Dark Images
Occasionally, I will put extra effort into my dark sky and low light images, creating what I call "Dark Images" – which are intended for viewing, literally in a dark space.
I first noticed the need for this when editing a meteor image I took. I wanted it to feel just like how it felt in person, as it was happening. Most images you might see on Instagram or Flickr are seen on a screen, during the daytime or at night with indoor lights on. However, raising the brightness on these images ruins the subtleties of the image in my opinion.
When these images were captured, there were no lights on. The eyes were adjusted to darkness there – and so they should be in darkness when viewing too.
Just as you would let your eyes adjust for a night sky or firefly hunting, the best way to view these images is in a dark space, eyes adjusted, with no distracting exterior lights (including lights from user interfaces on your phone – so go fullscreen if you can).
If you have one, view the images on an OLED display for best results (some newer iPhone models, Samsungs, etc).
Dark space ideas
- night, outside
- night, indoors with lights out
- day, in a closet or under a thick blanket
I recommend downloading these images first, and then viewing them fullscreen on your device in your dark setup (so you aren't going back and forth from this bright website to the dark images 😅).
Index
Winds from Shining Rock
This image was taken from an overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway, looking south toward Shining Rock Wilderness. This was taken a couple hours after sunset – winds tend to increase at sunrise/sunset along the 6,000ft peaks there. The clouds in the photo illustrate these forces.
Blue Ghost Fireflies
The blue ghosts are exceptionally dim and difficult to capture with a camera. Most folks will make creative light trail images of them – which are indeed very cool – but with this image I tried to capture what it really feels like. The fireflies are too dim to be captured with a fast shutter speed all at once, so this image is a composite of two images: (1) of the forest scene I took – well exposed; and (2) a few fireflies up close that were later cloned and adjusted with Pixelmator Pro and ChatGPT AI features (and then a lot of hand-editing to fine-tune the effect based on my memory of that moment in the forest 😄).
An image like this reminds me of the overlap in creative methods like photography, painting, and animation – how each medium has its advantages and role to play in the capturing of moments. Who knows; I may learn some animation for this one soon.
