TopBanana's 52 - Week 14 'object' now added (on page 5)

I really like you week 2, think that your idea was a really well thought out concept, as to your week 3, it is really clean and a good thought, I think that the chop sticks adds to the overall image as it links the hole image together.

Matt
MWHCVT
 
TopBanana said:
Thanks a lot for all the positive replies - it's very much appreciated! (y)



1. I took the shot in the conservatory (it was a bit overcast outside and starting to get dark but it still worked OK), which gave a nice bit of natural light.
2. I shot in JPG mode as for some reason I can't get RAWs of my camera as the Canon software is mega-pants. I then used GIMP to tweak the levels and curves using what I learnt from this guide. I didn't have to do any direct white balance adjustment - probably due to using natural light rather than tungsten.
3. I had the book I was photoing on a table, and then behind it I hung a dark napkin (all I had to hand) to give a bit of a backdrop. When I played with the levels in GIMP I made it darker, and then used the 'smudge' function to remove a crease that was there.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info Tim.
Gimp looks so scary! That guide sent chills down my spine.
I'm still very impressed by the lighting, looks damn fine.

I had a go at emulating a black back/foreground in a similar way today but the results weren't quite so lovely, the texture of the cloth came through far too strong (although I was doing silly things).
 
Here's my photo for this week. I'm really disappointed with it as I couldn't get it to come out how I envisaged it. I thought that the glow form an open fridge door would be good, but the colour version didn't work and this edit is just boring.

Any help on how to do it better would be mucho mucho appreciated.


Week 4 Open by BigMonka, on Flickr
 
Hi Tim.

Week 3 is great. Lovely simple, well lit still-life image (y)

Not as keen on week 4 though i'm afraid. I struggled to tell what it was at first. I think you needed to be further back but expose for the fridge as it is too dark. You could use the spot metering function to exclude the areas lit by the fridge when getting the exposure. If the fridge door was better exposed then the light would be blown out but I don't think that would matter in this shot. You could also use a gel over the light to give a coloured glow. Green would be cool :LOL:

Hope that helps,

Andy
 
Hi Tim,

I really like your idea for 'open' of the light pouring out from a open fridge, but also agree it's a serious technical challenge. I have some suggestions but I think they're too hard to realistically achieve (Sarah would probably object to these, for example :))

1) It's quite hard to tell it's a fridge from this angle, maybe changing the hinge-side from right to left would allow the camera to see an L shape section of light from the fridge-ajar. (and this would make it more obvious what the light source is.) This kind of fridge engineering might be a bit family unfriendly though.

2) It's pretty hard to visualise light itself pouring out, and in this case having the light spill onto an object might be distracting. Maybe some haze would make the light more obvious (and you'd get cool beams coming out...). Otherwise maybe adding bloom to the picture so the light areas bleed out might make it nicer/clearer. (I've heard that you can get good soft focus by smearing Vaseline on a clear filter, or in my case I have a truly rubbish lens that provides quite effective soft focus/bloom on its own)

Hope those help. Probably not though :)

(I do like this idea a lot, I kind want to try it myself now, but am scared of hazing my kitchen)

-Gary.
 
Hiya Tim,

I'm sorry but I have to agree with Andy on your week 4 theme.

To be honest I wouldn't have known what you were taking a photo of if I hadn't read the write up.

I think if you had shot this from a different angle it would have more impact, perhaps from more the the left of the fridge door and with the door a bit wider open to reveal more of the contents ...... think that would have given it a bit more of a 'space age' appeal.

Two things I also find a bit distracting about this image is: 1) The doorway on the left and 2) the white line running down the fridge door. Hence why I think that shooting this from a different angle would improve the image.

The other alternative, being a split door fridge, would be to take the shot from a low angle, i.e., lie on the floor and shoot upwards to get the angle of the door open with the light filtering through (and bear in mind what Andy suggested about the metering).

I apologise if that all sounds negative, but I hope it has given you some ideas to play with.

It would be interesting to see the result if you decide to give this another go.

Cheers

Dawn :)
 
Thanks for taking the time to reply everyone, and for all the constructive ideas of how to bad a bad picture better!

My intention was to keep the shot quite dark in order to make the light from the fridge look more impressive, but as you've all said it doesn't work as you can't even tell it's a fridge! Haha.

I particularly like Andy's idea of making the light green, and Gary's idea of making the light hazy (imagine a smoke machine inside the fridge - now that would have been good!).

I guess that I've learnt that I don't know how to take low light photos yet, so I'll try again another week with a better subject and see how I get on.
Cheers
Tim
 
After a short break (to live real life) I'm back in the game!

Week 5 - Hard. Hopefully the picture is fairly self explanatory this time, but just to clarify it's a hard hat (or as Alan Partridge would say when wearing his "I've got my hat hard on")

Week5 Hard by BigMonka, on Flickr
 
Here's my week 6 photo for the theme "clutter". With the B&W and high ISO noise I was trying to get an 'old school newpaper reporter's desk' type feel (although things like the PC obviously show it's not too old!). When taking the shot I was also trying to show the difference between the closest desk being very tidy and the furtherest one being very cluttered, but the difference didn't come out very well at all so I've mostly cropped it out.
I don't think I really achieved what I was aiming for, but such is my photography skills!:shrug:

C&C always welcome (for week 5 as well as this).

 
Hi, Tim, bloody annoying when people doesn't comment on your posts isn't it...:D

Anyway, my first impression of you week 5 was boring (sorry!). HOWEVER, I kept looking and it grew on me: I like the composition, minimal approach and dof. The hat is a bit over exposed.

But I feel it has a story to it and I can visualise the owner of the hat on the floor having had an accident...

Your week 6, I get the feeling that as soon as you clicked the shutter you ran and tidied the desk up...;) This photograph also sprung to mind as soon as I saw this one.

Cheers.
 
I like both of these, and they fill the brief perfectly.

Think the graininess of the office shot works really well too.
 
Hi Tim
I really like your week 3. so simple yet so well done. The red lettering really makes that photo.
I can visualize what you were trying to achieve with Week 4. Shame it didn't come out they way you were hoping. Maybe moving back a bit?
Again your week 5 is clever in it's simplicity.
If I have one bit of criticism for your week 6 it's maybe change the position of the chair to make it look like someone working hard suddenly sprinted away from the desk.
 
Hiya Tim,

Soz, somehow missed your week 5 contribution, which I think is a geat take on the theme, infact I was going to present something similar until I realised that I actually threw in my hard-hat months ago. It looked a lot more used than yours and was bright orange. But I think you have hit the nail on the hat there :D

Week 6: An image I can identify with and sympathise with you too :p Clutter, indeed, and I like the b&w conversion.

Cheers

Dawn :)
 
Thanks for the replies guys! I posted both week 5&6 today so it's not as if nobody had replied to week5, don't worry!
I find it really hard to think of things which fit the theme so I'm not overly surprised if peole think they are boring!
Time to go and have a look at some other posts now I've done mine, and then check out the next theme.
 
Tim

like both week 5 and 6, the hat is a simple but effective one, the cluttered office is one that i can connect too easily. love the mono conversion
 
TopBanana said:
Thanks for the replies guys! I posted both week 5&6 today so it's not as if nobody had replied to week5, don't worry!
I find it really hard to think of things which fit the theme so I'm not overly surprised if peole think they are boring!
Time to go and have a look at some other posts now I've done mine, and then check out the next theme.
Click to expand...

I understand that feeling!

One thing I've taken to doing and I can't believe I'm telling everyone, a I'll sound like an anal geek!, is finding definitions of the themes and having them as my PC desktop so I see then when I open up and close down....

I'll get my coat!!:wacky:
 
I really like your take on the week 5 theme, simple but effective and week 5 is great too, i like the b & w conversion - looks very similar to my desk at work actually :D
 
Hi Tim,

I like both of your most recent photos:

5: It's really clear and a solid interpretation of the theme. I like that you've got both a hard hat and gravel.
(I hope you don't mind me asking) How come you took the photo at ISO1600 and 1/1600 of a sec? (rather than something like ISO200, 1/200?)

6: The high DOF and noise certainly drive the 'clutter' theme and I like it! I didn't even think to increase noise for a more cluttered effect but it was a good idea. When I cover the LCD monitor (in the photo :)) with a finger it does look like my mental image of an old-time busy office. :)
 
Here's my week 7 photo with the theme 'delicate'. I used a Raynox M250 macro lens thingy which I've borrowed. My main niggle with the shot is that the background isn't uniform on the right hand side, although I wasn't really going for a 'studio' look so I'm not overly bothered. I'm more annoyed about the fact that I don't know a good/easy/quick way to fix it using GIMP - so any pointers there (or in the photography) would be appreciated.
So without further delay:

Week 7 Delicate by BigMonka, on Flickr
 
Good Work mate... I LOVE the simplicity of this shot! I should have taken a leaf out of your book for delicate... I love the shallow DOF and yeh it has a real feeling of a bunch of flowers in the hall! Not a studio... as you wanted!
 
I'm really into week 7. You need to find yourself a copy of photoshop to fix the right hand side as you've mentioned but PP is different to photography. Well done!

My Project 52
 
Hiya Tim,

A lovely bright colourful photo for the delicate theme.

I like the shallow dof.

Well done

Cheers

Dawn :)
 
Tim
really like the simplicity of the image.Excellent use of DOF that draws the eyes into the image.
 
Hi Tim,

Another hit with week 7! The colours are spellbinding and the photo as a whole is lovely.

I'm going to be contrary though and say I like the smooth non-uniform ribbon in the right hand side. I really think it adds a realism that would be lost with a completely uniform panel of colour.

I also like the DOF and know what a pain it can be to get right with a close-up adapter. The focus of attention is very clearly on the delicate bit (petals) of this daisy-like beast.

I had other comments but I couldn't articulate them clearly enough (even after trying for 30 minutes), so let's chat about it in the future some time.
 
I forgot to mention at the time but that Raynox adapter looks amazing! So much better than the trash one I have.
 
I couldn't think of anything for chaos that I could do very effectively, so I came up with this as a way of making sure that I also try a new technique. In hindsight I should have used more of a point light source to give better definition as it has made it look a bit out of focus. Let me know any C&C.


Week 8 Chaos by BigMonka, on Flickr
 
Neat! The out-of-focus background looks cool, and I like that I can't figure out what light source this is or even if you had two lights. So, is that two lights or one unusual light? How/where did you do this?

I like the style of handwriting too, makes me think an 80's crime drama is about to start :D

PS: good work on getting this done in 10 seconds! It's so stressful.
 
Thanks guys, I used an small LED bike light that has two LEDs next to each other and then I tried to mostly cover one of them with my hand to give a more focused beam. It didn't completely stop the one I was covering so you get that ghosting effect.

I did the 'writing' on a black window blind, but now I look at it I'm wondering whether I hadn't nailed the focus on the blind itself which is adding to the out-of-focusness. I guess you live and learn!
 
Hiya Tim,

Yep, I like this one too and agree with comments already made.

It sort of reminds me of the neon lights sometimes seen in a shop window ..... which leads me to think of what such a shop might sell ..... maybe clutter to add to ones already existing clutter :LOL:

Thanks for the explanation of how you did this, another technique I will have to try some time (that is if I can find an LED light).

Well done

Cheers

Dawn :)
 
This week I had the idea of having a record finishing (with the era of vinyl probably being long since finished). I had a go at giving it a 'vintage' vibe in PP and added a bit of 'film grain'. Personally I like the photo, but I'm not sure if it all works and fits the theme - anyone have any thoughts?

Week 9 - Finish by BigMonka, on Flickr


So I then thought I'd have a go at another more obvious shot for the 'finish' theme. It probably fits the theme more blatantly, but I deem a photo to be successful if I would be happy to put it on my wall and I wouldn't even hang this in the bathroom! :LOL:

Week 9 Finish (version2) by BigMonka, on Flickr


So which to people prefer? :thinking:
And how could either be improved?
Thanks for taking the time to look.

[I'm also pleased with myself because I managed to not be doing it last minute for once! :clap::clap:]
 
Hi Tim

Love your chaos shot & most envious of it,really good capture (y)

Finish....I think your 1st shot is a great idea & fits the theme spot on. Love the processing & DOF , adds to the feel of the shot ,great idea (y)

The toothpaste pic also appeals ,again great DOF which draws you to the finished tube (y)
 
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