hundreds of mini fountains + shallow DOF = gold?

[yazz86]

Hello all,

I took the following shot at a public place littered with tens of mini fountains that are lit with red and white light.



ISO 800 50mm f1.4 1/1250sec Nikon D60

Questions:

1) DOF - too shallow? I obviously wanted most of the fountains to be out of focus to give that lovely bokeh everyone always ooohs and ahhhs about. It was also out of necessity to use the f1.4, to try and freeze the one fountain in focus, without using flash.

2) compostion - i tried to place the sharpest fountain at an intersection of the thirds. does it stand out? I also tried to have the lines in the image meet at another intersection of the thirds. Is it effective?

3) exposure - too dark? it was 10pm afterall, and 1/1250 was the fastest I could go to get a balance between enough light and freezing the fountain water. I try to increase the fill light on lightroom, but that just makes the noise more apparent (iso 800!)



thanks very much for the feedback

yazan

[Tirol]

did you shoot RAW? That helps alot if your dinking around with the exposure. I think it is just a touch too dark. technically I agree with everything you did. Maybe try shooting earlier. Personally I have a few photos that are just alright, instead of great because i'm too busy or too impatient to get on location when the lighting is perfect. I am trying to work on this aspect atm.

[yazz86]

thanks. by too dark, do you mean the overall image is dark, or the fountains could use more exposure?

i think i'll try to retake the shot around sunset.

[Tirol]

Actually, I think the fountain came out very well, the detailed flowing water is pretty cool. Something about the streak of blackness on the right feels strange to me. Maybe its the bright lite blotch from a street lamp or something on the bottom right that takes away from the prominence of the red fountain. maybe try a shot with the cam a touch more to the left so you don't get the bright splotch - see if you like it better.

just my .02. others may disagree =)


Cheers!

[Tirol]

mind you im not sure if moving to the left would help at all with that kind of light hah.