A couple night shots

What do you think of these night shots?

F3.5, 254 sec, iso 100.

Very nice shots, and overall mood/feel. In first pic, it may be cropped too closely at the top, and I would like to see the windmill off center a bit. Second pic is super as well, but I would like to see a tighter crop on the left, and to see the truck dusty, not clean. Also, the plate on front of the truck eliminates any feel the pic would have had for being old. In '58, that plate would not have been on there.

I agree about the windmill crop. Unfortunately, that's as wide as my 18-55 would let me go and I couldn't back up any more because I had to stay in the shadow of the windmill, otherwise the moon would blow out the shot. In fact, I had to keep moving closer as the moon moved because it took me a few shots to get the exposure right.

The truck probably looks clean because we had some rain a few months ago. I'm pretty sure it hasn't moved in at least a year because I saw some pictures of it sitting there from last year.

The originals are a lot darker than these. Do you think I lightened up too much? I always have a hard time with how much to process night shots.

Thanks for the feedback.

Great truck shot.. Feels like its missing a good looking girl in a 50's dress

I love the 2nd shot type photos. I'd also crop out the vehicle to the left. How did you make the headlights appear to be on?

I love the second one.

Thanks all.

Yeah, I was bummed that the owner parked his new truck next to the old truck, but oh well. I'll crop it a little tighter.

To make the headlights look like they're on, I ran up to each one and shined my flashlight into each one for about 1 sec. You can see the reflection of my hand on the right side of each light, where I couldn't clone myself out.

spyderpig wrote in post #15238809
Thanks all.

To make the headlights look like they're on, I ran up to each one and shined my flashlight into each one for about 1 sec. You can see the reflection of my hand on the right side of each light, where I couldn't clone myself out.

Thank you very much for the info. Something else I have to try.

I love the first image. Here's the thing, though...when I clicked on this thread, only the top part of the image displayed. I had to scroll down to see the rest, and the image got worse the more I scrolled down.

Top part? Absolutely awesome. The glowing light behind the windmill (or whatever) and how that works with the cold tones of the night sky. The rotating motion of the blades and how that contrasts against the straight lines of the stars. The mere sense of looking up at stuff that's high above me and seeing $*** that's just really cool. It's sort of a grand primal sense of wonder, which is really freaking cool by the inclusion of some man-made stuff like the windmill. It's certainly interesting, if nothing else. It's overflowing with dichotomies and contrasts, which makes me think about how that stuff relates.

Then I scroll down. And the bottom is just stuff on a farm (or something).

I absolutely love this image, I truly do. But in my opinion, all of the stuff at the bottom isn't helping. I've gotta say...I personally think that all of the interesting stuff is happening up there at the top. Granted...the bottom part of the image gives context and establishes setting, but do we really need to SEE that? I personally assumed that kind of stuff just by seeing the top of the image. I just don't think that the bottom part of the image gives any information that isn't already implicit just by seeing the top. So my opinion is that it works far better without the bottom at all.

I agree with a crop, but I'd crop in a different way than has been suggested. I'd crop out everything in the bottom of the photograph, and have it just be the top of the windmill set against the night sky. What you lose by not showing can be easily assumed in the first place. I'm sure I'm gonna get beaten up for saying this, but I just think that the entire bottom part of the photograph isn't helping, and is distracting from everything cool that's happening in the image.

Thanks for the great critique, how about these?

This one is starting to get cropped too close and the noise is showing, but it illustrates the new composition.