Photo Contest - You Light Up My Life (10/19/-10/25)

[ZapperZ]

You Light Up My Life

While the object of that Debbie Boone song was a person, the object in this contest is a source, or sources of visible light. Your photo must show a light source/s, and it/they must be emitting light. A lamp, a light bulb, a candle, LED's, etc. qualify. A moon does not, since it is not a light source, but a light reflector.

Please note that the source must be lit in the photo, and we can clearly see light being given off by the source.

Contest Rules:

1. Any digital photo or digitally-scanned photo relevant to the theme will be accepted within the contest period. In case there's a gray area, or you're not sure if the picture is suitable, check with me first.

2. Size limitations: Your photo is only limited to the file size limitation set by PhysicsForums. However, your may want to consider reducing the size of your photo if the file size exceeds 1 Mb. If your file is being hosted elsewhere, I will have to see how it is being displayed here, and I may ask you to resize and resubmit if it causes problems.

3. Upload your photos to any of the photo servers such as imageshack or photobucket. Then post it the relevant contest thread and link your picture using the img command. PM me if you do not know how. Alternatively, you may simply upload your image file to PF, and then have the full image displayed in your post.

4. Only ONE picture per member per contest. Once a picture is posted, it cannot be changed other than a total withdrawal by that member from that week's photo contest. Exceptions will be made for modification to comply with the rules, such as resizing.

5. At the end of the contest period, I will open a poll and every PF member can vote for the picture they like best.

6. Note that in case we have a large number of entries, I will do the polling in more than one thread. If that's the case, you can vote in each of the polling threads. The photos will be assigned in the polling threads in the order they were submitted.

7. The photo of the subject must be something that you took directly, not via in intermediary medium, and not taken by someone else. Unless otherwise noted, a photo of another photo, painting, print, etc. does not qualify.

8. You can use a picture only once. Once it is used in a contest, it cannot be reused in another contest.

9. Please post only pictures meant for submission in this thread. Photos not meant for submission must not be posted in the contest thread. Posting of more than one photos by a member may result in an automatic disqualification from the week's contest.

Zz.

 

[kuruman]

The Winspear Opera House "floating" LED chandelier in Dallas. It is retracted into the ceiling before the start of the performance.

 

[DennisN]

A lamp, a light bulb, a candle, LED's, etc. qualify. A moon does not, since it is not a light source, but a light reflector.

This is a moon lamp turned on .
I've recently ordered a bigger one that is on its way to me from China.

 

[Marzena]

 

[Andy Resnick]

Clarification question:

Please note that the source must be lit in the photo,[...].

Does this mean that the source itself must be illuminated by, for example, modeling lights?

 

[ZapperZ]

Clarification question:
Does this mean that the source itself must be illuminated by, for example, modeling lights?

It must be lit. Whether it is also illuminated by other sources does not matter.

This means that a lightbulb that is off, but illuminated by other sources not in the photo, does not qualify.

Zz.

 

[lekh2003]

I hope this counts, lots of city lights!

 

[morrobay]

View attachment 2H=full]251688[/ATTACH]51688[/ATTACH]

 

[Andy Resnick]

Nature's flashbulb:

 

[DennisN]

Nature's flashbulb:

You didn't need to use a flash when taking that photo, I assume...

 

[Rubidium_71]

 

[ZapperZ]

Zz.

 

[Borg]

View attachment 251700

Where is that? Except for some additions, it looks a lot like the ceiling of a Mexican resort's restaurant that I've been to.

 

[DennisN]

Hmm... after me @Marzena posted a cool Tron-like photo, @lekh2003 posted a gorgeous skyline, @Andy Resnick posted a superb photo of a fri**in real flash, @Rubidium_71 set a house on fire (?) and got it on photo and @ZapperZ posted a photo with a gorgeous street lamp.

I photographed a cheap moon lamp.
I need to step up my game...

 

[Rubidium_71]

Where is that? Except for some additions, it looks a lot like the ceiling of a Mexican resort's restaurant that I've been to.

That is from Las Vegas. Somewhere in the depths of Caesar's Palace if I remember right. It was New Years Eve, a good time was had by all.

 

[DennisN]

@Andy Resnick , I was thinking about your photo... do you mind telling how you managed to take it?
I remember that during a thunderstorm some months ago I thought of trying to take photos, but I just stood there with my camera completely clueless about what to do.

Did you perhaps film a thunderstorm, and then searched for individual pictures to extract from the movie?

 

[morrobay]

I need to step up my game...

Join the club. I only showed another photo of Thai girlfriend because there is not that much of interest topic related around here.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Did you perhaps film a thunderstorm, and then searched for individual pictures to extract from the movie?

Glad you like the photo!

It's trivially easy, since the lightning strikes tend to originate from the same part of the same cloud; I just leave the shutter open ('bulb') until there's a bright flash, then I'm done and ready for the next exposure. Here are a couple fine points:

1) time of day. This method doesn't work during the day (or evening), since the background sky brightness is too high. Nighttime is the best- the shutter can be open for several seconds without worry.
2) Exposure parameters (ISO/aperture) are set according to the strike, not the background illumination. YMMV, but I typically use something like f#/7.1 and ISO 200.

 

[ZapperZ]

Final day to submit your photo for this contest.

Zz.

 

[DennisN]

It's trivially easy, since the lightning strikes tend to originate from the same part of the same cloud; I just leave the shutter open ('bulb') until there's a bright flash, then I'm done and ready for the next exposure. Here are a couple fine points:

1) time of day. This method doesn't work during the day (or evening), since the background sky brightness is too high. Nighttime is the best- the shutter can be open for several seconds without worry.
2) Exposure parameters (ISO/aperture) are set according to the strike, not the background illumination. YMMV, but I typically use something like f#/7.1 and ISO 200.

Thank you very much for the info! I will check if I have a "bulb mode" on an of my cameras.

Edit:

I just searched for "bulb mode and mobile phone cameras", and according to this page on Quora ("Is there any way to enable ‘Bulb mode’ in a smart phone camera like DSLR cameras?") it is very unusual with "bulb mode" on mobile phones.
But there is one Android camera app that seems to support it: NightShooting.
I will download and try it!

 

[epenguin]

Trafalgar Square

 

[lekh2003]

Thank you very much for the info! I will check if I have a "bulb mode" on an of my cameras.

Honestly, for me, the largest problem with lightning photos wasn't the camera gear, but rather actually getting a good view of the lightning. I find it good if you can get somewhere far away from the storm that is overlooking a larger subject. That way you can get cool stuff like lightning hitting cities.

Camera gear isn't even that crazy important, just a 1-2 second exposure can usually capture it, or if you're lucky, just your phone camera's normal photo mode. Its all about getting it timed right (which really makes me feel that thunder should come before lightning as a signal :P)