For our next episode of Critique the Community, we will be taking a look at night time imagery. Enter your best shots now for your chance to win a free Fstoppers original tutorial.
Although your first thought for night time photography might be astrophotography or cityscapes, we will be looking for a much broader range of genres for this Critique. The main basis for our selections will be whether or not it is clear the shutter was pressed at night.
To enter, submit up to two of your best night time images below. Submissions will be accepted through June 18th, 2018 EST. Of the entrants, two winners will be selected and be given a free Fstoppers original tutorial. The first winner will be based on image that gets the highest average community rating. The second winner will be chosen at random.
The purpose of these contests is to provide helpful and accurate critical feedback to your fellow community members. Whether you've uploaded your own images or are just browsing the submissions, we encourage you to take a minute to scroll through and easily rate your fellow members pictures using your keypad and number arrows. Please keep your comments encouraging along with any feedback you provide.
I think some people need to read the ratings as some photos even if not good, how can they be taken with a phone?
I think that it's more likely a problem with the rating system itself. There is no way to give a bad rating for pictures that are not snapshots. E.g. if the composition is bad, but it's a long exposure with some nice traffic lights, you can't rate it a 2, because it can't be improved by more work done to it in post. But it's not a snapshot ether. So what are you going to rate it?
Probably extending the system from 1 to 6 could help, with 1 as snapshot, 2 as poor composition are subject wich can't be improved, 3 as image wich needs some work to be done to it, 4 ready for portfolio, etc.
It's still a "needs work" on composition. I don't think "needs work" is only for the post
There is rarely a 1 around here. So if you see an image with a lot of flaws the urge to press 1 is quite high. Then you see an image that is not a 3 but much better than the one before it seems a bit unfair to rate them both a 2
Wow this is gonna be a tough one. There are a lot of really good submissions so far.
I've got no chance, with all these great Submissions, so far.
Neither do I, but it's fun to post one's work, especially night shots since they require a little different thought process. It's all fun!
Same here
I think people who keep voting one star on images which are clearly not snapshots should be banned from voting.
They might be voting 1s on images that do not belong to the contest's theme ( like in the previous contest where we had a lot of entries that were anything but minimalism )
Bill, it seems the entries are following the theme, for the most, part this time around.
Yeah for the most part but I just learned Night seems to be a subjective term for some people...
Most seem to do fine this time. I think I saw a few glitches here and there. Sunrise and sunset images should be excluded IMHO, but that's up for debate I guess.
I think it could be considered night even the midnight sun of the northern countries
"Night or nighttime (sp. night-time or night time) is the period of time between sunset and sunrise, when the Sun is below the horizon." If we want to stretch it it's fine for me but Night has a very definite meaning it's not like minimalism.
I agree with Andrea. And mine are definitely NIGHT photos (they have the moon and all), but some people still see them as sunrise / day photos. Nothing I can do about that, other than being flattered :D
Hey Bill...David Pavlich from the original SDP webpage. Nice to see you here. I just joined and you're the first name that I recognized.
I change my ratings to five stars whenever I see people's good photos are given underwhelming scores on fstoppers.
Wow the community is brutal! You need to be tough skinned to enter your photo in this competition. Fair enough it might be difficult for me to be objective about my own work, but I have just voted 4 stars on some incredible images to find the community average is just 2! Come on people, a lot of these images are far better than "snapshot" or "needs some work." Feedback and critique are great tools to help people improve, but voting 1 star on images that are clearly very well crafted images is basically trolling and is just going to break people's spirit!
You have to have thick skin to have your photos critiqued. I'm my worst critic, so if someone gives me 4 stars, my rating would probably be 3. I do some HDR tone mapped stuff and get ripped all the time, but I expect it. That gawdy stuff isn't for everyone.
yes but how many people who give 1/2 star ratings or even 3 star actually give any comments and feedback on how to improve? Very few 😐
I think some people are deliberately bringing the ratings down to have a better chance themselves. Clearly if some effort went into taking the photo and post-processing it, it is not a snapshot. I am not even upset about the low ratings on my entries, because I see some excellent shots being punched down!
This is by far the critique with the best submissions ever!
I believe the minimalism contest had the best of the best entries.
Its best entries are true 4.5 - 5 star images.
I wish people who give a 2 rating would provide what they think needs work. First it might help people be a little more honest in their voting AND it might actually help the photographer to improve. I don't comment on all the photos I rate but I do try to provide my thoughts. Maybe it helps, maybe it doesn't, but at least the photographer knows why I think it needs work.
either trolling or ignorance on how complicated deep sky astrophotography is 🙄 😂
??????
He is talking about his DSO photograph ( Deep Sky Objects ) which is rated low for what it is.
He should take into consideration however that most photographers are clueless when it comes to astrophotography and mainly Deep Sky Objects photography and case in point, they judge on the aesthetic quality and composition of the image without considering at all the difficulty and equipment needed to capture images like Robert's.
I appreciate Robert's photo, I gave it 3 stars, if I had to judge on technical quality purely I would've given him 4 stars, but considering that I also have to judge the composition and compare it to other DSO images that I've seen, I would've rated it 3.5, but I can't give 3.5, so went for 3.
DSO photography is a niche subject, I wouldn't count on breaking any records here with DSO photography Robert.
no worries 😎
the composition also wasnt perfect because that is one panel in a two panel mosaic that will take me all summer to complete. I have to get about 10-12 hours worth of subs to complete it and so far its been 95% cloudy and rainy this summer in FL.
Ive enjoyed some of the incredible work i’ve seen so far... inspiring as I branch out more into night scapes.
Good luck with your astrophotography Robert!
Been there, done that, got tired because of the difficulties with light pollution mainly, and with the weather ( damn clouds! ).
Looking forward to seeing more DSO work from you in your profile here ;)
Thanks Bill!
Since the Veil complex was only 1/4 done, I replaced it with a finished image of Thor’s Helmet.
Is it ok to post with your logo or copyright info on it or should it be removed?
Up to you, generally photos look better without.
If it's not astro, some form of light painting, or long exposure, your image is just going to get dunked on by the community. Like, street photography? What's that?
Is there any shortcut to get to this site from the fstoppers main page?
I have to look up the minimalistic youtube video to find the link here...
Yeah same here and it's a bit tiring as i'm using several devices.
You can bookmark it with the ribbon icon, then you can go straight to it from your profile. You can bookmark anything, such as an article you want to read later.
When will the next episode be released? :-)
may 2020 :)
Shhh amigo! ;)
We'll be posting tomorrow.
Good to know David! Thanks