weekly Charlene's (ChayAngel86) 2021 52 attempt - WEEK 1 FRUIT added

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Charlene
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And so let's see what 2021 has in store for us. Hoping to spend more time challenging myself photographically this year so the TP52 seemed like a good idea!! :Do_O

This is my first attempt at a challenge like this, so here's hoping I can keep up and make it to the end.

Week 0 Nearby
..............................
Jan & Feb technique
Filling the frame
Week 1 Fruit
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5 Snappers Choice
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12
Week 13
Week 14
Week 15 Snappers Choice
Week 16
Week 17
Week 18
Week 19
Week 20
Week 21
Week 22
Week 23
Week 24
Week 25 Snappers Choice
Week 26
Week 27
Week 28
Week 29
Week 30
Week 31
Week 32
Week 33
Week 34
Week 35 Snappers Choice
Week 36
Week 37
Week 38
Week 39
Week 40
Week 41
Week 42
Week 43
Week 44
Week 45 Snappers choice
Week 46
Week 47
Week 48
Week 49
Week 50
Week 51
Week 52
 
WEEK 1 - FRUIT

The Lockdown favourite - Banana Bread


Decided to keep it slightly topically with the lockdown favourite joke. Seems like everyone is into baking banana bread at the moment. It's been a favourite of mine for years to make, but obviously when I want to use it for a photo opp the thing flopped and the middle fell out when I took it out the oven :oops: :$:oops: :$ but I made a plan and decorated it with some mini banana muffins to hide the disaster in the middle. I'm fairly limited with backdrops in the house but this was as blank as I could get.

On the whole probably not the best shot but hey it is a start for the year... Onwards and upwards as they say!

ChayAngel86 TP52 Week 1 Fruit.jpg
 
It looks like you should have plenty of stock for banana bread for several weeks to come!

I think your arrangement of the items and lighting have worked quite well. The simplest small improvement would be to shift the whole table further from the wall to lose that hard shadow.

Well done!
 
Good start to your 52 Charlene, and edible props, doesn't get any better than that :D
 
Wow that's a lot of bananas! The loaf looks like you've deliberately broken it to show the insides... as they do on the adverts...

The backdrop works well. I'm not sure if you are able to bounce your flash, but that might help lose the shadows on the wall.

Welcome to the 52 :)
 
Fruit
A good start. I find the hardest thing about still life shots is getting the right background, but I think you've done alright with yours. I quite like the shadow.
 
My wife makes banana bread and I'm not a fan. If you're going to bake, why not just make biscuits? I just get a clip round the ear when I suggest it. I think it has something to do with the fact that banana bread lasts until she's finished it whilst biscuits last about ten seconds out of the oven....

Aaaanyway.... IMO, disasters aren't a bad thing. In the UK we love laughing at other people's failure, and when I see photos of things like this it always makes me smile. I think you could lose the banana muffins and move the two halves of the bread into a "v" shape. By hiding the bread, you've hidden the subject of the image which isn't usually the best way to go. Background is fine and I like the bananas on display too. It's bang on theme as well.

A good start IMO! Plus you have something to eat from it :)
 
Hi Charlene and welcome ...

Good start. That's a good prop you've got there ... gets me thinking about other banana pic options ... hmmm
 
Well done and welcome Charlene. I think you may grow quite fond of that background in the coming months!!
 
Welcome aboard Charlene. A good start.. I can't be much help on lighting, backgrounds etc as I tend to stick to outdoor/landscapes.
 
It looks like you should have plenty of stock for banana bread for several weeks to come!

I think your arrangement of the items and lighting have worked quite well. The simplest small improvement would be to shift the whole table further from the wall to lose that hard shadow.

Well done!

That was going to be my only suggestion too - about losing the shadow if you can.

Either by lighting from the side (if possible) or the suggestion above (which didn't occur to me).

Welcome to the challenge - it was my first one last year. Some weeks it's hard to get out and do stuff, but I found having something specific in mind kept me motivated.
 
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Very Bananary (not sure that's a real word) the other way to treat the crack would have been to open it more so it looked like you did it deliberately. Nice start to the 52
 
The Banana Bread split like that looks intentional to me, I wouldn't have realised it hadn't risen properly without you saying (but what do I know about baking.... ;) )
Nothing wrong with the background, especially in the scene you've produced, it puts everything into it's environment.
If you want other backgrounds, then things like A2 pads and / or sheets can work well.
 
Thanks for the feedback and lovely welcome all! I think one of the best things about this 52 challenge will be getting feedback from others and bouncing ideas around.

I think your arrangement of the items and lighting have worked quite well. The simplest small improvement would be to shift the whole table further from the wall to lose that hard shadow.
The backdrop works well. I'm not sure if you are able to bounce your flash, but that might help lose the shadows on the wall.
That was going to be my only suggestion too - about losing the shadow if you can.

Either by lighting from the side (if possible) or the suggestion above (which didn't occur to me).

Flash lighting is definitely going to be one of the more technical aspects to work on for me so thanks for the tips - I'm still getting used to my speed light and have been avoiding it out of fear hahaha! But no time like the present to start practising!

I think you could lose the banana muffins and move the two halves of the bread into a "v" shape. By hiding the bread, you've hidden the subject of the image which isn't usually the best way to go. Background is fine and I like the bananas on display too. It's bang on theme as well.

I hadn't really thought of the idea of presenting the bread/cake sliced open like that but this would have been a lovely idea. Will get me thinking more creatively next time hopefully.


It looks like you should have plenty of stock for banana bread for several weeks to come!
Wow that's a lot of bananas! The loaf looks like you've deliberately broken it to show the insides... as they do on the adverts...

As for the amounts of bananas - I raided all the housemates' stocks haha! Not all for me thankfully. :banana: They do get the benefit of my baking though...

Onto week 2 now!
 
Flash lighting is definitely going to be one of the more technical aspects to work on for me so thanks for the tips - I'm still getting used to my speed light and have been avoiding it out of fear hahaha! But no time like the present to start practising!

Ordinarily, you never point your flash directly at what you're trying to photograph - there are exceptions of course.

I don't recall the exact angle from memory, but if you have a speedlight mounted on your camera, you normally point it slightly upwards and over one your shoulders. So it's angled behind you and towards the ceiling. It's counter intuitive, but the idea is that you want to make the light source as large as possible and you end up using the ceiling as a diffuser.

Even better if you can get the flash off camera as ideally you don't want any of the light to be on the same axis as your lens.

I don't really know why I'm giving 'advice' as it's certainly not something I'm confident or experienced in. But there are tonnes of videos on how to soften/diffuse/bounce the light.

It's something I'd like to try more of. Every time I take a flash off-camera I have to google how to make it work, so I definitely need the practise.
 
Ordinarily, you never point your flash directly at what you're trying to photograph - there are exceptions of course.

I don't recall the exact angle from memory, but if you have a speedlight mounted on your camera, you normally point it slightly upwards and over one your shoulders. So it's angled behind you and towards the ceiling. It's counter intuitive, but the idea is that you want to make the light source as large as possible and you end up using the ceiling as a diffuser.

Even better if you can get the flash off camera as ideally you don't want any of the light to be on the same axis as your lens.

I don't really know why I'm giving 'advice' as it's certainly not something I'm confident or experienced in. But there are tonnes of videos on how to soften/diffuse/bounce the light.

It's something I'd like to try more of. Every time I take a flash off-camera I have to google how to make it work, so I definitely need the practise.
This is helpful thank you! Have you found any decent flash photography tutorial video channels? I mostly follow landscape photography so this is a new area for me.
I have tried bouncing the light but still getting used to the idea of it and working out the angels - back to school geometry days :eek: And off camera flash is a whole other ball game. It is something I want to work on this year though. Like you say just getting the camera and speedlight to “talk” to each other is a learning curve in itself but I do like a challenge.
 
This is helpful thank you! Have you found any decent flash photography tutorial video channels? I mostly follow landscape photography so this is a new area for me.
I have tried bouncing the light but still getting used to the idea of it and working out the angels - back to school geometry days :eek: And off camera flash is a whole other ball game. It is something I want to work on this year though. Like you say just getting the camera and speedlight to “talk” to each other is a learning curve in itself but I do like a challenge.

https://strobist.blogspot.com/ is a great resource for learning to play with speedlights - I'm not sure how much video content there is, but plenty of everything else!

Other than the shadow - I really like the composition and make up of the picture.

Hope it tasted as good as it looks!
 
A nicely composed shot, Charlene. Not that I know much about still life - landscapes are my thing. .....
As for banana bread itself, have you ever tried it with chopped apricots (the squidgy kind from a packet) added to the mix? If you haven't, I can heartily recommend it - the apricots go so well with the bananas in the recipe, and it's absolutely delicious!...makes me want to bake one right now! ....The recipe I use, calls for over-ripe bananas, which is perfect if you are about to throw away bananas too ripe for eating!!.... And perfect to take on a walk when you need a bit of sustenance. ;)
 
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