# Something unique: Fluorescent Plankton in Cambodia



## Raj_55555 (Sep 29, 2015)

Holla! Sorry for not logging in enough in the past few weeks, had some internet access issues.

I spent the last month living and travelling around Cambodia, had some great adventures, met some incredible people and captured some pretty memorable moments in my camera, but this one was by far the best from the tour.







For those who don't know, the islands of Koh Rong and Koh Rong Samleom in Cambodia have fluorescent plankton in the ocean which light up when the water is disturbed. I took this shot in a moonless night, a composite, the ocean with an 8 minute exposure to get the fluorescent plankton properly. The blue patches on the ocean are the plankton lighting up due to the big waves disturbing the water.

I was very satisfied with the results, but as this was my first serious composite I'd really appreciate some feedback.


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## Jasii (Sep 29, 2015)

Glad to have my friend back. 
The image looks surreal..........


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## goooner (Sep 30, 2015)

Oh wow, great shot Raj.


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## PhotoriousMe (Sep 30, 2015)

Really nice shot, well done.

Dave


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## BrickHouse (Sep 30, 2015)

Wow Raj! Looks amazing!


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## jaomul (Sep 30, 2015)

That's brilliant


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## Braineack (Sep 30, 2015)

I'd remove the (4) lights on the horizon.


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## Raj_55555 (Oct 1, 2015)

Jasii said:


> Glad to have my friend back.
> The image looks surreal..........


Thanks Jasii ji, good to be finally back!  I'm quite proud of the image myself 


goooner said:


> Oh wow, great shot Raj.


Thanks goooner! 


PhotoriousMe said:


> Really nice shot, well done.
> Dave


Thanks Dave, appreciate it! 


BrickHouse said:


> Wow Raj! Looks amazing!


Thanks BrickHouse! 


jaomul said:


> That's brilliant


Thanks Jaomul 



Braineack said:


> I'd remove the (4) lights on the horizon.


Hmm.. Don't know why I didn't think of it, I'll give it a try. Thanks Braineack!


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## JacaRanda (Oct 1, 2015)

Impressive.


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## tirediron (Oct 1, 2015)

VERY cool!


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## pjaye (Oct 1, 2015)

That is incredible Raj!


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## Sarmad (Oct 1, 2015)

Welcome back, beautiful shot.


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## scooter2044 (Oct 1, 2015)

That's amazing!


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## cbarnard7 (Oct 1, 2015)

Very nice! I know the ISO was probably pushed up a bunch, but maybe you could try luminance masking on the foreground water to help with noise?


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## Braineack (Oct 1, 2015)

Raj_55555 said:


> Braineack said:
> 
> 
> > I'd remove the (4) lights on the horizon.
> ...



I'm the brains here...


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## Raj_55555 (Oct 1, 2015)

JacaRanda said:


> Impressive.





tirediron said:


> VERY cool!





symplybarb said:


> That is incredible Raj!


Thanks Jaca, John and Barb! 


Sarmad said:


> Welcome back, beautiful shot.


Thanks Sarmad, glad to be back! 


scooter2044 said:


> That's amazing!


Thanks Scooter 


cbarnard7 said:


> Very nice! I know the ISO was probably pushed up a bunch, but maybe you could try luminance masking on the foreground water to help with noise?


Yeah, that noise sucks! But I've already done some pretty heavy noise reduction to the point that the details are almost gone from the waves. I've realized that a really long exposure has it's downsides. This is a situation where I missed having a FF.


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## Derrel (Oct 1, 2015)

Braineack said:
			
		

> I'd remove the (4) lights on the horizon.



Yeah, that would help to eliminate all sense of location and strip away the sense of realism that people expect of a long, timed exposure made at night in the 21st century. Make it look like the image was shot in an area where millions of people were eliminated from the face of the planet, but their old piers and stuff were left behind.


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## fotomarc (Oct 2, 2015)

Great shot! What were your settings/lens? Was the sky and foreground taken without moving the camera? The lights don't bother me.


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## Braineack (Oct 2, 2015)

Derrel said:


> Braineack said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


sounds pretty cool to me.

I really think the lights are distracting, especially the one dead center and the one to the left of center showing through the poles.

after a quick edit, and looking at it without at least those two, I'm still convinced.


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## pgriz (Oct 2, 2015)

Raj, beautiful, beautiful photo.  Love your composition, too.  with the pier pointing to the center of the apparent Milky Way arc.  The luminescent algae echo the stars above.  As for the lights, this image feels authentic to me, with the lights.  Eliminating the lights makes it a different image.


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## Raj_55555 (Oct 3, 2015)

fotomarc said:


> Great shot! What were your settings/lens? Was the sky and foreground taken without moving the camera? The lights don't bother me.


Thanks fotomarc, the ocean was an 8 minute exposure, and the sky something about 25 seconds I think. I used the 18-55 VRI kit lens for both the shots, and yes it was taken at the same spot with a tripod.

@Derrel & @Braineack , Thanks to both of you I had to stop being lazy and actually give it a try. After looking at the changes side by side, I think the middle ground is the best way to go. For me, the image looks better when we remove all the light source except the right most one, right below the milky way. It somehow balances out the image as far as I can see.




 



pgriz said:


> Raj, beautiful, beautiful photo.  Love your composition, too.  with the pier pointing to the center of the apparent Milky Way arc.  The luminescent algae echo the stars above.  As for the lights, this image feels authentic to me, with the lights.  Eliminating the lights makes it a different image.


Thanks a lot Paul, appreciate your kind words as always! 
I played around with the lights, what do you think about the image I just posted vs the one posted at first?


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## Braineack (Oct 3, 2015)

I like that better.  I left that one orb in place when i was fooling around with it too.


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## pgriz (Oct 3, 2015)

Raj, leaving the rightmost light leads one's eye to assume that the bright light is the "source" of the Milky Way orb!  Love it!


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## Braineack (Oct 3, 2015)

here's what my eye does now:


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## Raj_55555 (Oct 3, 2015)

pgriz said:


> Raj, leaving the rightmost light leads one's eye to assume that the bright light is the "source" of the Milky Way orb!  Love it!


I always knew I was a genius!  


Braineack said:


> here's what my eye does now:


Makes sense, thanks Brains!


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## fotomarc (Oct 3, 2015)

Can you do a retouch without any lights, then post all 3 versions together? Then we can have a vote. 

What was the ISO and f-stop?


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## Raj_55555 (Oct 4, 2015)

I could do that, but even if everyone said that the other two versions are better, I don't see changing my mind. 

ISO was 3200, at f4.5; I wish I had a faster lens, that way I could have kept the ISO a lot lower for the exposure.


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## jkzo (Oct 4, 2015)

welcome bak Raj.... we look forward some of the stuff from Cambodia......


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## weepete (Oct 4, 2015)

Wow, thats an awesome shot Raj. Well done


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## Raj_55555 (Oct 6, 2015)

jkzo said:


> welcome bak Raj.... we look forward some of the stuff from Cambodia......


Absolutely, I'll post a lot more sometime soon.  



weepete said:


> Wow, thats an awesome shot Raj. Well done


Thanks for the kind words weepete!


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## luckychucky (Oct 6, 2015)

Thanks for sharing 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## FITBMX (Oct 7, 2015)

That is a really great photo! Good job!!!


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## Raj_55555 (Oct 13, 2015)

luckychucky said:


> Thanks for sharing
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk





FITBMX said:


> That is a really great photo! Good job!!!


Thanks guys, much appreciated!


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