Starling Light
Previous posts here and here and here. This is tonemapped from a single image when I was still learning the process, a bit heavy-handed but I like its graphic qualities. It would probably be a better picture with the wires elsewhere, or gone.
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Canon EOS 5Dii, Canon 100mm/f2.8 lens, ISO640, f13, 1/320th.
burnt embers 
There is nothing wrong with a heavy hand when the composition turns out so wonderful. I really like the graphic quality of this image.
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Thanks Ryan – you are right – if it works, then that is the end of it. I guess I just was not totally confident that it had worked, but enough of you seem to think so for me to relax about that.
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Another really terrific image! I’m with Ken on this one, those birds are the star, but the cloud formations add a layer of interest here, too!
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It was a wonderful sky that day. Actually I noticed similar formations today when I was without a camera – that will teach me I suppose.
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First, I was drawn into the image by the clouds, then moved on to the birds and ended up in the lamp! Yes, perhaps a little over the top in processing but it really works. Perhaps a good The Twilight Zone (original series of course) intro?
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It would be a good intro for that series – I really don’t trust starlings, they are a bit sinister and would play the part perfectly.
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This is quite something. Very surreal – the light makes me think of a camera looking down on the viewer, spied on by starlings perhaps.
I think the wires are very effective – the clouds make them appear to be vibrating with some sort of strange energy. Quite fascinating!
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Thank you Karen – some of that vibrating wires effect is from a halo arising from the tonemapping. Not usually a desired effect, but in some ways acceptable here.
I wonder if there are cameras hidden in these light standards all over the place. Big brother’s beady eyes.
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Very heavy-handed, yes, but I like that in this image. You’ve captured detail *inside the light bulb*, which gives me an “I can see everything” feel by looking at it.
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Thanks James. The detail in that light was what finished the image for me, once I found it:)
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Great framing and processing, a very nice image indeed!
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Hi Marcel. Thank you! It is one of those images I was not sure if I should put my name to or not,so this is reassuring.
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When I first looked at this one I thought – oh no ‘over the top’ but the more I looked at it the more I appreciated the quirky nature of the image. like it a lot……
David.
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Thanks David. I will take compliments in any form, even or perhaps especially, ‘quirky’. I like that. And I am glad you settle on that side of the fence.
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I agree. The graphic nature of this lends itself to the more “heavy-handed” processing and still turn out fine. this really is very well done, I love the little birds on the wire. Reminds me of that Leonard Cohen song.
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Thank you Ken. I remember that I really enjoyed working on this one, but it lacked a little something. Brightening up the inside of the light was that something and when I did that I came to quite like it. Its one of those images I learned somethings from.
I am glad you did not hum a few bars within my hearing, nothing worse than getting a Cohen droning ear worm first thing in the morning.
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