weekly Blondie606's 52 2013 Wk 52 Water-The End :-(

[Brian_of_Bozeat]

Is this the next scene from your childrens TV prog?

Nicely done.

 

[overbez]

I like this one - great autumny colours and a nice feeling of friendship there too.

Might like a bit more DOF to give a bit more detail to the BG.... to actually see a bit more of what they're looking towards..

 

[superpippo]

Hi Lynne -
Food - good comp and good capture of the colours and the textures.
Art - brilliant idea (great minds think alike ) I like the bright colours and the 'sketch' treatment of the painting. The easel is a partic nice touch. I have read your description of the PP and you have made a good effort of it even tho you make light of it. i would not know where to start and I wonder how all of you find the time. - I seem to take hours just adjusting exposure, colour, crop and sharpness!! Very well done

Friendship - "...feeling uninspired & lacking in time as usual .." - Oh but you just happened to have a wooden model and furry animal in your bag as you went out ??. I think that this is so simple an expression of the theme and well handled - I really like it

 

[blakester]

Friendship, bang on theme Lynne, lovely autumnal colour tones in the scene, works really well
Mushrooms and mannequins, wonderful default subjects

 

[blondie606]

Another 52'er with an early submission
Good work Lynne, gives you the rest of the week off

Simple composition, lovely autumnal colour palette and on theme

Thanks Iain ...too much work last week to get on here & catch up with comments but next week should be easier

Hi Lynne

Nice composition the figures are placed perfectly in the frame, good colour and exposure
works for me

Cheers Alan ....spent a while figuring out this composition lark but finally think I'm getting it

Lynne,

That's cool. I think i may invest in some props.

Thanks Alan...Woody is certainly earning his keep this year....travels with me in the camera bag wherever I go these days
...ya just never know when you might need a willing model

Nice one. Lovely colours on the distance rocks, lovely detail on the fur and the composition works for me.

Uber critical....just the left cheek being off the rock

Feet up....of you could get your four seasons photographs up.

Must get around to starting a Glen Coe meet thread

Cheers.

Thanks Andy...couldn't get him to sit flat...he can be quite "difficult" sometimes...you know what these models are like.....

 

[blondie606]

Hi Lynne -
Food - good comp and good capture of the colours and the textures.
Art - brilliant idea (great minds think alike ) I like the bright colours and the 'sketch' treatment of the painting. The easel is a partic nice touch. I have read your description of the PP and you have made a good effort of it even tho you make light of it. i would not know where to start and I wonder how all of you find the time. - I seem to take hours just adjusting exposure, colour, crop and sharpness!! Very well done

Friendship - "...feeling uninspired & lacking in time as usual .." - Oh but you just happened to have a wooden model and furry animal in your bag as you went out ??. I think that this is so simple an expression of the theme and well handled - I really like it

Thanks Alan...I actually found this tutorial quite easy to follow so only took about 3/4's of an hour to sort the pp , the rst I'm trying harder than ever to get it mostly right in camera .& yup , I've started taking Woody & his pal with me whenever I go out , they're quite cosy in the camera bag

Friendship, bang on theme Lynne, lovely autumnal colour tones in the scene, works really well
Mushrooms and mannequins, wonderful default subjects

Cheers Iain....if only landscapes were as easy to work with as these little fella's

 

[blondie606]

Is this the next scene from your childrens TV prog?

Nicely done.

Ha....I was wondering if I should try to shoehorn Woody in to every shot....maybe a thought for next years 52

I like this one - great autumny colours and a nice feeling of friendship there too.

Might like a bit more DOF to give a bit more detail to the BG.... to actually see a bit more of what they're looking towards..

I know what you mean about the DOF , hadn't taken my tripod ( like a nitwit ) ,didn't want to push the ISO too high so settled for this but ,I really fancy doing a reshoot in another season so could try it then

 

[blondie606]

Week....where are we...48? So close to the end & so close to the next 52 ...barkin mad I must be !

Anyhoooo......1st thought was a sleek sports car but don't possess one or no anyone who does so settled for a bit of light painting on my favourite perfume which , in my eye's at least , comes in a very sleekly designed bottle....


Wk 48 Sleek by llj666, on Flickr

Now, serious question as I'm starting to think I'm either being wayyyyyyy to picky or far to paraniod ( or both! ) but does this shot actually look sharp ? I took several shots manually focused then stuck it on auto focus - the camera confirmed it was indeed focused ( didn't hunt at all just bleeped as soon as I half pressed the shutter). IS off, low ISO,self timer & on a tripod. The bottle is frosted glass so maybe that's what's doing it , but it still looks soft to me ? Cheers all for any advice I did run it through noise reduction cos it also looked noisy ?

 

[blakester]

Hi Lynne
I would say this is on theme, thats a sleek designed bottle IMHO.
If I am being totally honest, my first thought on looking at it was that the top is oof. The writing at the bottom is in focus though.
What aperture & lens did you use?
If it was a shallow dof, that would explain it as it looks as though you were shooting slightly upwards towards the bottle. The bottle looks wider at the bottom than the top, so if using your macro lens with its scary shallow dof, that would explain (to me anyway) why the lid doesn't look as sharp.
I could of course be talking absolute nonsense
That aside, I really like the blue colouring here, your jet black background and your choice of crop

 

[Allan.H]

Hi Lynne
Agree with Iain to me the top looks out of focus, but dont understand why it would be, so it must be a trick of the light, maybe :shrug:
apart from that the blue is nice as is the BG, I like it being off centre but its maybe too much to the left for me,
but thats just a matter of personal taste.

 

[Dark Knight]

Hey Lynne

Food - Bang on focus on the shrooms, the foreground of the log and the background are just right, good colours VERY well lit and altogether moist

Art - Hahhaaaa that's excellent, what a great idea, like how you have set that up

Friendship - Awwweeee how sweet - excellent composition and again loving the background, looks a very nice spot for the loving couple

 

[ams99]

Hi Lynne,

Ive had my glasses on and off, moved my laptop lid at all angles and am struggling to work it out. Great blues by the way. My only conclusion, probably wrong, is that the double edges are due to light diffraction, refraction ......... something to do with light anyhow

 

[posiview]

As usual quick off the mark.

On the theme and I'm liking the neon blue. Well composed, nice clean BG.

As said, the lid looks OOF. Is the lid blue? of added in post. The edges does look a bit, something like it's two photographs overlaid and slightly off.

Cheers.

 

[blondie606]

Hi Lynne
I would say this is on theme, thats a sleek designed bottle IMHO.
If I am being totally honest, my first thought on looking at it was that the top is oof. The writing at the bottom is in focus though.
What aperture & lens did you use?
If it was a shallow dof, that would explain it as it looks as though you were shooting slightly upwards towards the bottle. The bottle looks wider at the bottom than the top, so if using your macro lens with its scary shallow dof, that would explain (to me anyway) why the lid doesn't look as sharp.
I could of course be talking absolute nonsense
That aside, I really like the blue colouring here, your jet black background and your choice of crop

Hi Lynne
Agree with Iain to me the top looks out of focus, but dont understand why it would be, so it must be a trick of the light, maybe :shrug:
apart from that the blue is nice as is the BG, I like it being off centre but its maybe too much to the left for me,
but thats just a matter of personal taste.

Hi you two.......now I'm even more confused.....when viewed large on flickr I can't see the oof lid ....think I must need glasses ! I used the kit 18-55 lens ,f10 & focused approx 1/2 way up the bottle. The top & bottom of it are virtually the same width , the camera may have been slightly lower so shooting up very slightly . Maybe I'm confusing noise with focus though at iso120 it shouldn't be noisey should it ? It's the same problem I'm having with landscapes and it's starting to irritate now

 

[posiview]

Hi you two.......now I'm even more confused.....when viewed large on flickr I can't see the oof lid ....think I must need glasses ! I used the kit 18-55 lens ,f10 & focused approx 1/2 way up the bottle. The top & bottom of it are virtually the same width , the camera may have been slightly lower so shooting up very slightly . Maybe I'm confusing noise with focus though at iso120 it shouldn't be noisey should it ? It's the same problem I'm having with landscapes and it's starting to irritate now

I'm having a moment...in Flickr, is exposure of 30...30 seconds or half a second?

I'm not sure if it is OOF or if it's the glass.

I wouldn't get too hung up on this. It's a good submission.

Cheers.

 

[blondie606]

I have no idea what's happened here

 

[blondie606]

Hi Lynne,

Ive had my glasses on and off, moved my laptop lid at all angles and am struggling to work it out. Great blues by the way. My only conclusion, probably wrong, is that the double edges are due to light diffraction, refraction ......... something to do with light anyhow

Right....I'll try this reply again.......Thanks for trying to shed some light (no pun intended ),the bottle really does seem to have 2 layers , maybe you've hit on something ,cheers Alan

Hey Lynne

Food - Bang on focus on the shrooms, the foreground of the log and the background are just right, good colours VERY well lit and altogether moist

Art - Hahhaaaa that's excellent, what a great idea, like how you have set that up

Friendship - Awwweeee how sweet - excellent composition and again loving the background, looks a very nice spot for the loving couple

Thanks for the catch up Dean , much appreciated & also for your too kind words about the shrooms

 

[blondie606]

I'm having a moment...in Flickr, is exposure of 30...30 seconds or half a second?

I'm not sure if it is OOF or if it's the glass.

I wouldn't get too hung up on this. It's a good submission.

Cheers.

I have no idea but it felt like eternity ! Wouldn't half a second be .50

 

[posiview]

I have no idea but it felt like eternity ! Wouldn't half a second be .50

LOL...as said...I had a moment.

 

[Brian_of_Bozeat]

Hi Lynne, I'm with Al on this one. It's too far off centre for me.

I think it might be because you light painted it that you got so many reflections from both the inside AND the outside of the glass, making it look OOF, just a guess. :shrug:

 

[blondie606]

Hi Lynne, I'm with Al on this one. It's too far off centre for me.

I think it might be because you light painted it that you got so many reflections from both the inside AND the outside of the glass, making it look OOF, just a guess. :shrug:

Hmmmm...Thanks Brian , another idea to ponder

In response to a couple of people disliking how close to the LHS it was I've a quick edit & toned down the blue to a more realistic shade....must have slipped with the saturation slider
How's this.......


Wk 48 Sleek v2 by llj666, on Flickr

 

[NickD]

Friendship is nice, it doesn't feel like a knockoff. Nice composition, and the colours in the blur are beautiful. The tiniest thing, and given the nature of the subject matter it's a bit ridiculous, but the fact that woody has one 'buttock' off the ground looks a bit odd to me... I'll keep taking the pills!

I like sleek too, preferring the edit. I like the colour and the lighting, but there's something in the construction of the bottle that makes it look a bit like there's camera shake in there to me. It's obviously a bit of an illusion, but makes it look less 'crisp' to me. The watermark really adds something to the image here too.

 

[overbez]

Preferring the composition of the second but the vivid blue on the first... making the "ghost" writing stand out more.

very sleek too.

 

[Dark Knight]

Nice Idea... but it too looks ghostly to me on the top half, or is that just the stainless lid

 

[blondie606]

Friendship is nice, it doesn't feel like a knockoff. Nice composition, and the colours in the blur are beautiful. The tiniest thing, and given the nature of the subject matter it's a bit ridiculous, but the fact that woody has one 'buttock' off the ground looks a bit odd to me... I'll keep taking the pills!

I like sleek too, preferring the edit. I like the colour and the lighting, but there's something in the construction of the bottle that makes it look a bit like there's camera shake in there to me. It's obviously a bit of an illusion, but makes it look less 'crisp' to me. The watermark really adds something to the image here too.

I'll have any left over pills off you...I've run out Should have said that the bottle is frosted glass which may add to the oof look ?

Preferring the composition of the second but the vivid blue on the first... making the "ghost" writing stand out more.

very sleek too.

Thanks Graham.....at 1st I preferred the vivid blue as well but the softer color is more true to life & now I prefer that one ...it's a womans prerogative to change her mind

Nice Idea... but it too looks ghostly to me on the top half, or is that just the stainless lid

Think it is the lid Dean....next time I'll find a better bottle

 

[blondie606]

& so to Week 49

Chose a re-shoot of Reflection ( dunno why I didn't go with this idea the 1st time round :bonk: )


Wk 49 Reshoot Reflection by llj666, on Flickr


Wk 49 Reshoot Reflection by llj666, on Flickr





& for Color.....well,somebody was gonna do it so it might as well be me Messing around with the Fuji x20 & it seemed like a good time to try out the different settings for selective color.....


Wk 49 Color by llj666, on Flickr

Not sold on the quality of the shot , jpeg rather than RAW , not worked out the focus system yet , can't get pse10 to open fuji RAW files & the dng convertor is a pain in the butt ! Other than that I think I may come to like this little camera

 

[Dark Knight]

Hey Lynne

Reflection - now that IS shiny !!!! - a cracking reflection, not sure what is to the left of your sig, but the rest is very clean and excellent Blacks

Colour - Not so sure with the crop to the top on this one, feel like I need to see the start of the curve on the left... as for the colour, liking the actual blue to the left, but feel it all looks a bit lost on the rh side

 

[overbez]

absolutely a cracking reflection - the thing I like is the angle, which means that the reflection is different to the actual.... meaning it has to be real, which makes the reflection even more striking... whats it sat on to be that reflective, without picking up dust instantly!!

and colour... hmmm. no probs with SC for me... but not 100% sure it's working in this instance... or maybe its the placement of the blue part witihn the shot?

 

[Allan.H]

Hi Lynne

Reflection, very good, I take it you used a small mirror for it.
Colour love the texture of the stone and the SC seems to work fine but as Graham has said something not quite right about the placement

 

[posiview]

'ello, Reflection, nice. Well composed and cracking colours. When I tilt my screen, as I usually do too see any flaws, there BG isn't completely black....however, as Tommy Cooper would say, "Then don't tilt your screen!".

Colour, that is one cracking blue and the autumnal scene works really well. I like the low angle but maybe a tad too low as the blue parts are pushed right to the top. Oh, and the X20 as a SC option

 

[Brian_of_Bozeat]

Reflection: A wonderful job of lighting this Lynne, the reflection is perfect.

The only thing I don't like - and this is true of your perfume bottle too - is your signature being so big that it becomes a compositional element in the scene. I can see how you might like it but I don't!

The selective colour shot: Not really my cup of tea tbh. different though!

did you say the camera did the SC for you? Any excuse to twiddle the knobs eh?

 

[brownin]

sorry its taken till now to comment, just looked through your project, lovely shots but my favourites have to be:

wild - superb image, bw really add to impact of shot
natures patterns - beautifully sharp and colours and patterns really cover the theme
size - Cute Idea, again your macros are superb
rock - love this place, perfectly captured with great light
shape - lovely bw conversion, nice and sharp
speed - motion captured really well, black background aids composition nicely
step - very clever composition, nice use of white background and props
whimsical - harlequin polo - didn know they existed very cool, lighting is great on this
reflection - swans are the choice for me very nice

inspiring work.

 

[blondie606]

Hey Lynne

Reflection - now that IS shiny !!!! - a cracking reflection, not sure what is to the left of your sig, but the rest is very clean and excellent Blacks

Colour - Not so sure with the crop to the top on this one, feel like I need to see the start of the curve on the left... as for the colour, liking the actual blue to the left, but feel it all looks a bit lost on the rh side

Hi Dean ,I wasn't too sure on the placement of the blue either but it's not cropped , unfortunately the bench only had blue bits at either end .& I tidied up the bits to the side on Reflection

absolutely a cracking reflection - the thing I like is the angle, which means that the reflection is different to the actual.... meaning it has to be real, which makes the reflection even more striking... whats it sat on to be that reflective, without picking up dust instantly!!

and colour... hmmm. no probs with SC for me... but not 100% sure it's working in this instance... or maybe its the placement of the blue part witihn the shot?

Thanks Graham......It's sat on a mirror which meant a fair time spent cloning out marks & bits of dust
Agree about the placement of the blue in Color but the more I look the more it's growing on me

Hi Lynne

Reflection, very good, I take it you used a small mirror for it.
Colour love the texture of the stone and the SC seems to work fine but as Graham has said something not quite right about the placement

Yup, mirror it was Alan & a mare to clone out the various marks & dust spots !

 

[blondie606]

'ello, Reflection, nice. Well composed and cracking colours. When I tilt my screen, as I usually do too see any flaws, there BG isn't completely black....however, as Tommy Cooper would say, "Then don't tilt your screen!".

Colour, that is one cracking blue and the autumnal scene works really well. I like the low angle but maybe a tad too low as the blue parts are pushed right to the top. Oh, and the X20 as a SC option

I agree with Tommy Cooper & yes , I used the sc function on the x20 just for a play...works quite well I think

Reflection: A wonderful job of lighting this Lynne, the reflection is perfect.

The only thing I don't like - and this is true of your perfume bottle too - is your signature being so big that it becomes a compositional element in the scene. I can see how you might like it but I don't!

The selective colour shot: Not really my cup of tea tbh. different though!

did you say the camera did the SC for you? Any excuse to twiddle the knobs eh?

Cheers Brian , my sig is a bit large on the last 2 & I know it's not to everyone's taste but it's become a habit now ...I'll tone it down in future

sorry its taken till now to comment, just looked through your project, lovely shots but my favourites have to be:

wild - superb image, bw really add to impact of shot
natures patterns - beautifully sharp and colours and patterns really cover the theme
size - Cute Idea, again your macros are superb
rock - love this place, perfectly captured with great light
shape - lovely bw conversion, nice and sharp
speed - motion captured really well, black background aids composition nicely
step - very clever composition, nice use of white background and props
whimsical - harlequin polo - didn know they existed very cool, lighting is great on this
reflection - swans are the choice for me very nice

inspiring work.

Thanks for popping in Nathan , appreciate your comments.....I stop by your thread again when I'm feeling a tad more human ops:

 

[blondie606]

Week 50 is very much a post & be dammed week for me....rolled in at 4am this morning having consumed far to much falling down juice & with aching legs & feet from a night of dancing
Had an idea but struggled to concentrate & make it in to a photo so feel free to move along.....week 51 I shall be back to normal ( whatever that is )

My favorite author of sci-fi fantasy books , Anne McCaffrey , got me hooked on Dragons & I have a fair collection now


Wk 50 Fantasy by llj666, on Flickr

My crit...un-original , suspect focus on the dragon , couldn't get the lighting right so spent a bit of time adjusting it in pse.......almost wish I hadn't bothered but I'll not get time this week to do anything else .

& just for Brian....no sig this week

 

[Allan.H]

Hi Lynne,

Bloody difficult subject who thought of this for a topic

I can see why you have gone for this, its certainly on theme, lighting looks fine to me.
I think there will be a lot of post and be damned this week.

4am you dirty stop out

 

[cowboy]

Nice lighting, positioning, focus, etc.

A decent image on theme, well done

 

[posiview]

4am....blooming hell, I don't think I could manage that anymore

PABD, on theme and as you say, onwards to the penultimate week

Cheers.

 

[Brian_of_Bozeat]

Hi Lynne, I feel guilty now... I just meant that as signatures/copyright marks are not to my taste, I found that if i removed (in my mind) your signature then the images looked unbalanced compositionally. However, having been a victim of copyright infringement this week , I might have to change my view on watermarks!

Nice picture of the books btw.

 

[overbez]

Have to agree with your assesment of the shot Lynne, it's on theme though.

I think you've had more than your fair share of corkers this year, not to mention the POTY, so I wouldn't let one theme get you down!