Looking for Chang Erh Photo

Photographer’s Note

Today is Moon Festival here in Taiwan (many other parts of Asia too). This is one of the few holidays that are celbrated here in Taiwan, and thankfully we had an escape from some truly awful weather to have some great weather today.

This shot was taken at Green Lake, where there were many families with small barbecues, just generally enjoying a really beautful evening. Unfortunately for these two, they were pointed in the wrong direction; the full moon was rising behind them.

Please see the forum thread to read about the story of the Moon Festival, it wouldn't all fit here.

ISO 200, using a flash to even out the background and the people, rear curtain sync, 16mm focal length, uncropped, normal post processing.

Luko, Curioso, rabani has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Luko (13894) 2004-09-28 11:52

MMMh, Darren, your caption and thread is really informative but, no sorry, I'll be frank the image doesn't work at all for some reasons :

- composition : why did you choose to tuck your characters in the corner? it feels like they're pretty isolated from the whole scene and hence do not take part into it.
The consequence is that we can hardly step into your pic as these people do not engage us to. I wish you'd found another angle...

- Fill in flash : can be great for freezing a slight part of a moving subject, but the people you froze were seemingly motionless while the boats moving on the river are nastily blurred,

- exposure : another fill in flash casualty :(... foreground is IMHO not really consistent with the background. Btw, I don't remember you using a flash, my advice is to always use fill flash one stop lower than the "normal" exposure in order to blend the flash light into its environment.

dsidwell (9745) 2004-09-28 17:20

I actually like the placement of the couple in the corner, giving us a lead in and reference point to the scene beyond. That said, it might be fun to have had the buildings all in the frame instead of cut off at the top, since that is the ultimately where my eyes go (because the couple is looking there). The night lights are nice and colors are interesting. The fill flash works at getting the couple lit, and I don't mind the foreground being lighter. All in all, this shot works for me.

As for the Moon festival, now I really wanna go!

rabani (9421) 2004-10-10 23:35

I guess they have seen too much moon and prefer something more flashy and glittering coming from the waterfront. The halos coming from behind the building just adds more magic to the waterfront as well. Including the couple just point us to where they are looking at.

joseelias (367) 2004-10-14 8:47

Darren, I think in this one a more daring POV could have worked better, like a ground level view for example and eventually a closer framing on them too.

Also the use of flash made that the couple and shore got desintegrated from the scene, and darkened the bakground.

Perhaps using an exposure of 1sec or more could have lightened better the backgroung creating a bigger harmony of the lights in the foreground and background. As I see there's much light in the sky it could have created a very nice effect.

Also the cut on the top of the buildings could have been avoided.