weekly pjm1's TP52 in 2016 - week 31 Fauna

cargo said:
Well Paul. That is a cool looking image for sure. I want to make large bubble now :) The black feild lighting sounds good fun to try. I think I good while back I did the wine bottle thing with just the s***e edges showing (I think that is Dark field) could be wrong though.
Anyway great image for me, I'm off to look at the link you provided.

Gaz

Ps: I like set up shots as you have to think about stuff !
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Hiya Gaz, thanks very much for the really encouraging feedback - please do look at that link because lighting is something that's worth understanding (and looking at your images, you already do). Shout if you want more info etc. as I've gathered quite a bit over the last 12-18 months :)

Brian_of_Bozeat said:
Maybe I've read your reply in the wrong voice, but I hope I didn't come across too negative, i want you to know that I admire your hard work and submission for this weeks theme. So please understand that It wasn't meant to be a criticism, just an observation, I think it's the reflections that made the fork look oof? Your 100% crop shows that the fork IS for sure in focus it just Looks a bit blurry at the normal viewing size.
Keep up the good work, I'd like to do some of this light field dark field stuff myself soon, it's been ages since I read that book, another read with my "since acquired" knowledge and equipment would do me the world of good I reckon.
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Don't worry Brian - I didn't think you were being negative at all! I'm actually a huge fan of harsh critique (which I certainly don't think you've given) as it's the best way to improve. It's me saying sorry if my response sounded in any way miffed! I think you're right re: reflections confusing the image a bit, as well as the bubble effect (diffraction?) and usual flickr compression etc. I love that book on lighting and would definitely recommend re-reading. I re-read the chapter on darkfield and lightfield for this shot and surprised myself at how I'd pretty much forgotten it all :) Please do keep up the commentary and critique and don't worry about me in the future as I have bulletproof skin!

WMD said:
Spiky - Superb shot - I love it! Interesting (& bang on theme) subject, executed really well - spot on!
Only crit from me is the background is a little distracting (area above the fork) - but that's a real reach, it's a quality shot! (y)
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Cheers Matt. Background at the top was a "shall I, shan't I?" moment - I decided I quite liked it not totally black but happy to concede others will have a different view and none of us is ever really "right" on such things - just a matter of opinion, taste etc. Glad you like it and thanks as always for commenting :)
 
Quick follow-up post to add my reshoot shot. This is a full-on, Post And Be Damned picture because it's a bit naff in terms of on-theme-ness. It's a vase of flowers and the theme chosen for reshoot is living world. About as normal and boring as you can get compared with my original shoot for this (the mouldy tangerine tree). But I wanted that tick on the spreadsheet from @Dark Knight :)

Darkfield lighting used again plus secondary light (narrow gridded horizontal stripbox) coming from frame right, perpendicular to camera, just to fill a bit of light onto the flower heads and uppermost stems but avoiding the glass, mat and background. No further commentary really needed because I'm genuinely not after comments on this one - it is what it is and I'm fairly happy with the lighting etc. The OCD made me do it, honest!

Cheers

Paul


Week 10: Reshoot of living world by Paul M, on Flickr
 
pjm1 said:
The OCD made me do it, honest!
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And my OCD made me comment, I hate to see a blank space, I'm a bit like "Kilroy" in that respect :D

I'll just say (y)
 
Hi Paul. You may not want comments but I am sure they will come thick and fast. Thanks for the comments re my lighting. I'm not very good at remembering if i'm honest and names and terms for lighting I just don't retain at all. I think the image above is very good and I am surprised by the use of dark field here, looks great. I assume you mean side lighting for the sbox ? Last year sometime I did quite a few Tulip (single stems) photos which turned out pretty well they were done on black with just side light and a reflector. I like the vase on this very much I guess thats where the dark field effect helps.

Yes I will mither you when I'm stuck lighting stuff.

Gaz
 
Hi Paul, as ever it's great to read about your thought process and set up for your Spiky image, with another eye-catching result. I sense this one has sparked a new thread of experimentation for you in future!

Your Re-shoot looks impeccable to me, with those beautiful bold colours in the flowers perfectly isolated against the background.
 
Beautiful and it looks perfectly lit to me...now I need to read up to find out what on earth darkfield lighting is - I'd normally use a torch if I found myself in one. But there's a tickbox for the reshoot?! I hadn't even thought about that - and teachers are trained never to pass a tickbox :( I was going to quibble picked flowers being part of the living world ;) ...but with tomorrow being Thursday and only one possible shot taken this week...eek!
 
Cobra said:
And my OCD made me comment, I hate to see a blank space, I'm a bit like "Kilroy" in that respect :D

I'll just say (y)
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Thanks Chris (I won't mention that mat not being perfectly at 45 degrees otherwise OCD will bite...)

cargo said:
Hi Paul. You may not want comments but I am sure they will come thick and fast. Thanks for the comments re my lighting. I'm not very good at remembering if i'm honest and names and terms for lighting I just don't retain at all. I think the image above is very good and I am surprised by the use of dark field here, looks great. I assume you mean side lighting for the sbox ? Last year sometime I did quite a few Tulip (single stems) photos which turned out pretty well they were done on black with just side light and a reflector. I like the vase on this very much I guess thats where the dark field effect helps.

Yes I will mither you when I'm stuck lighting stuff.

Gaz
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Thanks Gaz - I think the darkfield really works wonders with the flowers as it give a surprisingly effective rim lighting look to the petals and leaves. The softbox (30cm x 80cm I think) was basically 90 degree side lighting, yes. Not really sure it added that much, just a touch of fill in some of the darker areas perhaps. Yes, the vase is very much the product of that darkfield and the main reason for doing it - although I might use again for that rim lighting!

LC2 said:
I'm going to add a comment regading the lighting. I wish I had the skill / experience to acheive that kind of result :clap:
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Thanks Tim - appreciated! Give it a go and you will do :) I surprise myself frequently at how easy some shots can be when you actually just give it a lash!

Emja said:
Beautiful and it looks perfectly lit to me...now I need to read up to find out what on earth darkfield lighting is - I'd normally use a torch if I found myself in one. But there's a tickbox for the reshoot?! I hadn't even thought about that - and teachers are trained never to pass a tickbox :( I was going to quibble picked flowers being part of the living world ;) ...but with tomorrow being Thursday and only one possible shot taken this week...eek!
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Thanks Emma - there's a link in my spiky shot post above but I too would normally use a torch in a field (albeit of the head variety if walking!) - and there's a tickbox for everything, don't you know?! Eeek it's nearly time for another theme!
 
Great image that paul, and thanks too for the write-up and link, it all makes sense now, I must say if you didn't mention it I doubt I would have worked out the effort gone into it, it's all good, reflections, colours and general interest - love it :clap:
 
Dark Knight said:
Great image that paul, and thanks too for the write-up and link, it all makes sense now, I must say if you didn't mention it I doubt I would have worked out the effort gone into it, it's all good, reflections, colours and general interest - love it :clap:
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Thanks Dean! Effort was just a bit of mental gymnastics for me - no bad thing to stave off the senility!
 
Hi Paul I finally got to see your bubble shot ....It looks excellent. I like the quirky idea for the theme, super sharp bubbles and the reflection definitely makes it the eye catching shot that it is.

Beatiful tulips, I think the shot looks stunning on Flickr and I love it :clap:
 
Yet another cracking image Paul lovely lighting and colours. Over the weekend I plan to read your descriptions and links in more detail
 
susiejb said:
Hi Paul I finally got to see your bubble shot ....It looks excellent. I like the quirky idea for the theme, super sharp bubbles and the reflection definitely makes it the eye catching shot that it is.

Beatiful tulips, I think the shot looks stunning on Flickr and I love it :clap:
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Thanks Susie... both were fun to do, especially the bubble shot (for lots of reasons). The tulips image was just a quick grab shot but I was pleased with how it turned out. Thanks as always for looking and commenting. I can't wait until the weekend to get shooting some more!

Brian_of_Bozeat said:
No comment.





Just lots of applause.... ;)
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Thanks Brian ;) I'm now officially offended that you commented :p

Downton Mini said:
Yet another cracking image Paul lovely lighting and colours. Over the weekend I plan to read your descriptions and links in more detail
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Thanks Mark - I should write less and it'd be quicker to read! I must have a go at those pullback shots that I think Brian suggested - even if I use my camera phone to snap them...
 
Spiky - That’s a really wow picture and extra marks to you for including a target for the spikes for the theme. :D I’m not good enough to comment on the technicalities (I don’t understand half the terms you used :p) so all I can say is it looks awfully clever and I like the sharpness and reflections on the bubbles.

Reshoot - Even though it’s an obvious subject for the theme, I think you’ve done an amazing job and the image really captures my attention. As noob as I am, I can tell the lighting is great and I really like the black background. Also tulips are my favourite flowers. :D
 
Amazing stuff Paul

.. the focused fork with bubbles reflecting groovy light model

and pink flowers on black BG, a bit much erm normally but you've pulled it off.

(y)
 
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Winter said:
Spiky - That’s a really wow picture and extra marks to you for including a target for the spikes for the theme. :D I’m not good enough to comment on the technicalities (I don’t understand half the terms you used :p) so all I can say is it looks awfully clever and I like the sharpness and reflections on the bubbles.

Reshoot - Even though it’s an obvious subject for the theme, I think you’ve done an amazing job and the image really captures my attention. As noob as I am, I can tell the lighting is great and I really like the black background. Also tulips are my favourite flowers. :D
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Thanks Sheylara :) I wasn't sure if it would be a touch too tenuous for the theme, but I enjoyed putting it together. The reshoot was just a bit of quick fun to see whether I could make that lighting work for a "normal" subject - it seems it does!

Jon.P.73 said:
Bang on theme with spiky - also love the creative process and your explanation of the shot - the colours in the reflections and and multiple reflections add so much interest - well done :)
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Thanks Jon - I feared the reflection of the softbox might be a bit in your face, so thank you...

d00d said:
Amazing stuff Paul

.. the focused fork with bubbles reflecting groovy light model

and pink lowers on black BG, a bit much erm normally but you've pulled it off.

(y)
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Hi David - thanks all round for the positive comments and now I'll really have to get my thinking cap on for Artificial :thinking:
 
OMG. I kept going back to this shot on the main thread because it was such a quality image but didn't click the link in acknowledging the "no comment" tag. Then thought this morning "what the heck" and clicked the link to find all these (well-deserved) comments !!!! It's a wonderful image Paul, beautiful colours, nicely lit, great bg - the bit I like the most are the stems with hardly a reflection in the glass to distract. Absolutely delightful shot.:clap:
 
Carl Ayling said:
OMG. I kept going back to this shot on the main thread because it was such a quality image but didn't click the link in acknowledging the "no comment" tag. Then thought this morning "what the heck" and clicked the link to find all these (well-deserved) comments !!!! It's a wonderful image Paul, beautiful colours, nicely lit, great bg - the bit I like the most are the stems with hardly a reflection in the glass to distract. Absolutely delightful shot.:clap:
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Well I'm not going to complain about such kind comments as those! Thank you Carl for taking the time to post that. I only really put the "don't bother with comments" up because I felt I'd posted a couple of shots in pretty short order, they were quite similar in style (black background setups) and honestly felt that people would be, "oh yet another one of those".

I'll confess to being quite pleased with the outcome - I didn't really expect the lighting to be as effective as it was. And that's what's created that effect on the vase and stems inside - managing reflections is all down to choosing where to place the lighting so as to avoid creating the unwanted ones. It's a bit like playing snooker or pool - you know that the ball (or light in this case) will bounce off a surface at an equal an opposite angle, so working back from the camera we can exclude locations across the face of the vase. The small sidelight (it was actually quite big, but low power) was carefully placed and gridded to avoid throwing any light onto vase which otherwise would have created those pesky reflections.

There's method in the madness sometimes! And I can't really claim credit for the lighting as I nicked the ideas from that book :)

Thanks again and will get round to more comprehensive commenting this weekend (except when the rugby is on...)
 
I too like your reshoot it may "normal and boring" in your eyes but it is beautifully lit and a great image.
 
minx said:
I too like your reshoot it may "normal and boring" in your eyes but it is beautifully lit and a great image.
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Thanks Minx :) I was more pleased - on reflection - with that shot than I am with this week's!

I was lacking in inspiration this week, folks. I had an idea but I haven't really been able to translate it well enough into an image but hey ho - not every week is a winner and I have been struggling with better ideas for this theme. Although I had the idea of a setup shot, I wanted this to be more in context, so I shot it in my kitchen. I set up the shot as I wanted on our breakfast bar and then started to build up the lighting: first with the key light above camera pointing down at about 45 degrees, then added a background light and finally a reflector just to bounce a little key back into the scene to soften the shadows. It hasn't quite worked perfectly - I think a smaller key might have worked a bit better in hindsight - but it's probably all I'm going to manage before Thursday comes around again.


Week 11: Artificial by Paul M, on Flickr

Here is a link to the shot with just the key light - definitely loses impact because of the lack of background light: http://i.imgur.com/1irlGrv.jpg
And here is the shot minus just the reflector - not that far from the final image (slightly recomposed) but I prefer the slight bounced light on the "final" image above: http://i.imgur.com/gBwG6GB.jpg

Comments and crit very welcome as always - although I'm not particularly happy with this one, it was quite interesting playing around with the lighting options.
 
I clicked the link to the key light just to see what the difference was with just the "key" light and Wow! that's an amazing difference. Your final image looks terrific without the dark areas and shadow free ... quality shot Paul.
 
Carl Ayling said:
I clicked the link to the key light just to see what the difference was with just the "key" light and Wow! that's an amazing difference. Your final image looks terrific without the dark areas and shadow free ... quality shot Paul.
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Thanks Carl, your generous comments are always welcome :) I'm not totally sold on it myself if I'm honest, but it was an interesting experiment. It probably doesn't look like it was shot at night time, either!
 
Good take on the theme with nice details and colours, very well lit IMHO. Thanks for sharing the comparison shots as well, it's really useful to see the differences
 
sirch said:
Good take on the theme with nice details and colours, very well lit IMHO. Thanks for sharing the comparison shots as well, it's really useful to see the differences
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Thank you Chris... I'll be honest and say working out how lights add together (and modifiers/reflectors etc.) has been the most difficult aspect - together with the positioning itself of course - so I thought it might be useful to show the individual steps. It's pretty unusual for me to use two lights, although I'm starting to think more about background lighting now as a counterpoint to the main subject.

Manxmaid said:
:agree: Chris has said everything I was going to!
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Well thank you too Andrea!

CliveNX said:
Nicely done, a simple looking composition with a lot of impact.
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Thanks Clive - if anything it's perhaps a bit too simple and still not 100% convinced it works brilliantly, but it seems I'm outvoted so far :)

Thanks everyone (y) I'm going to have to shoehorn a portrait into this coming theme because I have a beauty dish arriving tomorrow. Keeping my fingers crossed Mrs pjm1 doesn't read this ;)
 
The lighting works well, but I'm not keen on the subject matter, specifically, I'd prefer the box was not in and much closer to the bottles.

Cheers.
 
posiview said:
The lighting works well, but I'm not keen on the subject matter, specifically, I'd prefer the box was not in and much closer to the bottles.

Cheers.
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Thanks Andy... I can't quite put my finger on why it's not grabbing me but something's not right. You're probably right with the box... but as we've said before (and will again), this is about experimenting and learning - it don't always go right!

Cheers as always (y)
 
pjm1 said:
Thanks Andy... I can't quite put my finger on why it's not grabbing me but something's not right. You're probably right with the box... but as we've said before (and will again), this is about experimenting and learning - it don't always go right!

Cheers as always (y)
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True enough.

Cheers.
 
Paul, super image for Artificial, nice composition and the lighting is really good.
 
Great idea and nicely presented Paul (y)

Although I can't help wondering if the sugar box actually adds anything to the image?
 
Cobra said:
Great idea and nicely presented Paul (y)

Although I can't help wondering if the sugar box actually adds anything to the image?
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Thanks Chris and the answer to your question (very politely worded) is, "no"! However, without it, it felt very empty - I lined it up in the viewfinder and didn't even both to take a shot as it wasn't right. Perhaps some cupcakes or something else might have worked better? Better luck next time - it's all work in progress :)
 
pjm1 said:
Perhaps some cupcakes or something else
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I was wondering along those lines too, although I was thinking a nice home made cake, iced, and you could have eaten the prop after :D
 
As has been mentioned, you've nailed the lighting technique on these past few theme shots Paul - love it! Would love to have the time / space to explore these techniques (& equipment) myself, but time being I'll stick with my trusty old Speedlight! ;)

Your 'Living World' reshoot could be straight out of a stock image website - beautiful detail, lighting, sharpness - great work Paul (y)
 
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Cobra said:
I was wondering along those lines too, although I was thinking a nice home made cake, iced, and you could have eaten the prop after :D
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Who's to say I didn't eat the prop anyway... nothing like a sugar rush ;)

WMD said:
As has been mentioned, you've nailed the lighting technique on these past few theme shots Paul - love it! Would love to have the time / space to explore these techniques (& equipment) myself, but time being I'll stick with my trusty old Speedlight! ;)

Your 'Living World' reshoot could be straight out of a stock image website - beautiful detail, lighting, sharpness - great work Paul (y)
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Hi Matt - that's very kind of you to say and your comment about the flowers is totally unexpected! Thank you for taking the time to comment and hopefully I'll come up with something a bit different / more original for the next theme :)
 
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