This was taken during technically night. The sun had set past the visible horizon, and all vehicles and streets had lights on. That makes it night to me :)
My son and I went out to a nice garden before his bedtime. I was armed with a very bright flashlight to do some light painting. Of course, when it's not totally dark out yet, light painting is tricky. So I had to use a small aperture to get a long enough shutter (I don't like using ND filters on macro style shots, because those filters take out too much detail). Luckily my 400 lumen flashlight is bright enough to overcome that tiny aperture.
We walked around, finding a few interesting subjects, but I was getting discouraged because the wind (there shouldn't be wind at night!) was moving the flowers around way too much. Then I came across this. Even in the dimly lit environment, I could see the leaves shimmering with natural beauty. So I setup the tripod in what I felt was an interesting composition, and took a number of shots where I painted the foremost leaves.
This one came out the nicest. A little processing was used to block out the background a bit more (but not completely, so that I wouldn't violate the editing rules) The other big thing I did editing wise was dodge the shadows on the leaves caused by the flashlight. The shadows were already soft, but still looked a little like a shadow from an on camera flash. Dodging them reduced their effect, and provides a smoother transition that looks more appealing.
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Post challenge notes.
Thank you all so much for the votes and comments. This is an image my wife said "wow" to when she saw it. Glad many of you had the same reaction. :)
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