Critique Grid Irons

[blakester]

A slight departure from what I am used to shooting these past few years but I thought I'd visit what is a personal favourite of mine, still life.
This took quite a few attempts to set up, (read hours!).
I am pleased with the final outcome though but comments & critique are most welcome.


Grid Irons by Iain Blake, on Flickr

 

[reheat module]

Stunning symmetry.
Lovely control of the lighting on chrome (potential nightmare)!
Patience... hope you didn't sneeze when setting this up.

 

[blakester]

Stunning symmetry.
Lovely control of the lighting on chrome (potential nightmare)!
Patience... hope you didn't sneeze when setting this up.

Thanks Paul,
It took absolutely ages to set it up.
I had to walk away and leave it for a while otherwise the whole lot would have ended up getting tipped over and left to rust haha!

 

[posiview]

This is ssooooo you, Iain. Patience. Patience. Patience.

Well composed and lovely lighting.

If I were to be uber critical, there appear to be some stains (?) on the surface, top centre and rhs between the fork and knife.

Try as hard as I might I can't see you in any reflections

Cheers.

 

[rick448]

Very nice. Lovely lighting and control of reflections.

 

[blakester]

This is ssooooo you, Iain. Patience. Patience. Patience.

Well composed and lovely lighting.

If I were to be uber critical, there appear to be some stains (?) on the surface, top centre and rhs between the fork and knife.

Try as hard as I might I can't see you in any reflections

Cheers.

Thanks Andy, this really tried my patience haha.
I used a grey board as a background, I need to take a little more time to tidy it up.
I had two small soft boxes facing each other at 45degrees to the cutlery, plus I used reflectors at either side. Effectively creating a box around and shot through the gap from above the soft boxes. So very difficult for me to get into the reflections.

Very nice. Lovely lighting and control of reflections.

Thanks Rick.

 

[sk66]

I like the creativity/effort here.

But your light sources are too small and there are gaps between them which is making for some very busy/distracting reflections in the spoons. To light this I would use the softboxes to illuminate silks (cheap shower curtains/linens/etc). I would also use a large black panel (or fabric) above for the lens to stick through. The goal would be large/soft/gradual rim lighting with dark center areas (about the only way to shoot from above w/o the camera showing).

 

[rick448]

I like the creativity/effort here.

But your light sources are too small and there are gaps between them which is making for some very busy/distracting reflections in the spoons. To light this I would use the softboxes to illuminate silks (cheap shower curtains/linens/etc). I would also use a large black panel (or fabric) above for the lens to stick through. The goal would be large/soft/gradual rim lighting with dark center areas (about the only way to shoot from above w/o the camera showing).

I actually like the businesses in those areas. I guess it depends what the shooter wanted.

 

[blakester]

I like the creativity/effort here.

But your light sources are too small and there are gaps between them which is making for some very busy/distracting reflections in the spoons. To light this I would use the softboxes to illuminate silks (cheap shower curtains/linens/etc). I would also use a large black panel (or fabric) above for the lens to stick through. The goal would be large/soft/gradual rim lighting with dark center areas (about the only way to shoot from above w/o the camera showing).

Thanks Steven,
Your suggestions make perfect sense to me, unfortunately space was at a premium.
I may give this another go following your tips if I get the house to myself (highly unlikely)!

I actually like the businesses in those areas. I guess it depends what the shooter wanted.

Thanks Rick.
I'm happy with the outcome given my limitations but as said to Steven above I will try to have another go at this.

 

[G.K.Jnr.]

"Excellent" bit of work Sir, the setting up and presentation of the shot is on the next level.

George.

 

[Phiggys]

That's a cracking piece of work and well worth all the time you put into creating it.
I would have that hanging on my wall !

 

[blakester]

"Excellent" bit of work Sir, the setting up and presentation of the shot is on the next level.

George.

Thank you Sir!
It was a patience tester

That's a cracking piece of work and well worth all the time you put into creating it.
I would have that hanging on my wall !

Thanks Phil
I intend to get it printed to see how it looks.

 

[viv1969]

That's a great image.
I love the lines. Order and chaos at the same time, and no symmetry, yet giving the illusion of it.

I can easily imagine this hanging on the wall in a high end restaurant.

 

[blakester]

That's a great image.
I love the lines. Order and chaos at the same time, and no symmetry, yet giving the illusion of it.

I can easily imagine this hanging on the wall in a high end restaurant.

Thank you errrr Bat-Frog

I could dream of selling prints of this, sadly I think not.

 

[Kodiak Qc]

I like the creativity/effort here. But your light sources are too small

+1

 

[Nick Owen]

Very much like the idea, composition and set up, but the lighting sources are too obvious in the reflections, especially in the spoons. One way would be to get rid of the spoons! The other is to use one main source only, and use supporting blue-tack underneath each item to raise/lower/tilt individual items toward/away from the source, so controlling the amount of reflections shown in each. Good luck!