weekly overbez's 52 in 2014... Week 52 - SUPPORT added... *** FINISHED ***

Week 39 - Big....

As I could come up with nowt during the week, I had a try at some light trails, as the nights are starting to draw in and the time my boy's at cubs falls about right.. Not bad for a first time.

Unless someone can think of a reasonable link to the theme (big) for me, then I'm going to have it as a joker. (Partly as I've just shot my cut, and after editing it thought of a way to make it 10 times easier and better to edit, so I'm going to need to re-shoot that one this week)



[URL='http://i.imgur.com/SB13r0S.jpg']Week 39 - SOOC[/url]
 
A decent joker for the week. Having a bend in the road helps give a bit of interest and certainly draws the eye into the image. Thumbs up for taking it in the blue hour rather than complete darkness.
 
Hi Graham, its a nice light trail shot taken at a good time of day, the curve of the lights works
the trouble with motorways is there is little interest around the scene just shrubs etc, I do think its difficult to master but it works well as in its not overdone (y)
 
Hiya Graham

Great image for dark. I wouldn't have a clue where to start :confused:, layering 3 images but the end product was certainly worth all your work (y)

I've always had a bit of a soft spot for light trails and I'm liking yours (y) My only thought would have been to crop a little off the top, just above the moon and a slither off the left (white line into left bottom corner) reason being I'm drawn more to the sky :thinking: getting rid of some sky draws me more to the light trails :)

The other thing (sorry :p) I'd have been tempted to clone out any lights at the end of the light trails showing over the trees :)
 
Delta Skies said:
A decent joker for the week. Having a bend in the road helps give a bit of interest and certainly draws the eye into the image. Thumbs up for taking it in the blue hour rather than complete darkness.
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Cheers Peter, tough balance between the sky being good, and the number of cars on the road, and having the camera balanced on top of the 6 foot fence posts was a bit nerve wracking to start with too!

alsjazzera said:
Hi Graham, its a nice light trail shot taken at a good time of day, the curve of the lights works
the trouble with motorways is there is little interest around the scene just shrubs etc, I do think its difficult to master but it works well as in its not overdone (y)
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Agree that it's going to be all about location for this type of shot, the trails are relatively easy, the sky is too, but there needs to be something else too, a better road going off, or more bends or something else.

Phil-D said:
Hiya Graham

Great image for dark. I wouldn't have a clue where to start :confused:, layering 3 images but the end product was certainly worth all your work (y)

I've always had a bit of a soft spot for light trails and I'm liking yours (y) My only thought would have been to crop a little off the top, just above the moon and a slither off the left (white line into left bottom corner) reason being I'm drawn more to the sky :thinking: getting rid of some sky draws me more to the light trails :)

The other thing (sorry :p) I'd have been tempted to clone out any lights at the end of the light trails showing over the trees :)
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Cheers Phil, think I did consider that crop, but didn;t want the moon to end up too close to a corner. Notice the moon is a bit blurred?? This was a 15 sec exposure, and apparently the moon moves (or at least appears to move) its own diameter, every two minutes! So in 15 secs it moves 1/8 of its diameter. :geek:
 
OK - Back on track now with cut. Another itch scratched anyway. :)

Week 40 - Cut



Week 40 - SOOC

Also did one with my favourite little Cardboard box friend.... here on Flickr
 
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Very clever shot Graham. Is it a composite, or did you actually arrange all the slices like that - and if so how did you stop them rolling around??? :confused:
 
XenosElaine said:
Very clever shot Graham. Is it a composite, or did you actually arrange all the slices like that - and if so how did you stop them rolling around??? :confused:
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Thanks elaine, wasn;t going to put the SOOC image in this week as it gives the game away...... (but only if you click on the link under the image that is...) :p, but I did.
 
overbez said:
Thanks elaine, wasn;t going to put the SOOC image in this week as it gives the game away...... (but only if you click on the link under the image that is...) :p, but I did.
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:naughty:
 
:clap: .... food for thought.


... and I like the light tails too ... 15 sec exposure eh! I must try it sometime.
 
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Hi Graham, we pretty much did a similar thing I used the same technique on the chilli ;), you have done a really good job on the cloning out of the sticks and it has a nice shadow
glad to see you are back on track now (y)
 
Hey Graham :)

Big - No joker that... I see a BIG bend in the road, a BIG sky... A nice light trail, I too like the blue sky, I want to try one of these too, never done one over thje years, always too much of a hurry to get home... anyway, I like it :)

Cut - Now then you... That is excellent, BUT I wish I didn't look at your SOOC as I have now lost the magic :LOL:

No to be honest you have done a fantastic job, so good in fact that I may be tempted to steal your rough idea one day :)

Lighting goo, background good the apples slanty cuts a great touch, and to top it all a grounding shadow - spot on :clap:

alsjazzera said:
Hi Graham, we pretty much did a similar thing I used the same technique on the chilli ;)....
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OMG another one of you tricking me, I thought you were just masters of levitation !!!! :D
 
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Hi Graham ....smashing light trails ....I did try it once and it was a complete failure, but they look great when they're done right.

Love the apple ....specially the Danbo one :) I'd love a little prop like that. A handy use of the cocktail sticks ...it's certainly a very impressive image and a great choice for the theme.
 
:clap: Great shot Graham and how to pull it off was very well thought out, I studied it for awhile wondering if it was photo'd or PP'ed.

Excellent clean bg, good lighting, shadows just right and some good cloning (y)
 
HI Graham


super shot for Cut...always good to see the SOOC version, was wondering how you'd done it....awesome cloning...great background & shadow ....not crit all :clap::clap:
 
Thanks everyone, my reshoot was due to the cocktail stick idea coming into my mind, originally had the slices separated by blutack, which didn;t hold them together, and gave a much greater area to clone over. :banghead:

Cocktails sticks are much easier, the cloning is then just zooming in, and taking from either side and cloning across.

Glad the shadow has come across well, felt it necessary to provide the floating illusion. :)

:ty:
 
Hi, Cut, one of the better ones I've seen. I really like how the slices are not horizontal, that is I can see the top and bottom of some slices. Nice shadow as well.

Crit, seems to be a little colour reflected on the BG.

Cheers.
 
Cheers andy, not an original idea I admit, but the challenge was the execution as much as anything.

OOhh you have a good eye for colour issues you do! There is a touch of refelcted colour on the BG, to the left of the lower segment(s). Need a bigger sheet of card to have the curve up starting further back i suppose.

(Or a desaturated adjustment layer, applied via a layer mask to the BG only, and then a further gradient to only desat the bottom half. (top was fairly neutral already). (Edit to replace original) (y)
 
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Hi Graham

Now to catch up.
Communicate - you little softie with that conversation - brought tears to my eyes :)
as to the photo - just brilliant:clap:

Dark - bang on theme with the mood and the film reference. Well put together and hard to find any fault.

Big - Who said you could play a Joker?:bat:Anyway i certainly see a big sky and a big swooping bend as per DK @Dark Knight. Also agree with Allan @alsjazzera that the m/w sides look a bit scruffy - nice exposure.

Cut - at first i thought that it was some of your PS wizardry and so beyond my capabilities but when i looked a the SOOC, i realised that it was ther Blue Peter effect. Great job. Like the way that the juice from the apple shows in the detail.(y)
 
Hi Graham

Week 39 Joker: Nice light trail pic. As you say, timing is perfect so that you've still got some colour in the sky. The subltle cloud cover and moon adds extra interest and makes the picture for me.

Week 40 Cut: Cant fault this one at all. Love it on all levels. Really like that the cuts have been made at an angle and the pattern of cuts seems to be repeating. The angle of the stalk is just right and Im sure purposefully placed this way as I know you always consider even the smallest details of composition.
 
superpippo said:
Communicate - you little softie with that conversation - brought tears to my eyes :)
as to the photo - just brilliant
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Cheers Alan, nice to have you back. Pleased you and a few others made an emotional connection with danbo. The photo itself was easy, just the preparation beforehand that took the time. As I said to Paul, also thought it time I tackled a theme a bit more directly.

superpippo said:
Big - Who said you could play a Joker?:bat:Anyway i certainly see a big sky and a big swooping bend as per DK @Dark Knight. Also agree with Allan @alsjazzera that the m/w sides look a bit scruffy - nice exposure.
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My only joker in 92 weeks... Try it, it's very liberating. :)

superpippo said:
Cut - at first i thought that it was some of your PS wizardry and so beyond my capabilities but when i looked a the SOOC, i realised that it was ther Blue Peter effect. Great job. Like the way that the juice from the apple shows in the detail.(y)
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The cutting and assembling was tricky, nearly gave up a few times, bananas wouldn't stay put which was my first idea.

d00d said:
Blue Peter effect
rofl.gif
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Can confirm that no sticky back plastic was used in the making of this shot. ;)

JasonGlyn said:
Week 39 Joker: Nice light trail pic. As you say, timing is perfect so that you've still got some colour in the sky. The subltle cloud cover and moon adds extra interest and makes the picture for me.
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Hi Jason :)

There was a lovely sunset a bit earlier, but light meant I could only get trails of 1 car length due to the exposure times available.

JasonGlyn said:
Week 40 Cut: Cant fault this one at all. Love it on all levels. Really like that the cuts have been made at an angle and the pattern of cuts seems to be repeating. The angle of the stalk is just right and Im sure purposefully placed this way as I know you always consider even the smallest details of composition.
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Did think this would be up your street. :) absolutely 100% right on the stalk, it's even from a different apple, and held in place with blu tack as the top cut left a hole larger than the stalk diameter. There were a lot of tweaks to position the segments here, the danbo one was shot prior to this but the segments are less well placed which is why I chose to use this one.
 
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Hi Graham... well, after that stupendous communicate image, you've set your bar pretty high, so have been looking forward to looking through your thread :)

Dark - brilliant. My son would love this even more than me as he's SW-obsessed. Lighting is good and PP very well done. All round a top shot! (y)

Big - I've never shot light trails but want to... your shot looks fab and apart from having quite a bit of sky, difficult/impossible to fault. Really like the clean look of it.

Cut - brilliantly done! :clap: Seeing how you've achieved this is superb as now we can copy it ;) Really clever job, well executed technical shot and some good cloning/PP skills. Lighting is good, nice shadow and background. A product shot that's taken to the next level (y)
 
Cheers Paul, you're right about setting the bar high and then having to live up to expectations... I did think I peaked at about week 4 this year but one way or another I've managed to get this far without disgracing myself (just) :)

My two are both into Lego and star wars, and are mad about... You guessed it.... Lego starwars. DV was borrowed off my eldest.

Light trails was a bit of a cop out but something I'd not tried before, so was preferable to beating myself up over not having something for the theme. I have my idea to fill that slot just need to wait for a few more bits to arrive.

Cut I'm happy with the execution which was actually harder than I anticipated.

Cheers. :)
 
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Week 41 - Balance



Week 41 - SOOC

There is another one more side on >>> here on flickr <<< which I prefer the long highlight along the top in, (but I couldn't replicate this on the angled one) damn you physics!
 
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Hi Graham,

Excellent idea for theme and that blutack must be very strong:)

I find it hard to find any meaningful comment as I consider it so good.(y)
The angle is good, the b/g f/g line is spot on. Lighting is good and very crisp focus. The shadow looks just about right - excellent pp skills.

i have looked at the other shot on Flickr but this one is much better. Ok, you have lost that long highlight but the gain is a better exposure of the top of the label so that it is perfectly clear, a more interesting image and the increase in the grain in the wood. Also the shadow looks a bit odd in the other one.

Good choice of wine too.:)
 
Thanks Alan,

no blutack. :)

No PP in the shadow :)

Agree about the long highlight not benefiting the label as much as it does the bottle.

Shadow on the side on one, is natural. Light is from velux roof window, above but a bit towards the camera, hence why the LH shadow from the bottle appears slightly further back.

Wine was a present from my parents jaunt round Spain (I think), and the holder is made by my own fair hands (from a fence gravel board), (this week). :D
 
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Hi Graham, I have no idea how that works :thinking: damned clever, had a look on flickr too but I do prefer this one, can't ramble on about anything really, nicely lit, sharp no complaints at all
but it is playing havoc with my head trying to figure out how that works

Excellent :clap::clap:
 
Thanks Allan, there really is nothing more to it than what's there. I would forgive you if you didn't believe me, but I've never kept secrets from you all. :)

It is, quite simply, balanced. The centre of gravity of the bottle is to the left of the pivot point, obviously the wood has a certain mass, acting through a point to the right of the pivot. Making the C of G of the combination directly above the pivot point (base).

:D
 
Hi, time is short, I'm afraid...:(

Oooh, like that. Mmmmaaaggiiicccc.....:)

Unlike Alan, I'm a true philistine in the wine department.

Can't stop looking at it...the wood is wonderful.

Cheers.
 
Thanks Andy, magic indeed. :)

It shouldn't work, but it does.

Cheers. :)
 
Hi Graham... I first saw this on my phone and wasn't convinced.

I was wrong. Looking at it properly on the computer, it's a brilliant shot. First of all, the lighting is lovely. Looks very natural - nice velux windows btw - and it just works without overcomplicated (something I'm often guilty of). The setup and background is perfect: the grain of the wood stand is stunning and the depth of colour there is magical. I really like the texture of the worktop that is showing through - subtle but complements. For once, having a separate wall with a horizontal line between surface and wall actually works. An infinity curve just wouldn't work as well here IMO.

Finally the subject (the bottle) - nicely positioned and good exposure and DOF. All just perfect for me.

Although I'm not a massive fan of Rioja (even though that does look like a pretty good version)... more a Burgundy man myself, I'm afraid. That's my only crit! :clap:
 
Thanks susie, think you should give hubby a few days off after putting up the fence before you set him to work on his next task. Although making this was a lot more pleasurable than digging great big deep holes I can tell you.

Cheers Paul, the light set up is pretty much as I used for shape, same table, same wall, same flash bounced off the wall and then reflected back onto the under side of the wood. The natural light in that room is lovely, window behind the bottle, another 2 and French doors a long the wall to the right (covered the closest window with curtains and a black tablecloth to kill the reflection), and then the three velux's up in the sloped ceiling. Cloned out the third one's reflection.

In LR the only selective adjustments were reducing the reflected table in the underside of the bottle, not completely though, and lifting the shadows in the wood block to bring that out.

Plain but realistic BG was chosen to enhance the natural feel, anything else I thought might start minds wandering to whether the balance was faked, or helped along.

Not a wine connoisseur myself either, tend to buy by colour and price :LOL:, although started some home brew wine back in the summer which has turned out surprisingly drinkable, and has a much cleaner aftertaste than what we normally have. :) although that may be more of a reflection on the £5 supermarket wines than anything else. :)
 
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Hiya Graham, very clever :clap:

Composition, pov, shadows, like the detail in the wood grain, as mentioned, even the bg line between worktop and wall looks 'right' in the image, love it (y)..........:thinking:.....is there a specific angle and length to cut the wood?

As for wine :puke:........would it work with a pint of John Smiths Extra Smooth? :p
 
Hi Phil, cheers mate.
Don't think the length or angle is critical as such... They just need to be compatible with each other I think. Size of the hole will affect it too as it will alter the angle the bottle sits at.

I just cut the hole first (diameter aboiut 36mm or so), length of the board is about 250mm. Made the angle 45° to start with and fine tuned from there.

Reckon you might spill some of your pint but there's no reason it couldn't be tuned to hold a beer bottle.
 
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overbez said:
Reckon you might spill some of your pint but there's no reason it couldn't be tuned to hold a beer bottle.
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Bottle?! I don't know about Phil, but I'm not some moustachioed southern european lager quaffer, you know... I like my beer like I like my my port: in a pint glass with a whisky chaser. Not of this fancy-dan bottle malarkey. And don't get me started with putting limes in the things...

;)
 
pjm1 said:
Bottle?! I don't know about Phil, but I'm not some moustachioed southern european lager quaffer, you know... I like my beer like I like my my port: in a pint glass with a whisky chaser. Not of this fancy-dan bottle malarkey. And don't get me started with putting limes in the things...

;)
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Thankyou Paul - you can get beer other than lager in bottles you know! ;) A pint of port though. :jawdrop:, that'll help you sleep alright. :)
 
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