Before&after

[light50]

First of all please let me know if I am posting to much . But I think that this forum is a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn by getting such skilled and unbiased critique.
Second of all I was intrigued by WitPic's light painting topic. And I tried something......sorry I did not know how to put the pictures beside each other

[QuietOne]

I like what you've done with it in the second one. On my monitor it looks just a smidge too dark. But the light playing on the steps leads my eye up, and I notice the groups of plants to the side as my eye travels.

Oh, yeah. *bump* This should bring it to the attention of the more experienced folks.

[PeterToronto]

Purple fringing and blown out highlights in the first image.

The second one is underexposed, but on the mysterious side. I prefer it to the first one.

Looks like an interesting location.

Thanks for posting .

Peace
Peter

peter anthony PHOTOGRAPHY - Home

[Mad Aussie]

I like the location and the low down perspective you've used.
In the 1st shot though the sky is featureless ... blown right out. Better to either ramp up the f-stop (close the aperture) to get some detail up there or compose so it's not in the shot at all.
If you raised the f-stop then you'd get more shadows. This would have been a good thing because those green leafy plants to the right are lit by bright sun and would have stood out so much more.
The 1st shot needs some more contrast too.
I'd say crop this just below that blown out sky and then whack in some contrast and it will be better.

In the 2nd shot you tried to simulate that look somewhat by faking light painting. Unfortunately it looks like you just painted black (brush flow set on low) over it and it just looks muddy I'm afraid. Light painting reaslly needs to be done at night OR, to fake it well ... you need several exposures of various stops to blend manually toegther.

And no ... you're not posting too much. We all love giving critiques and helping others improve. You'd surprized how many people here were in your shoes a very short time ago and now are shooting at a much higher level.

[jlabel]

First thing here I would correct is the color temperature, for this wood it seems a bit warmer would help, maybe even a bit old and rusty kinda color, then theres an odd kind of streak of light flowing from that spot, I think since you wanted to make it look like the light is flowing from that spot you should think about the angle of the shadows that light should be casting instead of darkening the whole scene