Beginner Looking for Guidance

[Arrbjorn]

So I'm not sure if this belongs here or in the beginner's talk section, but I'm posting here because I'm specifically looking for critiques. I've always loved photography but never really had the chance to shoot much besides on my phone or an old point-and-shoot. But as luck would have it I came into an old T1i about three weeks ago and I don't think I've stopped taking pictures since. But a T1i was definitely not cutting it, so two days ago I picked up an EOS RP and a 50mm F/1.8 lens.

This is the result of a day's worth of work and only the second photo "shoot" I've done so far with my new camera. It was shot at F13, ISO100, and I took shots at six different exposures 8s-2s and merged them in LR before continuing with the usual editing.

I don't really have any "gear" other than the camera and an old tripod from college, so I used the overhead in the room and a nearby window for light.

I used some cotton batting (the inside part of quilts, it's white and fluffy) to diffuse the light from the overhead and some simple A5 printer paper to reflect light where it was needed, especially for the reflections. The batting was great at diffusing the light but made the shot fairly dark overall, which led to the super-long exposure times.

The backdrop is an old brown curtain from my first apartment that was hanging around, I didn't have anything to hold it so I just draped it over one of my reptile's enclosures and onto a pop-up work table I use in the garage for painting and staining on.

The items in the shot are just from around my house. The coffee items I use every day, so I know they aren't "picture perfect", but I had the inspiration for this shot so I wanted to do it anyways. The poor coffee beans are just my coffee beans I use every day that have (thankfully) since been recovered (wasting Lavazza Super Crema would be heinous, after all). The leaf is a dried tobacco leaf, and the two cigars are from my humidor.

I am a web developer by trade and I am hoping to add a photography service to my website service I run on the side. I am currently working with a client who would like me to do some shots for him both of products and portraits of him and his co-host to use on his social media and website, so I could really use some constructive criticism on what I can do to improve. I'm doing the work for him for free, but I'd like to be able to move on to charging clients soon.

Could anybody please be so kind as to be brutally honest about this photo and let me know where I need to improve?

 

[robj20]

Can't see any photos.

 

[d00d]

I can see it if I click on Quote.

@Arrbjorn You've been busy, well done with the lighting, I think you know what you've done right, so I'll tell you what I like & don't like about the content. Brutal honesty.

I like the way the pot is placed in the frame, off centre, handle handy for the right-handed.

Cigars and coffee beans, both good props, but a strange combo.

The image strikes me as false, artistic still-life, but something that's awkward, unnatural, set-up, cluttered.

What about the pot dripping hot coffee, steam rising (?), cup, single cigar in ashtray. Maybe a small pile of beans on one side of frame.

The pot is not "picture perfect" therefore make it look well used with runs & spills.

 

[Cobra]

Welcome to the forum.
Your image is not showing as its way over the permitted size of
1024px on the longest side and less than 500kb as an attachment.

At the moment its 8.2 Mb & 3240px on the longest side

 

[sphexx]

Welcome to the forum.
Your image is not showing as its way over the permitted size of
1024px on the longest side and less than 500kb as an attachment.

At the moment its 8.2 Mb & 3240px on the longest side

Is it ‘interesting’ that is is viewable in a quote before posting?

 

[Cobra]

Is it ‘interesting’ that is is viewable in a quote before posting?

It should be blocked before posting but sometimes, somehow they slip through.
I can see the image if I click on edit..

 

[Arrbjorn]

I can see it if I click on Quote.

@Arrbjorn You've been busy, well done with the lighting, I think you know what you've done right, so I'll tell you what I like & don't like about the content. Brutal honesty.

I like the way the pot is placed in the frame, off centre, handle handy for the right-handed.

Cigars and coffee beans, both good props, but a strange combo.

The image strikes me as false, artistic still-life, but something that's awkward, unnatural, set-up, cluttered.

What about the pot dripping hot coffee, steam rising (?), cup, single cigar in ashtray. Maybe a small pile of beans on one side of frame.

The pot is not "picture perfect" therefore make it look well used with runs & spills.

Thank you so much for your feedback. It sounds like I would have been better off leaving the coffee stains and signs of use on it rather than trying to clean it up.

Thinking about what you said about it feeling unnatural and cluttered, I think the issue is that there's to many objects covering parts of other objects, which causes a lot of intersecting lines and makes it feel "cluttered". The left cigar being horizontal while the rest of the image is very vertical (even the Bialetti logo is stretched tall) also throws a wrench in the works visually. I was hoping it would add some visual contrast, but I think it just served to clutter the image up.

Maybe I'll shift gears and try to make a more simple scene.



P.S. As for coffee and cigars being an odd combination, believe it nor not there's a whole lot of people out here that are as "in to" coffee and cigars as people that are in to whiskey and cigars! To me there's nothing like the zen of carefully preparing your coffee, going outside on a beautiful morning, toasting your cigar, letting the aromas wake up your palate, then lighting your cigar and taking a sip of your coffee. Cigars are generally blended so that the flavor of the initial lighting puffs is strong and distinct, and pairing that with an excellent cup of coffee is awesome, especially if there's a beautiful sunrise to watch.

 

[sphexx]

P.S. As for coffee and cigars being an odd combination, believe it nor not there's a whole lot of people out here that are as "in to" coffee and cigars as people that are in to whiskey and cigars! To me there's nothing like the zen of carefully preparing your coffee, going outside on a beautiful morning, toasting your cigar, letting the aromas wake up your palate, then lighting your cigar and taking a sip of your coffee. Cigars are generally blended so that the flavor of the initial lighting puffs is strong and distinct, and pairing that with an excellent cup of coffee is awesome, especially if there's a beautiful sunrise to watch.

I agree that coffee cigars have long been associated. Not cigars, but when I smoked cigarettes the ones with coffee after a meal were the only ones I actually savoured and missed on abstaining permanently .

 

[lindsay]

The compositional critique above is fair, but the idea is a good one and for a self-proclaimed Beginner, I think you are doing extremely well to be thinking this way and lighting it so well. I think you should keep at it and share the images for constructive critique. An excellent start. And Welcome!

 

[Arrbjorn]

Ok, I gave this another shot today. Simplified everything and used my wedding band to hold up the cigar so it could stand upright on its own. I tried to keep anything from bleeding out to pure white this time, last time there were some hot-spots I wasn't a fan of. Added some steam from the coffee cup as well. I also tried to keep a little more light on the backdrop this time so it wasn't cut off to pure black, which seemed a little off in the last photo.

I think I'm liking this one a lot better.

 

[Jeff18]

I like your second shot, with the steaming mug.

Have you thought about using Flickr for your shots that you want to share on forums? The have an ad supported version that lets you upload up to 1000 images, and you can use BB Code links for your images. Then folks can click on the image and see it on Flickr at a larger size. Just a thought.