church park in b&w, night shot

[stew]

hmmm... i'm liking the night time shooting for some reason. the red door pic was captured on the same night as this one. damn, it was cold. i had no tripod and my hands were shaking so it's a little blurred but i ended up liking the effect (though unintentional ). this is the last one i have to post until i get out for some more pics.

[Sebastian]

THe lights threw off your camera's meter, underexposing all the pertinent detail. Either get the lights out of the frame, or overexpose by a stop or two. With digital it's easy to see the results, so experiment.

[gahspidy]

Hey Stew,
I like what you were going for, but Sebastian is right about the lights tricking your camera meter into underexposing the shot. Either up 1-2 stops or just lock exposure first in a darker area of the shot and then recompose.Or, if your camera has spot metering, that would be helpful. I like the setting with the empty benches under the trees in the night. Mysterious and moody.

[stew]

thanks for the feedback. this picture did indeed turn out darker than intended, but in the end i think it tends to convey the mood of the scene as i saw it that night - a little like a scene from an old, grainy, black and white picture with bad lighting the question i'm left with when i contemplate a bit more exposure is, will this reveal too much of the background material and detract from the main part of the scene? i'll try to re-shoot and play a little with exposure if it snows again this year.

thanks again for looking.