Tell me my fortune...Night Shot

[symes]

Fortune Tellers play a vital role in the everday lives of Koreans. They depend on these people to tell them the time and date of important days in their lives - Marriage, Funerals etc... A fellow Canadian married a Korean over here and her ceremony had to be at exactly 11am. Another family had to lay Their deceased father at a 45 Degree angle...

In any event what I would like from you is a critique of this night shot. I know it is a busy picture - but that is both representative of Korea and a result of having to make due with the kit lens...and getting any closer was not an option...

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks for your feedback

[symes]

Nothing?

[GPR1]

I'm intrigued by the shot; it reminds me of some night shots I took in Hong Kong a couple years ago. I would make the following suggestions:

1. White balance seems a bit off. Correcting that could help.

2. It is busy, but I actually like the blurry figures on the left. The upturned wheel barrow and pile on the right, however, are not helpful. I would crop the right side much closer to the fortune teller.

3. The whole image seems slightly tilted to the left. Correcting that could help as well.

Night shots with lots of activity have great creative potential, and you have done good work here. Keep shooting.

Greg

[symes]

I'm intrigued by the shot; it reminds me of some night shots I took in Hong Kong a couple years ago. I would make the following suggestions:

1. White balance seems a bit off. Correcting that could help.

2. It is busy, but I actually like the blurry figures on the left. The upturned wheel barrow and pile on the right, however, are not helpful. I would crop the right side much closer to the fortune teller.

3. The whole image seems slightly tilted to the left. Correcting that could help as well.

Night shots with lots of activity have great creative potential, and you have done good work here. Keep shooting.

Greg

Thanks...for the comments...

1. How would you set the white balance in this situation? the couple was hovering under one of those yellowish lights...and suggestions other than shooting in RAW...which I obviously ahve to learn...

2. I wasn't really sure what to do with the Wheelbarrow...I will post one a cropped version later...

3. I didn't even notice the slight tilt...I will fix that up right away. This was the frist night playing with my Manfrotto Tripod and Ball head, still haven't figured out how to level it...any ieas?

Again thanks for your input, there is much to learned here and I really enjoy improving through comments such as you're own..

Cheers,

[Titus213]

Thanks...for the comments...

1. How would you set the white balance in this situation? the couple was hovering under one of those yellowish lights...and suggestions other than shooting in RAW...which I obviously ahve to learn...

...
Cheers,

Shooting in Raw doesn't really require much in the way of learning. Just put the camera in RAW mode. It takes care of all the rest. The Canon utility for converting to jpg from the raw file is OK and will let you fool with white balance. Raw Shooter Essential 2005 is even nicer and is free.

The large oof section on the left of the image is too much for my liking.

[symes]

The large oof section on the left of the image is too much for my liking.

oof Section?

[jO3]

oof Section?

OOF = Out Of Focus

I like this picture... It's like a still, kind of like you captured a moment frozen in time... I actually don't mind the white balance, but I do mind the OOF section and the wheel barrow... Play around with the crop tool, and that'd be a quick way to find the best composition for the pic!

But great capture!

One way to make sure the pic is level would be to get a new tripod mount with a built-in level... Not sure if that's convenient for you, but I just try to line up the shot by viewing the subjects and environment through the viewfinder as if it were a picture already... Sound lame, but it works for me! But then again, I'm a fan of the angled shots still, so I just line up with the most dominant angle in the picture... haha

I'd like to see some more shots from this series, if you don't mind!

[symes]

Okay I played around with the Crop and levelled one of the pics out...From the same series?

What do you think now?

[jO3]

looks like two different photos completely, but I like the second 2 better than the first one... perhaps you shouldn't crop the tail end of the fortune teller out! haha good stuff!

[symes]

perhaps you shouldn't crop the tail end of the fortune teller out!

Now you see my dilemma. take a look at the first picture you will notice the handlebar of the Wheelbarrow is overlapping with the arse end of the fortune teller.

Its all part of learning I guess but I didn't even notice that at all when I was taking the picture and now I curse it as it appears in all 8 shots I took of this couple. There is a lot of Merit to really really formulating the picture before you snap.

ah all in the learning...

[Titus213]

I'm no hand at PS but perhaps if you could balance the oof on the left with a blur on the right it would solve two issues. The crispness of the wheelbarrow seems out of place with the left. Blur both sides? I don't think the crops work as well as the original...

BTW - there is an excellent thread here on selecting a tripod and I believe there is a link to a small bubble level attachment for tripods that don't have them. Seems it was fairly inexpensive.

[GPR1]

I would use a bubble level on the camera to level the picture. You can correct white balance within photoshop (and I'm sure other programs as well). Scott Kelby has books that outline the procedure, and it's not too complicated. I would crop a little less on the right side, even if you had just a bit of the wheelbarrow showing.

Greg