The Balls

[ch3nyong]

I was strolling along Boat Quay and came intro this lamp post, found it kinda interesting..

Not sure if any of you have seen them somewhere around Boat Quay? I'd like to move the lens further down but there's something that's annoying below, hence, this is the composition. If any of you came across them before, do advise on the composition =)

The sky was kinda bright when this photo was taken, around 4pm, hence the slightly darker lamp. I've pushed the contrast a lil' bit since I raised the brightness to lighten up the lamp posts. Any thoughts on how to compensate when taking photos like this (bright background yet wanna get details of front objects?)

Any other C&C are welcomed! Cheers!

Photo source...

[Yatlapball]

Is that the natural sky colour at 4pm? You have to be careful with the sky when you intentionally include it in your photo as part of the whole composition. I'm not sure if it's through your original shot which is blown or a result of your post-processing, but you can see the top part of the sky is totally blown.

With regards to your lighting problem you can try exposing for the sky, then using fill-flash to brighten up your foreground object. Try it It works very well for photographing people with the sunset/rise behind them too.

In post-processing, try masking out only the areas you want to brighten. Not doing so may result in blowing the highlights elsewhere in your photo.

Perhaps due to your camera angle, you can see that the lampost further away is tilting inwards... Photoshop can fix this to a certain extent... (unless you wish to invest in a tilt-shift lens. heh.)

Composition is simple and it works. (which might explain why I keep seeing something like this lately. did an example picture appear somewhere in a local magazine recently??)

[night86mare]

Yatlapball - I think someone else in Critique Corner did something similar with lampposts at sunset or something. I too recall seeing something like that recently.

ch3nyong:

Composition seems fine to me; pretty abstract and not to my taste but it does work still, despite personal bias.

There are many ways to overcome dark foreground bright background, Yatlapball has suggested one of them - i.e. fill-flash; but does not work for all situations, especially when you have reflections. HDR (google it if you haven't heard of it) is another technique which works; but if you want to make it look realistic, do not go overboard on the PP.

The colour tone of the whole photo is orangey - making it sort of surreal; but if that is not your purpose, then it is best to keep the colour natural.

[lunas]

Hi ,

I like this simple composition that brings out the symmetry. Color tone is just right, brings out a very evening relaxing feel (to me).

[espion]

Too much empty space between the balls, making them, literally, peripheral.

So either move during capture so that the two poles are closer making them more integral, or put more space to either side.

I prefer the former, and then I can also have negative space to either side.

But if the former cannot be done, then this composition can never be, and another composition is needed for these balls, and for which many other have done so in the past.

No quibble over your processing techniques/styles or flaws (they are relatively insignificant anyway).

[ch3nyong]

Thanks all for your comments and thoughts!

It was post-processed I bet you wouldnt want to bother looking at the original photo, hahaha.. I'm just trying to bring out a usual photo that has nothing to be noted. No specific title here and nothing to bring out, too.. haha~

The top over-exposure, the composition alternatives are all noted! Thanks guys! =)