weekly nickbee's 52 2016: week 19 - Colourful

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nickbee

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Watch this space for erudite discourse, sparkling repartee and photography to feed not only your eyes but, I hope, also your minds and maybe even hearts. Ooh look, there's a jaffa cake smiley. If the first theme is 'orangey' can this be my entry?


:jaffa: Full moon...
 
Week 0: Old

Lots of ideas for this. At first I considered portraits of grandparents or an image of a local church, then I thought about a macro shot of a fossil but in the end, having a father who has a house full of antiques was too good an opportunity to miss. With a variety of items on offer from Georgian glassware (I got told off - it's not Victorian as originally stated) to shipwreck porcelain, I played it safe from a breakability standpoint and chose to borrow a selection of early 19th century books.



This is a selection of books from the early 19th century, including the 8-volume Works of Hannah More, 1801, Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary, 1818, Vols. 1&3 of the General Gazetteer, 1823, and a thoroughly modern Cyclopedia of English Literature from 1844.



This one concentrates on the eight volumes of More's Works. It's a more striking composition and in many ways I prefer it but I'm not sure it says 'old' in the same way the other shot does, so I think I'll go with the first.
 
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First arrangement for me too Nick.
Nicely interpreted (y)
 
LC2 said:
Nice composition, sharp across the whole image and a strong black background.
Good work :)
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susiejb said:
It has to be the first one for me, the black backround and the lighting are spot on, it looks great on Flickr.
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I have to confess, the background was enhanced a bit in PP - it was neither dark enough nor blurry enough at first. If I'm banned from the forum as a result I'll understand.

Emja said:
I like the arrangement of the first - they look like they are propped up on some academic's desk to be referred to, but I think I prefer the simple composition and use of dof in the second shot.
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Cobra said:
First arrangement for me too Nick.
Nicely interpreted (y)
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Thanks! I've never posted photos on a photo forum before and it was a bit nervous about doing so, so that's much apprecated.
 
nickbee said:
I have to confess, the background was enhanced a bit in PP - it was neither dark enough nor blurry enough at first. If I'm banned from the forum as a result I'll understand.
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PMSL I think 20 lashes will be enough :D
(Everyone tweaks their images one way or another Nick ;) )

nickbee said:
Thanks! I've never posted photos on a photo forum before and it was a bit nervous about doing so, so that's much apprecated.
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No worries, I'm glad you decided to join us (y)
 
nickbee said:
I have to confess, the background was enhanced a bit in PP - it was neither dark enough nor blurry enough at first. If I'm banned from the forum as a result I'll understand.
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I doubt any of us have ever posted a solid black background that hasn't been tweaked in some way. The Light (dark) room is all part of this photography lark :)
 
Hi Nick - welcome to TP52. Great start - love #1, nicely arranged and so subtly lit. Great start. :clap:
 
I love the arrangement of the books in #1 - a really well thought out shot. Love the depth of field in #2.
 
Wow, thanks - I hadn't expected so any comments. I'm very grateful for the positive feedback.

And I know what you mean about floating books - I think if I were shooting again I'd either find a surface resembling a desktop or apply a coating of dust to the fabric around the books.
 
Hi, good ideas 1st one seems to be floating, a mistake I have made many times, the 2nd one would have liked a higher view so as to make out the writing myself, good start though
 
Hi Nick :)

The second shot for me, although I like the books in the first, they appear to be floating as there are no shadows at all to ground them, saying that a nice black background achieved !!! - the second one again nice blacks, and I especially like the diagonal spines, nice one :)
 
Thanks very much everyone foryour feedback.

RESHOOT!

I can't help but see the 'floating' thing now. I can't profess to have the skills to create shadows on demand yet, so I wondered if a shelf might help. The problem is, the only thing I have to hand is perhaps too similar a colour to some of the books. What do you think?

books by nickbrotherston, on Flickr
 
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I prefer the original too Nick! Nice subdued lighting and lovely arrangement of the books. Having said that I like the lighting, I wonder if a bit more light on the book with the open pages, and on the 3 books to the right where the page ends are visible...would it have improved the photo? It's a great shot nonetheless.
 
Hi, catching up with commenting.

I'm always drawn to close ups and shallow DOF so the second shot is my preference, really nice shot. I prefer the original shot of #1, I hadn't really noticed the floating until it had been mentioned above.
 
Thanks all for the comments on week zero's effort, they're very much appreciated. Here's Week One: Metal

I considered photographing a metal object - either I'm unoriginal or you're all creative genuises but almost all the ideas I had in that regard have been posted already. However, I really wanted to explore the material itself, which to me meant breaking it down. Also, this involved using a power tool, for added man points.

Mega Bit by nickbrotherston, on Flickr

My original crop had a lot more white space top and bottom but I found it weirdly distracting.
 
Nick Hi, really like your image, well thought out and framed, Good luck completing your 52.
 
Nice clean shot Nick. Composition is excellent; I like the silver/gold contrast but in particular the metal "shaving" especially the spiral one to the right of the drill bit. :clap:
 
Like that a lot, good composition with use of diagonals and tells a story. good contrast too with the colours. My only thing is that the drilled hole is slightly blurred so could be the depth of field? I personally feel it should be sharp as seeing the drill bit makes you look for the hole which you would expect to be sharp and clean? That is me being very picky though.
 
Hi Nick this is a very nice shot love the angles of the objects the gold drill bit with filings makes this a pleasing shot.:clap:
 
purplepleaser said:
Nick Hi, really like your image, well thought out and framed, Good luck completing your 52.
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Carl Ayling said:
Nice clean shot Nick. Composition is excellent; I like the silver/gold contrast but in particular the metal "shaving" especially the spiral one to the right of the drill bit. :clap:
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Emja said:
I agree with Carl -I love the contrast between the metals and the clean feel - I also like the sense of 'purpose' in the shot.
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Oh stop it, you'll make me blush!

Actually, no - carry on.

Jon.P.73 said:
Nice interpretation Nick. I also like the composition and the contrast of the white BG / metal and the drill bit :)
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JasonGlyn said:
Really creative idea here. You've thought outside the box and it shows in this well presented pic. Nice
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Virtualcolm said:
Great idea and well executed shot
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tyrex1 said:
Hi Nick this is a very nice shot love the angles of the objects the gold drill bit with filings makes this a pleasing shot.:clap:
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wallyboy said:
Interesting idea, works well, love the concept of breaking it down, would like to have seen all drill bit, other tan that nice take:)
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Thanks all for the comments! (y)

Donnie said:
Like that a lot, good composition with use of diagonals and tells a story. good contrast too with the colours. My only thing is that the drilled hole is slightly blurred so could be the depth of field? I personally feel it should be sharp as seeing the drill bit makes you look for the hole which you would expect to be sharp and clean? That is me being very picky though.
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Yeah, this was something I had to think about. I was already stopped down to f13 with two flashes bouncing off the ceiling almost all full power. I could have set up an umbrella at closer range and tried to bring some more light into the equation so I could stop down some more but I wasn't 100% convinced I wanted to. The subject of the picture was supposed to be the drill bit and various swarfs with the metal bar there for contex and to add interest to the composition. However, bringing it into focus shifted the emphasis enormously and I wasn't sure I liked the way it then dominated the picture. Also, the slight OOF disguises the bar's texture a little, aiding the 'clean' feel I was going for. Perhaps technical limitations (either mine or the gear's) influenced that decision but rightly or wrongly, it was intentionally out of focus.

susiejb said:
Hi Nick ....definitely one of my favourites this week, a really super shot.:clap:
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Wow, thanks! Given some of the great photos on the thread that's a real compliment!
 
What's probably not obvious is that this scene is tiny. That's a 3mm drill bit and the metal bar is just over an inch high. Forgetting the effect that raising the drill bit would have had on my DOF, the chuck would have been bigger than everything else put together!
 
nickbee said:
What's probably not obvious is that this scene is tiny. That's a 3mm drill bit and the metal bar is just over an inch high. Forgetting the effect that raising the drill bit would have had on my DOF, the chuck would have been bigger than everything else put together!
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I like the idea... for me there is too much space and my eyes settle on the drill all the time.. Maybe a closeup of the business end of the drill bit and some shavings? I think the shavings do make the picture though especially the large one on the left
 
nickbee said:
What's probably not obvious is that this scene is tiny. That's a 3mm drill bit and the metal bar is just over an inch high. Forgetting the effect that raising the drill bit would have had on my DOF, the chuck would have been bigger than everything else put together!
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I wouldn't have guessed that the scene was that small, although maybe should have done due to the narrow DOF. Like others, I think this works well and makes an interesting shot.
 
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