Critique still life

[Alastair]

Still life..



Fuji X-E2, Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm f/1.4 HFT @F/1.4

For an aethiest I have a perculiar fascination with the small churches of Norfolk. You never quite know what you're going to find when you spontaneously decide to turn-up a road marked Church Lane. Shot wide-open, processed with a VSCO Portra preset plus a dash of my own special sauce, trying to capture a little of the feeling of a Golden Age Dutch still life.

 

[cargo]

This is fab. Has bags of atmosphere. Love it. Did you darken down the surrounding area in post or were the flowers sat in this lovely soft pool of light ?

Gaz

 

[Alastair]

Thanks Gaz. When I walked in there was a shaft of light from a side window picking out the arrangement and this is what drew me to it. As I set up a cloud passed in front of the sun, so I took the opportunity to read the church history booklet whilst I waited on the cloud to pass and the sun again picked out the flowers from the background which was in shadow. I'm sure I've added a bit of a vignette, which helps stop the altar cloth running off the left-hand edge of the frame.

I've since identified the arrangment as cosmos and rosemary, a nice seasonal combination that works well together. It wouldn't quite be the same if the flowers weren't so keen to go over and hadn't just got that edge of wilt to them.

 

[mrtoad]

what you have here is a great subject in good lighting
also what you have is a distracting white line behind...not on you, you dummy...which can be cloned
and the cloth really would be better in a muted solid colour..or crop out the white bar
being an altar piece dont let God put you off moving stuff around
He has better things on His mind

 

[Pookeyhead]

Agreed.. that table in the background is just serving to bisect the image for no reason. I know it's not a studio still life, and you can't actually move the table, so it's pretty pointless crit in that respect, but was there another angle?

BTW.... those film present are not working well, as that looks nothing like Kodak Portra.. either VC, NC or UC. Those VSCO LR presets never do look like the films they're meant to be replicating.

 

[cargo]

Thanks Gaz. When I walked in there was a shaft of light from a side window picking out the arrangement and this is what drew me to it. As I set up a cloud passed in front of the sun, so I took the opportunity to read the church history booklet whilst I waited on the cloud to pass and the sun again picked out the flowers from the background which was in shadow. I'm sure I've added a bit of a vignette, which helps stop the altar cloth running off the left-hand edge of the frame.

I've since identified the arrangment as cosmos and rosemary, a nice seasonal combination that works well together. It wouldn't quite be the same if the flowers weren't so keen to go over and hadn't just got that edge of wilt to them.

Hiya.
Thanks for the reply. I have read the comments above and I guess thay are correct but for me the flowers/light and tones hit you straight away, making a great image to my eye.

Gaz

 

[Alastair]

Thanks for the comments. I know the horizontal line isn't something that would be included out of preference but I prefer to work with what's there. I'll have a look at reducing it's intensity, but I won't completely clone it out because I think that might leave an awkward transition in the background between the cloth and the carved/painted panel above it.

@Pookeyhead - I just list the preset name in the description as I've been asked about the processing in the past, tbh I've mullered the preset alot from that VSCO provided (which they consider new Portra rather than VC/NC/UC). I know they're not perfect emulations to start with, but it's the look/feel of the presets I like - the labels VSCO use are incidental. I've bought the preset, not the label (although I know it's the other way around for a lot of VSCO buyers).