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Scott Turner
06-29-2014, 11:08 PM
I uploaded this photo to National Geographic for the recent "After Midnight" assignment and received a huge amount of success having this image placed on the "Your Shot" front page and in the trending section as well. It is also currently in the running for winning the assignment which would lead to my first ever image published, and it would be in National Geographic :) I received some great advice from the kind editors, Diane Cook and Len Jenshel about the image. Some more background to this image, I took this image of the milky way at 11pm at night as the fog and condensation was forming over a pond on the farm I was staying at. It was so cold that I could see the fog forming from the water in the pond and slowly blowing away with the wind.

The settings were 30s @f4 ISO2000 @17mm with the 5DMKIII & 17-40mm F4 - light painting done with a dolphin LED torch.

Don Railton
06-30-2014, 04:31 AM
Hi Scott

Well done on your success with NG. Must be nice to receive positive comments from them. There are many others on this site that have done a lot more of this sort of work than me, hopefully they might chime in with a more informed critique. I think this is an image I would be very happy with if I had of taken it, but I would have strived in a repeat shoot to do the following. I would have processed to correct the leaning trees. I would have reduced the time of the flashlight in the green tree especially, and I would have made the sky blacker than shown. I would be interested to hear what the NG people have said. This post reeks of enthusiasm Scott and I hope it continues...

Best regards
Don




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Scott Turner
06-30-2014, 05:30 AM
Thanks Don, really appreciate it. I was stoked when I found out about it so decided to share it :)

Neil Burton
06-30-2014, 07:43 AM
Congrats man! Myself I would have done less paining as mentioned, concentrating the eye on the stars.

Bill Jobes
07-02-2014, 06:24 AM
Major congrats on the Nat Geo attention, Scott !

I like the setting and your comp quite a lot.

My only critical observation is that I wish the light painting hot spots especially the trees at left, were less bright. I presume that's so as they were closer to the torch, and reflected the light more strongly.

Would you mind sharing a bit more info about your painting technique ? For example, did you do sweeps, or concentrate off and on at the various locations of interest.

Thanks !

Tobie Schalkwyk
07-03-2014, 01:13 AM
The whites on the right are a little too white (IMO!) but overall a great shot, well done and fingers crossed for a good result with NatGeo!

Andrew McLachlan
07-12-2014, 07:47 PM
Wonderful image Scott!!! I think Peter makes an excellent recommendation about the type of light to use for the painting. Looking forward to more of your landscapes!