weekly Donnie's 52 for 2013 - Value and many others added to catchup!

Donnie

Donnie

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Paul
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Well after getting only half of the shots for last year after falling behind I've decided to try again and this time not be so restrictive on myself. I want to have fun, not have it turn into a chore.

I'm not going to have any rules this year. I'll try and take and post a picture the week the themes pulled, not use an old one. However, if I have an old one it'll get used rather than a Joker.

If I have time I'll add a bit about getting and taking the shot too, that way I hope someone will learn from my photo and others may be able to suggest a better way to do what I did.

So, for everyone taking part, good luck! :)

Week 1 : Sin - [post=5262962]Added Here[/post]
Week 2 : Season - [post=5264928] Added Here[/post]
Week 3 : Gravity - [post=5306905] Added Here[/post]
Week 4 : Wild - [post=5327529] Added Here[/post]
Week 5 : Space - [post=5488172] Added Here[/post]
Week 6 : Work - [post=5488175] Added Here[/post]
Week 7 : Gluttony - [post=5488178] Added Here[/post]
Week 8 : Time - [post=5488185] Added Here[/post]
Week 9 : Juxtaposition - [post=5488190] Added Here[/post]
Week 10 : Letter - To be Shot
Week 11 : Electric - [post=5488196] Added Here[/post]
Week 12 : Direction - to be shot
Week 13 : Tacky - [post=5488200] Added Here[/post]
Week 14 : Value - [post=5488205] Added Here[/post]
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Knew I'd find you in here somewhere..... welcome back mister :wave:

Like your thinking for your rules....it should be fun for sure (y)

look forward to seeing you at the finish line this year mister :)
 
Cheers all, and here's my starter for 10 :D


365_11 by Donnie Canning, on Flickr

I initially had a couple of ideas buzzing about my brain for this, including the calculator sin one that a few have used here effectively, but having been raised a good Catholic boy, I couldn't help but think of the act of sinning :cool:

Initially I wanted a shot at a confessional but after some trawling online as well as out there in the real world I wasn't able to find a Catholic church with a confessional box that was suitable :(

So, rather than the confessional idea I just thought what's one of the biggest sins (other than murder) can someone commit, of course suicide sprang to mind (not for me, for the shot).

Hence the above shot.

So, the setup, well, drive into the country looking for a nice dead looking tree against a reasonable backdrop where it could be made out. Then lug my camera gear, tripod, steps and hangmans noose across a wet sticky field and try and get the rope over the branch, which was harder than I thought, took me several attempts!

Then, using my steps in place where the "hanging" was to be set up the camera and suss out my exposure using AV mode and bracketing one stop either side of 0 and shooting in raw.

Once I was happy with that, plug in my new Intervalometer from ebay (£13) for a far east copy) set it for 30 seconds to give me plenty of time to press and get to the steps and noose, pose and let the camera take the 3 exposures.

Checked them and was happy enough so off home for the pp on the images.

So, yes, I did have a noose round my neck BUT (despite the picture) the other end wasn't actually tied to the tree at all should I have fallen plus I wasn't as high as I appear in the picture.

So, first thing was to copy the original to a layer then copy it again. On one of the layers I basically deleted myself using the clone tool and filled in the ground where my legs and the steps where.

then using the other layer I moved the whole image upward to a point where it would appear my legs were above the horizon to make sure the appearance of hanging was obvious, then using a layer mask painted myself in.

Next I needed to clone out some loose rope from the branch as there was in fact the other side of the rope (not tied to anything) dangling behind me, so that was cloned out and then a section was cloned back in to make the 45 degree rope that looks like its tied to the trunk.

Now the only problem was my feet, they were still horizontal, ie looked like they were stood on something, I needed them to be at a downward angle, again to give the impression of dangling. I copied another layer, and turned it at an angle to make them at a 45 ish degree angle and again used layers and masks to achieve the look.

Then I converted to monochrome, upped the clarity and vibrance, pushed up the blacks until the previously bland sky was moody enough and hit save.

I can see I've missed a bit where I was doing a little masking too now, on my shoulder there's a slight glow, plus I think there's a little where I was doing some masking round the rope to the tree.

But given Im on the mac downstairs now and the pc with photoshops upstairs, it'll do:bonk:
 
Hi, Paul, despite the crit, which you've covered , this is a real cracker, great composition, processing and some real thought/application/processing has been put into it. Really like this one.

Personally, and you may not want to, but I'd have been tempted to clone out the RH bush, to really emphasise the swinging corpse...ie, you. Minor point in what s a real cracker.

Cheers.
 
Thats a great pic well execute (sorry for the pun :exit:)

I can't quite decide on the bush, its a bit distracting but leads the eye back to your feet and round through the image again.
 
That is seriously impressive the picture what you went through to get and the pp :clap:
 
Great picture, well thought out and lots of effort to get a cracking end result.

I too was looking for a confessional box, but no luck here either.
 
Great shot Donnie - Cheers for explaining how you did it... smart move setting up bracketing - last thing you'd want is to go back up the ladder and into the noose to re-shoot!

great end result - and you found the perfect barren tree to take it at!.
 
& he's back with a mahooosive bang....what a corker of a shot :clap::clap:

You've given a fab explanation of the whats & how's ( not that I have a prayer of actually managing to follow it !)...fantastic info .
You've mentioned the 2 small spots where the masking went a bit skewy.....very minor points......TOP JOB MISTER (y)
 
That's certainly the image with the most impact I've seen so far this week. Some real planning put in and some equally good execution. You've already said it, but a little PP tidying up round the shoulder, feet and half way up the diagonal rope. But that's being picky. Great job (y)
 
That's fantastic, really atmospheric, and apart from the little things you already mentioned yourself, I can't find anything to fault. Really interesting to read the behind the scenes story, too. :)
 
Love the moodiness of the image, any chance of seeing the two images you made to make up the shot?
 
That is some impactive image to start your 52 Paul, fantastic work all round from idea through to processing.
A few minor issues which you mentioned, no further crit from me. Iain
 
dark moody atmosphere.. bang on theme.. well done on setting up the shot!.. the bush didn't bother me until I saw the comments, now finding my eye drawn to it :cautious:
 
Cheers again all. Re the bush it's actually a large tree farther in the distance down the rolling hill and in camera looked good to balance the shot.

I'm not sure about it now myself though with the monochrome that it works, ie the tree.

I may try a re edit if I get a chance to compare :)
 
So it took me all week for my first shot, but less than an hour to think up, decide on and shoot this weeks :)

It's a pretty simple one to go for something to season food but decided to use a bit of off camera flash to try and make it less of a snap if you see what I mean.


Season by Donnie Canning, on Flickr

Setup was straightforward.
Camera on tripod, props set up on the coffee table in living room with curtains closed as I only wanted light from the flash.

Set the camera to manual mode, shutter speed to 250 to sync with flash and took a test shot at 3.5 and the flash at only 128th power and it was too wide a beam and flat though I was happy with the shadows so knew where to hold the flash, which was 45 degrees up and to the side.

So, keeping to my rule of only changing one thing at a time, I closed down the aperture to about f16 partly to increase the depth of field, but initially to darken the image and try and get the effect I wanted.

So, another shot and yes it darkened the image to roughly what I wanted but the flash was still too spread out.

So, I then used the zoom function on the flash head and moved it from it's 28mm setting to 105mm and after another 2 shots dropped that to 85mm which gave me my shot.

After importing into lightroom I needed to do a slight straighten and crop a little off the bottom as well as brush a little underexposure along the bottom of the image.

Im fairly pleased with the shot, there's a little hotspot on the head of each grinder, which is in fact the flash head reflection, but I'm not too bothered by them to be honest as glass / perspex of this shape and flash is always going to have some reflection and refraction without some major photoshopping.
 
My first crit, so a bit nervous. I do like the result, and particularly like the explanation; I've never really tried these "staged" shots myself, and my first attempts for "Sin" (not yet posted as waiting for the second film to be finished and processed) were pretty unsuccessful.

I like the compositon; plenty to keep the eye tracking round. Hotspots don't bother me. I did wonder if you've cropped a tiny bit too much off the bottom? Or, to put it another way, the closeness of the salt grains to the bottom is a bit unsettling, would a slightly more spacious crop have helped this, or just left more unwanted space?
 
Hi, Paul, quick off the bat :clap:

On theme and interesting use of light. Well composed and nice rich colours in the pepper seeds.

Crit, well, not much, I'd like a tad more light at the top of the pepper pot. Minor crit...well, the light pepper seeds.

Good show.

Cheers.
 
Love people interpretation of the themes.

Good shot, I like it. As said a Little more of the pepper pot for me.

Good effort.
 
Must admit sat there for 5 minutes thinking what's that got to do with season. Great interpretation of theme and I really like the lighting in this shot.
 
Really nice! Missed your week 1 photo, but that's stunning too.

I'd like the white spots from the flashing smoothed as they're a bit distracting and perhaps a bit more light towards the top of the pepper pot. Apart from that, really well composed shot!
 
Week 1 photo is great!

Week 2 is very quick and one of the first things i thought of! I like the lighting.
 
ChrisR said:
My first crit, so a bit nervous. I do like the result, and particularly like the explanation; I've never really tried these "staged" shots myself, and my first attempts for "Sin" (not yet posted as waiting for the second film to be finished and processed) were pretty unsuccessful.

I like the compositon; plenty to keep the eye tracking round. Hotspots don't bother me. I did wonder if you've cropped a tiny bit too much off the bottom? Or, to put it another way, the closeness of the salt grains to the bottom is a bit unsettling, would a slightly more spacious crop have helped this, or just left more unwanted space?
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Nothing wrong with that crit at all mate, nothing for you to be nervous about :clap:
In fact you picked up on something I thought about as I was cropping but I didn't have much option as I was cropping out the vertical (front) edge of the breadboard so would have ended up with a line right across the frame which would be very distracting.
 
jamlid said:
Really nice! Missed your week 1 photo, but that's stunning too.

I'd like the white spots from the flashing smoothed as they're a bit distracting and perhaps a bit more light towards the top of the pepper pot. Apart from that, really well composed shot!
Click to expand...

Cheers :) Aye a couple of folk have commented re the top of the pepper pot, I did lighten it a bit in pp as I'd noticed it during editing, I guess I could have put a second flash on the top of the pot with a snoot but my second flash is pretty innaccurate :|
 
I've done a very similar thing, thinking no one else would come up with this idea and it's the first image posted. Doh!

I hope your shoot cost less than mine, the camera & lenses fell off the tripod during the setup, my lens is now broken :(. Thankfully I have insurance (which I was considering not renewing as I've never made a claim). Rethinking that now lol.

Great shot, nicely lit, but I'd prefer it a bit brighter overall.
 
Just spotted the your week 1 image - wow - thanks for sharing how its done. Very clever and a great result.
 
Something along the lines of what I was thinking, well done for being so organised so quickly. Love the lighting and the way which your eyes are drawn into the photo.
 
Sin - great shot and great idea, thanks for posting your set up details and you have already covered any crit. I do like the "distance" of it

Season - a tad dark for my liking and might have preferred a square image with a little more space top and bottom but am just being picky on a lovely sharp image and looks as if you cleaned any finger marks off first as well
 
n1kcy said:
I've done a very similar thing, thinking no one else would come up with this idea and it's the first image posted. Doh!
Click to expand...

I admit that my first thought was how on earth do I show something like winter then thought of this as it's warmer and I didn't have to go outside:)

I hope your shoot cost less than mine, the camera & lenses fell off the tripod during the setup, my lens is now broken :(. Thankfully I have insurance (which I was considering not renewing as I've never made a claim). Rethinking that now lol.
Click to expand...

Ouch :thumbsdown: on the lens. Glad you're covered though.

Great shot, nicely lit, but I'd prefer it a bit brighter overall.
Click to expand...

cheers :)
 
n1kcy said:
Just spotted the your week 1 image - wow - thanks for sharing how its done. Very clever and a great result.
Click to expand...

Cheers :)

sworks said:
Something along the lines of what I was thinking, well done for being so organised so quickly. Love the lighting and the way which your eyes are drawn into the photo.
Click to expand...

LOL, I was only quick as I didn't want to go out as it's cold :LOL:

Kerioak said:
Sin - great shot and great idea, thanks for posting your set up details and you have already covered any crit. I do like the "distance" of it

Season - a tad dark for my liking and might have preferred a square image with a little more space top and bottom but am just being picky on a lovely sharp image and looks as if you cleaned any finger marks off first as well
Click to expand...

Only needed a quick wipe as I do all the cooking and cleaning anyway :)

Thanks for all the feedback though all.
 
This is a cracking shot but I agree a little more lighting to the top of the pepper pot. Thanks for explaining the steps in how you obtained the result.
 
Bit late (sorry!) but thoughts on your week one photo:

It's a brave and interesting idea, and I like the use of the silhouette and the vignette. I'd be tempted to try a square crop cutting out the right third of the image as I don't think it adds much, and I think the position of the body will keep the image decentred enough to still work.

I'm not sure this would work but I'd also try to getting rid of the lighter grey background hills, probably by darkening them so that they blend into the foreground. It might make the image too flat though... not sure.

On week two:

That was quick! And you've pretty much taken the shot I was thinking of doing... time for me to think some more! Nicely executed. That clear plastic can be difficult to make look good but you've managed it.
 
nice season shot i dont think its too dark as what you need to see is clearly there (y)
 
Hi Paul

not gonna attempt crit on that...wayy better than I could do - I have no idea about lighting/OCF etc...like the shot a lot , plenty of detail in the corns , well exposed & laid out (y)

Having said that.....little niggle...the odd grains of salt escaping from the main mound & a slight hotspot on the salt cellar...very minor & as I said , million times better than I could achieve
 
Hi Paul :)

Wow... first to get a week 2 image up !!!

Sin - What can I say apart form that is excellent, always love when you give the detail you put into how you set up, shot & edited your ideas - this is a cracker :clap:

Season - Again great explanation on how your image was achieved, love the lighting and the way you have set these up - spot on mate (y)
 
Sin - Great shot, and stopped me in my tracks when I saw it. It's definitely got impact, which I love.

Season - I like the dark lighting, but as a couple of others have said, I might prefer a little bit more light on the peppermill. Well done on getting it completed so soon! I'm still stuck at the drawing board!
 
Sin - Really like this shot very dark and sinister. Cracking take on the theme.

Season - Really like the lighting in this show, i agree with the others, the pepper seeds at the bottom could do with a bit of lighting to show more detail in them. Another great shot though really like it!
 
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