The March "Nighttime" Final 50

Nice group, and not just because I am back in the 50 after a few months of not making the cut!

Haha Pat, nice to see you back in there since being featured by the Globe for your 365. I'm in for the first time (it's also the first time I've entered the contest)

WOW, those pictures are pretty amazing! I would not know how to choose which one should win!

I finally made it! yay!

Not because I didn't make the top 50 ... no biggie ... but there are SO many pictures of buildings (Boston) that they seemed repetitive, even though nicely executed. Would have liked to have seen more subject diversity ... but then again, I'm not the expert! Good luck picking the winner!

photoH, that was my thought when I was deciding what to submit. I tried to get a little creative with my subject matter. Served me well so far, we'll see how it goes from here. There may be many cityscapes and the like, but some of them are very good.

For the first time I am disappointed with your final choices, and no, I do not have a photo entered. I question if some of these were even taken at night, and others are just a blur of lights. Not a good representation of 'nighttime', in my opinion. There are several amazing pictures in the top 50 that are right in line with the theme, but shouldn't they all be? My kudos to the talented photographers, just not to the final choices!

I agree ... I saw many photos which were not taken at night and was surprised that they were chosen to be in the top 50. There are some very creative photos (and some very repetitive ones as well) in the bunch; I look forward to voting!

Hi, aquarius and Hannah: I saw your comments questioning whether all of the photos actually were taken at night. I can assure you that they were; I checked the time stamp found in the EXIF data. I think what may be throwing you off are the light skies in some of the pictures. That's caused by a very long exposure. For example, the photo of the tractors was taken at 10:30 p.m., but it was exposed for 8 minutes so the photographer could capture the movement of the stars in the sky. The photo of the blown tree with the picnic bench was a 15-second exposure. The railroad crossing photo was taken at 11:26 p.m., but exposed for more than 5 minutes -- again, to catch the star trails. As Lance said in his comments above, by its very nature, Night Photography is an expression of time. Sometimes the techniques used to capture a night photograph yield results that the naked eye cannot see.

I think my favorite thing about night photography is how creative and abstract your photos can be ... a group of 20 people can approach the exact same subject and get something completely different out of it.

Don't let your eye tell you which of the photos in these galleries are night photos; they all are ... instead, go check out the Night Images pool on flickr, or Lance's site (thenightskye.com), or Jill Waterman's book "Night and Low-Light Photography." You'll see an amazing range of night photography, and if you're in the Boston area take Lance's class at NESOP!

There are some amazing photos in the Top 50, and I seriously hope none of them are damaged by a limited view of what a night photograph is.

The EXIF data, like a digital image, or a computer file's time stamp, can be modified. Sigh, we live in a world that nothing is sacred anymore.

Fairnsquare/hannah/aquarius,

While the EXIF can be modified, which photo(s) do you feel are not night photos? In the top 50 I don't spot any that look suspect.

I don't doubt for a moment that all of these photos were taken at night. However, regarding the EXIF data, I checked some of my photos. I suspect most photographers don't reset their time data when traveling. An image taken at about 8PM records at about high noon. Just a thought!

fairnsquare, can't the EXIF data cut both ways? If you don't set your camera's time and date, couldn't a photo that was truly taken at night appear to have been taken during the day?

I'm sure my photo is one of the photos people are referring to as being shot "in the daylight."

It's a totally baseless accusation, but I'm sure the judges will recognize the truth of it. I'm 100% sure every photo here is a night photograph, and the folks who say otherwise should back up their ridiculous claims.

Regarding my EXIF comment:

- I have yet to view this gallery, and the comment is not about whether the images are taken at night or not.

- Nor did I imply or suggest that the submitters might have altered their images' EXIF data.

- But it is meant to be a caution that the EXIF data can be altered, and should not be treated as "factual" or "real". Many things in our lives have changed in this digital age, not all for the better. If I recall correctly, photos are no longer considered "factual" evidence in some courts.

About whether the images were taken at night or not (still haven't viewed them yet), perhaps reading Lance's "The things that I looked for" would help. In particular, what he is NOT looking for,

"1. Atmosphere, mystery, and mood-suggestion is more important than literal interpretation in Night Photographs."

An image shot under a particular lighting condition can be rendered to look like it is shot under a totally different lighting condition. Many do so on purpose, or out of necessity. Part of Truffaut's "Day for Night" is about shooting a movie during the day and making it appear to happen at night.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_for_Night_(film)

Will you be happier if an image is shot at noon (and "verified" by its EXIF), but looks like it is at night?

If the debate is about whether some images comply with the contest's theme or not, that's another story. If RAW really wants to be specific about a theme, then they would spell the constraints out, such as "night means between 8:00PM and midnight". But for what purpose? It would only take away the creativity.

Perhaps a better comment would have been, "I can't see how this image has anything to do with the theme." Now that's something worth debating.

Not sure what the fuzz is about whether the photos are shot at night or not. Many images are shot under one lighting condition, but the final images are made to appear to be under a different lighting. The technique is nothing new. Truffaut's "Day and Light" is a good example:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_for_Night_(film)

A contest's theme is just a general guideline, and how strictly the submissions should comply with it is entirely up to the judges. (Unless the submission rule says, "Must be shot between 8:00PM and midnight." But then, the questions would be where on earth, or what season.) Lance made it very clear that he was not looking for anyting "literal". With this in mind, consider the following two images (regardless of what the EXIF data say):

- image A was shot at noon, and made to appear to be at midnight
- image B was shot at midnight, and made to appear to be at noon

Which of these images would you consider to be not complying with the theme?

OTOH, if you think that some images don't seem to have anything to do with the theme, that would be a much more worthy topic for discussion.

Judge Lance Keimig responds:

I think both sides have been covered pretty extensively. I just have three comments to add.

1. A night photograph can appear as dark as Guinness or as bright as high noon. It's all a question of exposure. Light accumulates on film or sensors over time, and given enough time, it's possible to expose (or over-expose) a photograph in almost any lighting conditions.

2. Having been on both sides of juried contests many times, I know that not everyone will agree with the juror's choices. There have certainly been a number of competitions that have left me scratching my head when I saw the winners. That said, it is the juror who makes the choices and gives the awards. You just have to accept that a judge may not have the same taste as you.

3. I recognized the work of several of my students in the pool of 300, and there were several more that I did not recognize. I felt that it would not be fair to pick the award winners under these terms, so I asked my friend Christian, (who has different tastes in Night Photography than I do) to pick the winners.