Right, a HUGE apology from me to you all for being soooo slow in responding. I was stuck down in London most of the week (and part of that unexpectedly because of a flight back home being cancelled) and was so snowed under / generally shattered, I didn't have a chance to log onto the site. I now see I have lots of comments to catch up with and oodles of your photos to comment on...
I'm working for chunks of today and I'm being told we're going out to view a few new houses, but I will try to squeeze in as much as I can before the working week comes around again :arghh:
Hi, Grow, has a surreal feel to it, which I like.
I'm a fan of odds so I might loose one of the tomatoes. Slightly under exposed...or looks that way on my MBP.
you have controlled the lighting on the tomatoes well..no specular highlights
I had a quick edit on PS and will post, if you like.
Cheers.
Hi Andy... thanks for the comments - I do like surreal as well. I really do struggle with exposure sometimes even though I can see it in others' photos. Too close to it, perhaps, to critique my own work effectively?
Please do post your edit - I'd love to see it. Glad the lighting worked for you - it was actually a very simple bounce flash off the ceiling.
Hi Paul, another good idea, liking the way the tomatoes are arranged, i know the theory about odd numbers but this works well,
well exposed and the colours are good, maybe a slight lift in the brightness as Andy says but
Quick off the mark too, its nice sometimes to have a little time to yourself for these things
Hi Allan, thanks for the kind comments. I'm also very conscious of the odd numbers concept, but I personally feel it falls away after about 5 because we're less well able to immediately count higher numbers. I think if the arrangement is very ordered it probably becomes more important again, but all opinions are valid
It was fun doing this one and thinking a bit more creatively about the theme. I'm always slightly amused by the idea of people singing or playing music to their plants to make them grow, so decided to reference it for this!
Ooooo nice !!!
I'm liking the sheet music filling the frame and no page edges in sight, and REALLY impressed that you found these different sizes
I'm with the other guys on the tweaks, slightly brighter background and a boost of blacks for the music for me ... Soooo good having no interruptions so you can get on !!
Nice One
Thanks Dean - very nice of you to say so
I had to do a touch of blending to make up for not having a larger print on A3, but glad you approve. Genuinely no changes to the tomatoes (size or otherwise) except for the colours... my parents grow them and delivered a massive glut of various sized and coloured tomatoes (including black ones, which I admittedly didn't use for this), so all I had to do was use what I had an play around with the colours a bit more.
It sounds like everyone's in agreement re: brightness...
Hi Paul
Change - lots of effort in that and it has paid off. good idea which works well in the final outcome. Lovely sepia tone which is not overdone - sometimes the effect is too orange for me (partic when i do it
). Lots of detail to hold the attention without detracting from the whole.
Very impressed with the set up shot as you have achieved the outcome without a camera - one in the eye for nikon, canon, pan , oly fuji etc
Big - far too complicated for me to understand but an excellent result.
Lot of time and effort again and you must be happy with the outcome. It might have flaws that others have pointed out but theses are more areas for improvement than anything else.
I am not sure about the balance because it is about a big sky - and the sky is only 1/3 of the shot - and the excess foreground, being so dark, draws the eye, but with no useful result. But that is the only meaningful comment that i can make because it is such a well thought out and put together shot. It was all going so well and then you mentioned Kate Bush......:arghh:
grow - third excellent idea. Bit grey for the b/g - agree with DK re the light and the blacks - but the use of the tomatoes is top notch. really like the way that you have them growing i n size and changing colour to show maturity.
Hi Alan, thanks for the catch up. Glad Change hit the spot for you - it was really fun doing it and although a bit of effort went in to the setup, I find that is so much more rewarding for me personally (when I look at the final image) versus mucking around in post, digitally "enhancing" images. Yes, I might have been using the camera in the setup shot to... erm... take the setup shot picture
Big - thank you again for the kind words. You're definitely right about the balance between sky and foreground. I think I'm going to be reshooting something similar but better next time we have a cloudless, moonless night!
And finally, Grow, thanks again for being so positive in your comments. Again, there are things I'd probably change next time slightly, but it is pretty much the image I had in my mind when I conceived the shot, so aside from wanting to take on all of your comments, I'm pretty happy with execution.
There's always room for improvement!!
HI Paul
Brilliant original idea for Grow........Even numbers works well - rules need to be broken sometimes ! Other than boosting the blacks a smidge no crit here
Thanks Lynne... I know it's another producty-type shot, but I felt it was sufficiently "random" not just to appear to be a simple lighting & placement job. There was a bit more thought into this one
Glad you like and thanks for the suggestion re: tweaks (very consistent with the other comments)
Thanks again to everyone for taking the time to look and comment while I've been holed away unable to do anything