest I literally find your vision lacking focus. It is a nice capture but you did not make a picture.

what I can suggest to you to try (which I would be trying soon, too)
is to use a tripod
and bulb mode or even 30s...and a manual aperture lens...to shoot 1 frame of 2 exposures (first exposure of bokeh-ball/thin DOF wide open), (2nd exposure of sharp landscape). I am curious to what it looks like and will dig some time for carrying out this experiment

 

[alwaysjerricky]

Thanks for you input as well! Hope to see the result of your experiment soon!

to be honest I literally find your vision lacking focus. It is a nice capture but you did not make a picture. what I can suggest to you to try (which I would be trying soon, too) is to use a tripod and bulb mode or even 30s...and a manual aperture lens...to shoot 1 frame of 2 exposures (first exposure of bokeh-ball/thin DOF wide open), (2nd exposure of sharp landscape). I am curious to what it looks like and will dig some time for carrying out this experiment

 

[thoongeng]

to be honest I literally find your vision lacking focus. It is a nice capture but you did not make a picture.

what I can suggest to you to try (which I would be trying soon, too)
is to use a tripod
and bulb mode or even 30s...and a manual aperture lens...to shoot 1 frame of 2 exposures (first exposure of bokeh-ball/thin DOF wide open), (2nd exposure of sharp landscape). I am curious to what it looks like and will dig some time for carrying out this experiment

sounds a bit like a variation of the focus pulling technique

can also be applied to shooting fireworks
http://fstoppers.com/highly-unusual-photos-of-fireworks-using-focus-pulling

 

[ndaniel]

Agree with Shizuma, I can't strong POV in your picture, circle bokeh, maybe in my personal view only slightly disturbing... I would prefer without clear ring outside the halos, my two cents

 

[keithwee]

see a nice effort here, just a bit too distracting as in i cant find e focus of the view. Try to have a main focus/subject n I'm sure it will be a great keeper

 

[Ianyw]

This is something different from the usual long exposure in night photography.
Love the concept but ur key focus of the flyer and super trees just does not stand out in the photo, instead the bright yellow lights are grabbing my attention.
Nevertheless, it's a good attempt and thanks for sharing.

 

[Rashkae]

Bokeh is not just lens blur. Good and bad bokeh are also determined by composition. In your pics, composition is very weak. I would recommend you crop your image to properly emphasize the subjects.

 

[Rashkae]

Agree with Shizuma, I can't strong POV in your picture, circle bokeh, maybe in my personal view only slightly disturbing... I would prefer without clear ring outside the halos, my two cents

Correct, though that's a limitation of the lens.

 

[zaxh81]

The lens play a big part in the bokeh too

 

[jed091270]

try to put a subject in the foreground....I feel its a bit empty. Just my 2 cents

 

[sloppyjoe123]

As a picture, it is weak. Show it to anyone without telling the intent of your vision, will make them think that this is just a misfocused picture. As an experiment, it is interesting, but boring at the same time. A test of bokeh, seeing if just using bokeh balls will create an interesting image is hard but at the same time, there is no subject. Nothing here makes the image. I have no idea where to look.
Might seem harsh but this is a critique and this is my opinion. Techincally wise, when there is no subject, the person begins to look deeper, and what I see is high noise, which is really distracting. Why not put it at a lower ISO next time and use a longer shutter speed. And in post, do some aggressive NR. Since there is no subject in focus here, there is no need to preserve any detail.

If you want to take another try, try looking for patterns in lights instead. For example, the Helix Bridge at night would make an interesting subject. Stand on the bridge, and make everything misfocused, and the spiral of lights should make an interesting bokeh ball spiral perspective.

 

[alwaysjerricky]

No problems guys for the harsh critique the harsher it is the better haha. Will take your advice and shoot soon!