Ce type est plein
Jul, 2018Views
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Awards
Contest Finalist in ViewBug Homepage Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Creators Exhibition Project
Contest Finalist in artFix Exhibition Project
Runner Up in Night Wonders Photo Contest
Top Shot Award
Contest Finalist in Night Wonders Photo Contest
Runner Up in The Urban Shooter Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in The Urban Shooter Photo Contest
Peer Award
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Outstanding Creativity
Absolute Masterpiece
Magnificent Capture
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo in a small village near my hometown. I like to explore these little lost islands of light scattered through the night, and I spend a lot of time doing researches for my night photography spots. The exact Location for this one is on the entrance of Saint-Julien-Molin-Molette, France.Time
Well, this is the night, obviously. Most of my photographic work is done at night, and is part of a larger inquiry. Huge amounts of energy are spent to bring artificial light through urban and semi urban spaces, all night long. I could talk about industrial sites that look like luna parks, I could talk about empty parking lots where you can see like in plain day ... These night lights scar the ground like a motherboard, they transform the avenues into veins of melted metal, when seen from above. They also divert the course of the migrating birds, scare the wildlife, and achieve another terrible goal : man won't make it to the stars, because he has already killed them. Most of us live into big cities, where it has become impossible to see the stars in the night sky.Lighting
The lightning is fully artificial - the lights were kindly provided by the gas station !Equipment
My DSLR was set on it's tripod, and, as it is a self-portrait, I used a remote to trigger the shot.Inspiration
As said above, I intend to shoot at night. I think that I want to interrogate the excessive artificial lightning of urban and peri-urban areas, this fear of the dark which seems to define the human animal, while taking advantage of the plastic possibilities offered by artificial lights and long exposure. I work at night, and I love the night. I like the feeling of loneliness and peace that one experiments when he walks alone at night, I also like the buzz of the city when the lights start to pop and the tail lights of the cars start to draw trails on your sensor, I share this fascination for the light bulbs, I am a moth like any other human being. But I also like the darkness which sublimates the stars and the Milky Way, and I find this darkness too seldom. My photography is this travel, this fight for the stars to twinkle still a little more above our heads.Editing
There is always a bit of post-processing. I darkened a bit the background in order to isolate the central subject of the photo. As this is a high-iso shot, I tried to smoothed a bit the noise in the darkest parts, and did a bit of color work. I try to avoid pure black and pure white in my pictures, and so took some time tuning these extreme values.In my camera bag
I go out with my DSLR and a few lenses, with a great preference for wide-angle lenses. I got my remote, some apps on a smartphone, and a steady tripod attached outside the backpack. I often bring a book, when I plan to do timelapses or day to sunset to night exposures.Feedback
Shooting in this environment of bright light and thick shadow can be tricky. You can't trust the lightmeter of your camera, and sometimes you have unanticipated flare. The halos around the spots of light will vary in shape depending on the diaphragm you choose. I usually do a lot of test shots before I find the right exposure, and I try to avoid direct light, and prefer incident light, which gives richer colors.
