Night Landscapes

[dobson]

A month ago, while camping before a climb, I took this photo of the Wedge in SW Montana. The sky was very clear and the moon was setting behind the camera.

Many people who have seen this comment that there is too much color for a night shot, probably due to the fact that our eyes do not see color well in low light. I would like to hear what your thoughs are on this. Should it be tinted with blue more or left natural.

Any other comments/critiques would also be appreciated.

Canon 20d, 24-85 usm at 24mm, f/6.3, 891 sec., dark frame subtraction on

[attachment=1011:attachment]


I'm also including the original (resized) in case you want to play around with it
[attachment=1012:attachment]

[dobson]

Sorry, I had the color space wrong on the first one.

[attachment=1013:attachment]

[alainbriot]

Personally I chose to make the sky a lot more blue because in my perception it represents my experience of the specific night I photographed:

[larkvi]

I would really like it if you had moved more to the (right?), in order to pull to circle closer to the rock. Not necessarily right behind it, but close enough to accentuate the point of interest. I agree with Alain--we do not see this stuff at night, so go for a color that replicates the feel of mystery from the start trails, rather than trying to replicate the night light closely (unless that is really the most pleasing colors).

[dobson]

Thanks guys for the suggestions. Making the background blue really draws the eye to the image. I guess I need to give up on trying to make the sky black, (or gray) and give it some color. I also agree with larkvi about the framing; positioning the camera below and to the right of the rock would help a lot. The big reason I didn't was lazyness. There's a nice meadow where I shot from and I really didn't feel like wandering through the woods looking for a clear shot. It's still a good thing to keep in mind for the winter months when I won't be climbing the next day.

Phillip