weekly XenosElaine's 52s Thread - Support added

Waste time for me Elaine, good idea (y)
 
Thanks for the comments. I took onboard some of the feedback on my previous images about softness and smudginess, etc, and I thought what could be easier to get a crisp clear image of than a black and white clock face? Wrong!!! What I failed to take into account were all the shadows and reflections from the bin lid and the waste paper I used to prop it open :oops: :$ Must have spent at least an hour in pp, cleaning it up and blacking over the numbers and minute lines :eek: It's far from perfect, but it's a lot better than when it started out!
 
I like both your attempts. I agree that the 1st one looks a little soft in places and I'd try to lose the crease in the napkin. Also agree with maybe a square crop.
The Waste Time is a really good interpretation I'd like to see a bit more focus on the Clock. (y)
 
Wated of time works better, but I like the thought behind this one. It does look slightly OOF and the loght looks a little too hot.

Cheers.
 
I like the coffee time shot, nice and simple image. The OOF clock-face in waste time is distracting, good idea though.
 
I love the waste of time pic ... even if something's a bit OOF

shots of clocks and shiny rubbish bins don't come easy.

Pleased to see you're enjoying this Elaine. :clap:
 
Thanks to everyone who has had a look and commented. I'm afraid that I can't take credit for the monochrome "conversion" that some have mentioned, since almost everything I used for the shot was already monochrome and if you look carefully you'll spot the tiny bits of purple and cyan coloured paper peeking out of the top of the bin :oops: :$

I'm sorry if the clock face appears to be OOF, it was pretty spot on to start with, but after cleaning up all the reflections and shadows from it, my pp efforts at painting the black numbers and minute markers back in were far from perfect as I said before. Kept me occupied for an hour or so though, so not all bad :D

So, what will tonight's new theme bring us?
 
Well, that one sneaked in whilst most of us weren't looking didn't it :LOL:

Two initial ideas for Swirl. I like the simplicity of the shell, but realise that an iPad and a mirror possibly weren't quite adequate to bring out the sharpness of all the highlights and ridges and it's a bit soft, but the various torches I tried on it were just too bright :(

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Alternatively, I like the bright colour of the scarf, but I think it might be a bit on the fussy side

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Thanks Judy. Yes, I think I'm going to have to try and rig something up with my bedside light to see if I can get some sort of compromise between the soft light of an iPad and the harsh light of a torch :thinking:
 
Shell works better than the scarf for me. Scarf looks a bit more thrown down as the carefully curled shape is lost a bit in the patterns.

The shell has that fab spiral and nice complimentary black bg.

Wonder if a tighter crop or a bit of a rotate might work. Not sure how much or to where though.
 
Hi Elaine,
Tea time, apt for the theme. It does look a little soft though, I can't quite see where the point of focus is. I do like the colour and composition with the cup handle and biscuits at opposite corners. I'd maybe go one step further and give it a square crop.

Swirl, I like the shell but I understand the problems you had trying to light it. Have you tried a bit of plain white paper in front of the torch to defuse the light? Or use a bit of card covered in foil as a reflector?
I prefer the shell over the scarf, but I like the colours and texture in it.
 
As always I'm going against the crowd -- it's the scarf for me. My only comment is about the tassles as they may (or may not) look better if they were angled to follow the lines in the scarf rather than the way they are. Can't say for sure, just a thought.
 
overbez said:
.....Wonder if a tighter crop or a bit of a rotate might work. Not sure how much or to where though...
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I thought that rotating and cropping so that the pointy bit formed a 45° diagonal with the top right corner would look good, but it put the main body of the shell in the bottom right, with lots of black space top left, which didn't really work for me. I decided to leave it alone at that point, but can see that there may be other possibilities.

The goblin said:
....Have you tried a bit of plain white paper in front of the torch to defuse the light? Or use a bit of card covered in foil as a reflector?......
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Thanks for the idea Marsha. This project is the first time I've done anything like this, so I'm trying to cobble things together as I go along and appreciate any useful tips.

ShinySideUp said:
As always I'm going against the crowd -- it's the scarf for me. My only comment is about the tassles as they may (or may not) look better if they were angled to follow the lines in the scarf rather than the way they are. Can't say for sure, just a thought.
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I was very careful when arranging the tassles to make sure that they all lay at the same angle to the edge of the scarf - but why I chose that particular angle I've no idea! I think you're right.

Pinkbikerbabe said:
.....The scarf is very pretty but it's not really screaming swirl at me unlike the shell.
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No, despite my efforts to arrange it really carefully, the soft fabric and pattern don't really help to emphasise swirl.
 
Hi Elaine

Shell for...even with the issues you mentioned ( softness)....nicely lit , great black bg.........gotta ask why you used an ipad to shoot it ? As for the lighting.......you've got it pretty much bang on , just needs a little more to the rhs.......try using a piece of card covered in silver foil to bounce some light back across....this may of course require more you to use more hands than you have :D
 
Lynne, I didn't use the iPad to shoot it, I used it to light it :D Just remembered that I've got one of those plate stands somewhere that they use in shops to display fancy plates on their side, so that may come in handy for holding things up if I can find it :thinking:
 
Hi Elaine....I really like the shell shot....lovely black background, it can be difficult to try and control the lighting and hold your camera at the same time can't it...my son bought me two small free standing lights for Christmas and they are really handy....although I did drop one in a sink full of water yesterday when it was switched on, so I may now only have one :rolleyes:
I think Martins right about the scarf it would look more 'swirly' if the fringes followed the lines on the scarf.
 
Nice textures in #2, but I find it hard to se the twirl.

#1 is a better take and nice blacks. Looks slightly OOF and I'd like to see a lighter crop.

Cheers.
 
Hi I think the shell is a better image for the theme though as has been pointed out already a bit soft
I bet you are fed up of hearing that
 
Both good images the scarf is my favourite as we can see you have put more efort into it, ie. arranging the tassles (if thats what there called) so they all sitt out almost looks like the sun, only blue..lol
 
Thanks for all the new looks and comments. I've had a little play around with the shell one, cropped it a bit tighter and added a little extra light to the righthand side and a small radial blur to the centre. I don't think the extra magnification does it any favours, but I quite like the central blur.

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Delta Skies said:
I prefer the original as the one above accentuates the oof and noise that's less noticeable on the first. I also like the idea of the scarf though.
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Yup, that's exactly why I didn't crop it any tighter in the first place :) But so many people commented that they thought it should be tighter that I just thought I'd show what it looks like when it's done.
 
Another idea came to me whilst doing the washing. I finally found something that has an excuse for looking soft - when did you see clothes looking sharp as they were spinning at 2000 rpm? :D

2q9zxq0.jpg
 
No, still don't get it - sorry.
 
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