weekly Jammy_C's "52" for 2013! Playing Catch-up: WEEK 4, 5 & 6 ADDED!

jammy_c

jammy_c

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James
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Hey Guys! :wave:

I've missed you all! not been on here for quite a while. I did the 52 in 2009 and found it a fantastic learning curve for me which helped me develop my skills enormously.
4 years on I've still got the same old D40, but I'm hoping to be able to swap to something a bit more up-to-date over the coming months, so the 52 will give me a chance to get out and experiment again.
My son is coming up to his first birthday at the end of Jan and I spend a lot of time looking after him on my own when i'm not working so it may be more of a challenge than the last time! we'll have to wait and see.

James.

WEEK 1: SIN (Shot with: Nikon D40 & 35mm f/1.8)
WEEK 2: SEASON (Shot with: Nikon D40, 70-300VR & Raynox DCR250 on tripod with cont. lighting)
WEEK 3: GRAVITY (Shot with: Nikon D40 & 35mm f/1.8, tripod and on-board flash).
 
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Hi James - with the little 'un you should have plenty of "help" and "inspiration" for the coming weeks, the second year is a great one for kids as they develop their personalities etc.

Look forward to your first. (y)
 
Hi James - with the little 'un you should have plenty of "help" and "inspiration" for the coming weeks, the second year is a great one for kids as they develop their personalities etc.

Look forward to your first.
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Cheers Graham! He's already getting a proper little personality on him, he'll be comical next christmas. I'm sure he'll give me lots of inspiration for
I see you have a D5100, that is what i'm after. Was hoping Santa would bring it (or atleast some Jessops vouchers), but alas...
 
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Hi James


welcome back.....sounds like you have a busy time with the little'un...but hopefully he'll provide inspiration for your project (y)
 
Dark Knight said:
A welcome back then James... I guess you know the ropes very well, so look forward to seeing your photo's (y)

(I'll add you to the spreadsheet, I guess you have found the 'Photo's only Thread')
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Thankyou! Yes, i've found it (y)
 
WEEK 1: SIN

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So, I thought I'd try my best to think outside the box for week 1, (or outside the triangle as it happens). I started off with some shots of the SIN button on a calculator but decided that it was too boring so got busy with pencil and paper with the help of the iPad. I know it's noisy, i forgot to drop the ISO from the last time I shot indoors, but i've increased the clarity to make it look even noisier because I decided I actually liked it and think it adds to the shot a bit. I supposed i've committed a couple of Photographic "Sins" here too. :)...

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Having just helped my daughter with Maths GCSE I appreciate the sentiment here :)

I'm in two minds about this shot. I tend to agree with Christine about the gloominess of the image, yet I like the fact that it is gloomy. It doesn't look to me as though there's any white in the image. And whilst I like the shallow depth of field, I'd also have liked to see some definition to the pages of the notebook. So basically you couldn't have made me 100% happy no matter what you did. Ho hum.

Other plus points for me would be the arrangement of the items in the shot. The Sine wave, the demo of what SIN equals.. All laid out nicely.

Great effort!

Ian.
 
Cheers for the comments so far, all. I tend to agree, actually. looking at it from another monitor it actually looks a lot darker than on my laptop, maybe this one is more representative. it's worth bearing in mind. There was a definite glow coming from the screen of the iPad and the paper looked a lot "whiter" hmmmm...
 
Hi, James nothing really to add. I would like to see more contrast, it's a tad gray.

Well composed and obviously on theme.

Maths....sheesh...goes right over my head.

Cheers.
 
I like this one James, the use of the diagram and formulae with the protractor complimented by the DOF and Sine wave (?) on the tablet in the background. Good composition.
 
WEEK 2: SEASON

SeasonING....
BBQ Seasoning mix if you're interested :LOL::

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Bit of catching up to do James.... ;)

Season(ing) perfectly on theme, looks a tiny bit soft to me, a tiny sharpen at final size sometimes helps. Colours good, background fine, love the hint of an expolsion sending little bits off to the top right.
 
overbez said:
Bit of catching up to do James.... ;)

Season(ing) perfectly on theme, looks a tiny bit soft to me, a tiny sharpen at final size sometimes helps. Colours good, background fine, love the hint of an expolsion sending little bits off to the top right.
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Cheers. you know what? the actual image is razor sharp. The problem is that i've hosted the file on Facebook and they do something horrendous to the image in compression or something. i'll try and host elsewhere (prob flickr) and re-post if I can.... :thinking: unless there is an easier option?
 
Hi, one theme but, s has been said, slightly OOF. If the host is bugging it up, you might have to compensate, maybe :thinking:

I'd like to see a bit more punch in the colours.

Cheers.
 
Dark Knight said:
Flickr is the best bet I think... it still messes with them a bit but not as much as Photo bucket !!!!
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can you see any difference in resolution between my two "season" photos above? the monitor i'm on isnt great
 
Hi Jamie


the newer version of Season(ing) I think is a smidge sharper....like that you've filled one corner & then spread it out slightly...sort of fades in the centre (if that makes sense ?)lovely white bg as well (y)

think I prefer the B&W version of sin...just needs a bit more contrast & maybe a slight exposure boost ?
 
posiview said:
I can't see much difference. Any reason for f14 @ 0.8 seconds? Tripod? VR Off?

Cheers.
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Indeed, on tripod and AF locked and 2sec delayed shutter
 
blondie606 said:
Hi Jamie

the newer version of Season(ing) I think is a smidge sharper....like that you've filled one corner & then spread it out slightly...sort of fades in the centre (if that makes sense ?)lovely white bg as well (y)

think I prefer the B&W version of sin...just needs a bit more contrast & maybe a slight exposure boost ?
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Thanks, some good crit :)
 
I prefer your first edit of Sin, the second edit is far to bright.

Nice take on the gravity theme, well composed and good lighting. If I was to nit pick it would be the shadow behind the glass is rather distracting.
 
Definitely like gravity, no idea how you achieved that! Well done!
 
Sam_W said:
I prefer your first edit of Sin, the second edit is far to bright.

Nice take on the gravity theme, well composed and good lighting. If I was to nit pick it would be the shadow behind the glass is rather distracting.
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Thanks, yes I agree, i'm not a big fan of the shadow either, but wanted to maintain a shadow on the bottle and without off-camera flash I think i'd struggle. tried a few different arrangements but this seemed to work best/look most natural.
 
ChrisR said:
Definitely like gravity, no idea how you achieved that! Well done!
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Cheers. it was all magic ;)
Safe to say it took me longer to edit than to drink the (miniture) bottle of wine afterwards though. :LOL:
 
Dark Knight said:
Gravity - Very nicely done James, no hints of hand shadows or the like, nice colours, very convincing - Like it (y)

Only minor crit from me, the horizon looks very curved, does your software have lens correction ??
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Cheers, the shadows were a nightmare, but managed to remove/blend most of them.
I could (and should) have corrected the distortion in lightroom. I could just claim that that table is bowed :LOL:.
 
Limited time, I'm afraid, so quick comments...

Gravity, on theme and well nice detail in the wine. Bit of a crop left and right for me.

Cheers.
 
Nice work on the gravity shot, nice take on the theme too! Only crit would be that the shadows are a bit harsh / distracting. Would be interested to see how you made that shot!
 
cheers guys. It was done with just two shots, one puring the wine (hand holding end of the bottle only), and the second with the lid screwed on held horizontal by only the cap, then a bit of creativeness in GIMP to layer them into one image. pretty simple really, bit of rotation required to align the bottle, re-size to adjust for lateral movements screwing with the perspective, and a (lot) of shadow and light "smoothing" (or more "smudging" if you like).

relatively happy with the shot and was a good excuse to drink the wine :beer: ;)
I agree with comments about the shadows, but thought off-camera flash would make it look to "staged" and I wanted to make it look more realistic. apart from that i've no idea where my strobe is. :crying:
 
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