weekly Elaine's 52 for 2015 - Christmas added - finished!

Week 31 - Words
Bit of an obvious choice of subject for this theme, but I'm on child-minding duty this week, so I wanted to get it done and dusted. I deliberately chose the slightly shiny wooden surface to give a bit of reflection and avoid the "floating in mid air" effect, but I'm not sure whether the woodgrain makes it look a bit too messy.

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I really like the colours, if I'm honest (looking on my phone) I hadn't realised they were on a wood grain surface. I quite like obvious choices of subject, sometimes things can be over thought and the obvious is already quite a good statement :)
 
Hi Elaine, woodgrain works ok for me and nicely lit only crit would be to crop a little off the left and bottom
 
Hi Elaine :)

I like the shiny surface with the reflections too, I would have preferred more books and these on es picked out in isolation, but that's me being fussy, still really good colours and well lit, works well for the theme too, no shoehorn here :)
 
... like this (y) nice perspective, but something about the RHS kinda troubling me. And I think I've fixed it [for me] ... took the liberty of copy & pasting into shop, square cropped making it look as if it could be four books on the end of a long line of books ... eliminating that empty space.
 
I think the subject matter perfectly suits the theme. I was impressed by the composition when I saw this come up on my feed.

Nice colours and good sharpness, you have got thte reflection you wanted and the wood grain too so that's perfect. I think a little less contrast would be better as the end of the thesaurus seems detatched, but that's subjective of course.

B.

:cow:
 
Words - I like the wood grain. When I first looked at it I thought the "volume" had been touched up in post, but obviously it's just how the cover is. For me, I think I'd like to have seen them without there covers, I think that might look good with the lighting and grain you have. Still very good :)
 
Lots of words in there! I love the lighting and the way the colours stand out against the black background :clap:
 
Thanks for all the comments. It seems that opinion Is slightly divided about the composition! I did try various different crops, but decided to go with this one because I wanted to keep all the reflections at the bottom and felt that a square crop looked a little too boxy, so I guess it's just a matter of personal taste.
 
OK, Week 32! I've got my eco-warrior head on this week. Been reading a lot about pesticides and how if all the bees suddenly disappeared we would quickly run out of food, because of the job they do pollinating plants. So, I hope it doesn't need too much of a shoehorn to call them our life Support system :thinking: I've been out in the sunshine this afternoon and taken loads of shots in the walled garden in the park, so here are my 3 offerings. I like the yellow flower in the first one best, but the third one is probably the best composition and focus. There must have been hundreds of them buzzing around and I was a bit nervous of standing still for too long and getting too close, so they could all have benefitted from using a tripod and being a tad nearer instead of handheld and zoom!

Life Support #1
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#2
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#3
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Hi Elaine :)

A nice set here, all nice and bright and colourful... for me I agree with your choices, the third is a nice layout but I love the splay of yellow petals coming off the flower in the first image... theme wise, yeah go on, works for me (y)
 
Hi Elaine. All three are really good - you did very well for hand-held. I think #1 for me - probably because it's such a striking image both in terms of colour and the way the petals are splayed to the four corners of the image. :clap:
 
Hi Elaine ...a great sentiment for support ... yes, we do need our bees.

As you can probably guess I love them all but I think the last one is the best, well done for hand held it's so easy to have a slight wobble :)
Thanks Susie, I had quite a lot of wobbles, but these 3 are probably the least wobbly :)
 
Hi Elaine :)

A nice set here, all nice and bright and colourful... for me I agree with your choices, the third is a nice layout but I love the splay of yellow petals coming off the flower in the first image... theme wise, yeah go on, works for me (y)
Thanks DK, yes, I really like the effect that those yellow petals give, no idea what sort of flower it is though!
 
Hi Elaine. All three are really good - you did very well for hand-held. I think #1 for me - probably because it's such a striking image both in terms of colour and the way the petals are splayed to the four corners of the image. :clap:
Thanks Carl :)
 
Hi Elaine, lovely bright summery set. Pick of the three would be #2 , followed by #3. #3 is technically better I guess but I think the flower is more interesting in #2.
 
Excellent, all three! ... #2 is erm ... different. That flower in that light would make a great image even without the bees.
 
Week 33 Religion. When I had the idea for this one, I thought that shooting a handful of foreign coins on a piece of black card would be a fairly easy job. Error #1 - forgetting how difficult it is to get the lighting right on shiny things whilst keeping the black background black - especially when you are shooting from directly overhead because you don't want to sacrifice both the coins and card by gluing them together so that you can stand them upright :eek: So after more attempts than I'd even like to estimate, I eventually decided to take the best of the coins and paint the more-grey-than-black bg in pp. Error #2 - thinking it wasn't a big job painting around round objects :eek: Many hours of pp-ing and several times of thinking that I should just give up and go out and find a nice church to snap, this week I've mostly learned to try and remember never to make the same mistakes again and so despite the extremely dodgy edges to the coins, this will just have to do. :meh: :indifferent:

Money - The Universal Religion

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Well by the sounds of the effort you have put into this Elaine - 10/10 for determination :clap: I have been there when you just feel like 'why on earth did I choose to do this shot'

As for the pic, interesting idea, a nice collection of coins, and glad to see that you also spent the time to align most of them in the same direction (trying to stop looking at the 20 on the far left. Certainly a difficult challenge you set yourself here, although there is no wow to the image/idea, what you have given is still a pleasing image :)
 
Hi Elaine. Quite agree about the level of difficulty lighting but your PP work seems good to me. I quite like the image as much for the shape and variety of the coins as for the overall portrayal of theme. (Thinking cap is firmly planted on my noggin this week .... Aaaaargh)
 
Hi Elaine, PP looks ok at this size, you have done well it must have been a real pain, the only trouble is its floating maybe a different colour BG would help
 
Hi Elaine, shame you've not got the result you wanted but everydays a school day as they say. Still pleasant and right on theme. As @alsjazzera said maybe a different background.

(I had a similar idea about money but with notes, first attempt was rubbish so back to the drawing board.)
 
Hi Elaine

Catch up time for me again!

Spiral .... Staircase, Love this one what a cracking spiral (would double up well for silhouette
cid:image001.png@01D0D904.C4549B00
) some fantastic patterns going on there, really nice....and its highlighted well with that lovely blue sea behind! What a pity it can no longer be used.

Silhouette .... think its going to be the Iron railings.... the little boat stands out against all the highlights in the water, but the water seems a little overpowering. The railings give a nice clean cut silhouette. No3 is very nice right up my street just wondering if the horizon is a tad off from the shirt bit we see. Like this so I'm going for No3 golden light on the water silhouette of the yacht (y)

Animal.... No3 again for me pity you just lost the tail but nicely focused, very nice detail, texture and colour. Love the expression on the lizards face:)

Medicine .... Like the idea you have gone to the trouble of finding an Aloe Vera plant to use as the backdrop. Turn to alcohol if all else fails:D. Focus spot on, nice composition.

Proverb..... I'm going to go with red sky at night sailors delight ( as I was one ). But like the shot best great light on the water. Bit of a funny greenish halo around the sun though. Also like the composition in 2, nice light. I think the text is important in this context. BTW little circle of flare directly above the R in red in case you hadn't spotted it;)

Pale.... Nice shot, shame on the shop for charging you full price! At least you saved most of the day with some shrewd PP well done well recovered! Fits the theme well and nicely recovered(y)

Tear .... Good idea fits the theme, think the conversion was a good move as the Harsh light probably would have killed the colour .
And.... Mr Turtles back, still looking happy!

Word.... Think the wood grain is fine, no problem there, nice bold colour. Think I might have just toned down the spine of the first book just a tad, I'd just run down the spine with a burn brush in PS. Nice shot and like the layout and composition.

Support .... I like to help the poor old bees too. Fished one out of our pond he dried out and flew off. And I kick them out of my workshop else they get caught up in the spider webs and I have saved some plucking them out of the webs, much to the spiders disgust.
Like all these shots but my favourite is No3 great close up, lovely detail, nice DOF.

Religious.... Nice concept, makes a very effective picture. Very difficult and a lot of work for you. One technique that might have helped you select all those coins and set up a black background is using a luminosity mask, in a nutshell that is making a selection in the image based on the light values. So with all those bright coins you could have probably selected them all and held them on a layer and set a background of black.
Basically you use the channels palette and create a mask for each level of brightness so lights right through to darks, so essentially you can pick out all the light areas ( or dark ) and make a quick selection based on that. If you feel that way inclined just google luminosity masks, just another PS tool! Really helpful sometimes!

Nice Work (y) All the best Steve
 
Well by the sounds of the effort you have put into this Elaine - 10/10 for determination :clap: I have been there when you just feel like 'why on earth did I choose to do this shot'

As for the pic, interesting idea, a nice collection of coins, and glad to see that you also spent the time to align most of them in the same direction (trying to stop looking at the 20 on the far left. Certainly a difficult challenge you set yourself here, although there is no wow to the image/idea, what you have given is still a pleasing image :)
Thanks DK. Yes, that 20 cent coin niggled me as well, but I only spotted after I'd packed everything away and was examining the shots more closely to decide on the best one to use :grumpy:

I'm no numismatist (had to google that one!) We have a habit when we get home from a holiday outside the Eurozone of chucking all our coins in a jar "just in case we ever go back". It's come in handy on several occasions, but there are a lot I know we'll never spend - we'd need a time machine to spend the Irish Punts - so most of them are just there for sentimental value really and brought back quite a few happy holiday memories whilst I was sorting through them.
 
Hi Elaine. Quite agree about the level of difficulty lighting but your PP work seems good to me. I quite like the image as much for the shape and variety of the coins as for the overall portrayal of theme. (Thinking cap is firmly planted on my noggin this week .... Aaaaargh)

After all that effect :clap:

Like the variety and different shapes of coins. Just a shame the lighting is slightly uneven.

Hi Elaine, PP looks ok at this size, you have done well it must have been a real pain, the only trouble is its floating maybe a different colour BG would help

Hi Elaine, shame you've not got the result you wanted but everydays a school day as they say. Still pleasant and right on theme. As @alsjazzera said maybe a different background.

(I had a similar idea about money but with notes, first attempt was rubbish so back to the drawing board.)

Hi Elaine .... really like your idea for the theme, it sounds like hard work but well done to you, it looks fine on this PC screen no wobbly edges jumping out at me. Its all a learning curve, even though at times we feel like this :runaway:

Really good, so imaginative!

Many thanks for all your comments and to Allan - It's not floating, it's religious - it's levitating :p
 
Hi Elaine

Catch up time for me again!

Spiral .... Staircase, Love this one what a cracking spiral (would double up well for silhouette
cid:image001.png@01D0D904.C4549B00
) some fantastic patterns going on there, really nice....and its highlighted well with that lovely blue sea behind! What a pity it can no longer be used.

Silhouette .... think its going to be the Iron railings.... the little boat stands out against all the highlights in the water, but the water seems a little overpowering. The railings give a nice clean cut silhouette. No3 is very nice right up my street just wondering if the horizon is a tad off from the shirt bit we see. Like this so I'm going for No3 golden light on the water silhouette of the yacht (y)

Animal.... No3 again for me pity you just lost the tail but nicely focused, very nice detail, texture and colour. Love the expression on the lizards face:)

Medicine .... Like the idea you have gone to the trouble of finding an Aloe Vera plant to use as the backdrop. Turn to alcohol if all else fails:D. Focus spot on, nice composition.

Proverb..... I'm going to go with red sky at night sailors delight ( as I was one ). But like the shot best great light on the water. Bit of a funny greenish halo around the sun though. Also like the composition in 2, nice light. I think the text is important in this context. BTW little circle of flare directly above the R in red in case you hadn't spotted it;)

Pale.... Nice shot, shame on the shop for charging you full price! At least you saved most of the day with some shrewd PP well done well recovered! Fits the theme well and nicely recovered(y)

Tear .... Good idea fits the theme, think the conversion was a good move as the Harsh light probably would have killed the colour .
And.... Mr Turtles back, still looking happy!

Word.... Think the wood grain is fine, no problem there, nice bold colour. Think I might have just toned down the spine of the first book just a tad, I'd just run down the spine with a burn brush in PS. Nice shot and like the layout and composition.

Support .... I like to help the poor old bees too. Fished one out of our pond he dried out and flew off. And I kick them out of my workshop else they get caught up in the spider webs and I have saved some plucking them out of the webs, much to the spiders disgust.
Like all these shots but my favourite is No3 great close up, lovely detail, nice DOF.

Religious.... Nice concept, makes a very effective picture. Very difficult and a lot of work for you. One technique that might have helped you select all those coins and set up a black background is using a luminosity mask, in a nutshell that is making a selection in the image based on the light values. So with all those bright coins you could have probably selected them all and held them on a layer and set a background of black.
Basically you use the channels palette and create a mask for each level of brightness so lights right through to darks, so essentially you can pick out all the light areas ( or dark ) and make a quick selection based on that. If you feel that way inclined just google luminosity masks, just another PS tool! Really helpful sometimes!

Nice Work (y) All the best Steve
Wow Steve, many thanks for taking the time to catch up with all those comments. On the proverb shot, I HAD noticed that lens flare circle when I first chose the shot and thought "I'll have to clone that out " but then I got so engrossed in adding text and levelling the horizon (I was actually on a boat when I took the shot) that I completely forgot! Good work on the bees - I'm quite happy to reach for the fly spray whenever a wasp appears through my kitchen window, but I'll never knowingly kill a bee and take great pains to shoo them out. Thanks for the suggestion about using a luminosity mask. Layers are not something I've used very often and when I read your explanation of how it works my head hurt, but it's certainly something I want to learn more about, so I shall definitely have a look at that.(y)
 
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Wow Steve, many thanks for taking the time to catch up with all those comments. On the proverb shot, I HAD noticed that lens flare circle when I first chose the shot and thought "I'll have to clone that out " but then I got so engrossed in adding text and levelling the horizon (I was actually on a boat when I took the shot) that I completely forgot! Good work on the bees - I'm quite happy to reach for the fly spray whenever a wasp appears through my kitchen window, but I'll never knowingly kill a bee and take great pains to shoo them out. Thanks for the suggestion about using a luminosity mask. Layers are not something I've used very often and when I read your explanation of how it works my head hurt, but it's certainly something I want to learn more about, so I shall definitely have a look at that.(y)

Hi Elaine, I'm way behind on my commenting on peoples posts, perhaps a gas to much:eek: so feeling really guilty.... Where does the time go??? Yea the bees are having a hard time lately apparently so its nice to help them.
The only reason I looked into this luminosity mask malarkey was because I have these shots of the Aurora Borealis I took in Norway and am really struggling to process them effectively :(. Processing night shots is not my thing but would like to know more. The luminosity masks work well but didn't make an awful lot of difference to my Aurora shots :rolleyes:. But I can see where it would be really useful to know. Getting used to Layers and masks is a great thing to learn and has been so useful. Time is always a premium I know but I thought it was worth it (off you youtube then;)).
All the best
S
 
Ah yes ... Money The Root Of All Evil ... :LOL: Funny how you can spend hours every/most weeks working on a pic before you waste/spend many more hours on crit. :eek:

Nice arrangement there Elaine. (y)
 
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