weekly pjm1's TP52 in 2016 - week 31 Fauna

pjm1 said:
Who's to say I didn't eat the prop anyway... nothing like a sugar rush ;)
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Now that is just being plain greedy :D
 
pjm1 said:
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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Hi Paul - I did mean it as a compliment! It just has that quality to it that you'd see on a stock website, the perfect lighting makes all the difference! (y)
 
WMD said:
Hi Paul - I did mean it as a compliment! It just has that quality to it that you'd see on a stock website, the perfect lighting makes all the difference! (y)
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That's ok Matt - I took it as precisely that :) It was just the compliments received on that particular shot have been rather unexpected... for what is basically just a flower shot! I have, however, now acquired a new toy (41cm beauty dish) so I will be trying to locate some unsuspecting victims for the next theme!
 
Hi Paul ....well we are all different and personally I like the shot with the darker background as in your link. I do like Andy's idea that the bottles would make a stand alone shot ...they are absolutely spot on for clarity ...and I have been Pixel peeping :) It definitely caught my eye in the main thread, so its a well done for the theme from me.
 
Nice of you to include the comparison photos! I find that interesting to look at as I haven't started learning about "artificial" lighting yet. :D

I do think it's a good idea for the theme, but I also agree with cobra about the sugar. Cupcakes is good. I could go for cupcakes! (y)
 
susiejb said:
Hi Paul ....well we are all different and personally I like the shot with the darker background as in your link. I do like Andy's idea that the bottles would make a stand alone shot ...they are absolutely spot on for clarity ...and I have been Pixel peeping :) It definitely caught my eye in the main thread, so its a well done for the theme from me.
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Hi Susie... it's good to get all views and opinions, that's the point :) I'm pleased you pixel peep as it keeps us all "focused" (see what I did there?!) Thanks as always for commenting... it's appreciated.

Winter said:
Nice of you to include the comparison photos! I find that interesting to look at as I haven't started learning about "artificial" lighting yet. :D

I do think it's a good idea for the theme, but I also agree with cobra about the sugar. Cupcakes is good. I could go for cupcakes! (y)
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Hi Sheylara, thanks for looking and commenting. Happy to lose the sugar next time - I'll task Mrs Pjm1 with baking some cupcakes instead :)
 
Cheers for explaining the lighting and showing the various different shots. I agree the one you chose is the better one.
This really inspires me to try to travel along my own journey into lighting (but not this week).
 
Good interpretation, neat idea, but needs arty input ... [and what do I know about that?]

... the three bottles, tops off, with a drop of each colour, marbling together on the white surface? Hmmmm :thinking:
 
LC2 said:
Cheers for explaining the lighting and showing the various different shots. I agree the one you chose is the better one.
This really inspires me to try to travel along my own journey into lighting (but not this week).
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Tim, if anything I do can encourage someone to pick up a camera or a light stand, then I'm happy :) I've even gone and done a self portrait today (not for this challenge) which is getting dangerous into @posiview land ... to try to improve my lighting.

The thing I've learned about lighting is - yes, there are some rules - but basically you need to have a play. This play is easiest if you change things slowly, one bit at a time and see what effect it has. Keep doing that until you like what you see. That portrait lighting setup I mentioned involved me taking about 30 shots, with each one having one of the lights moved slightly, the body moved slightly etc... I guess that means my keeper rate was one of the lowest ever! But it allowed me to see what effect small changes have. A year or so ago (maybe more), I did the opposite - throw up 2 lights and a reflector and keep re-organising them completely after each shot. Guess what, I didn't have a clue why it looked rubbish, but it did.

So your description of it as a journey is precisely what it has been for me, so far: individual steps, sometimes very small, gradually picking up more and more as I go. And the exciting thing is I know I'm a very, very long way from my destination! It's just as well the journey itself is such good fun :)

d00d said:
Good interpretation, neat idea, but needs arty input ... [and what do I know about that?]

... the three bottles, tops off, with a drop of each colour, marbling together on the white surface? Hmmmm :thinking:
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I couldn't agree more, David. I look at it and think, "not right"... but couldn't put my finger on why. Conversely, I've just seen @Winter 's latest shot (of the contact lens) which she complains is not focused well enough, but as an image it grabs you, drags you through the story and leaves you wanting to go straight back. This is just a snap (even if it's a fairly carefully lit snap) by comparison. Good enough fun to do, but not an image as such.

I love your idea of the tops off, colour marbling etc. Genius!

and edited to say, "Thanks" to both of your for the comments!
 
Hi, good idea, but the BG and general composition needs some work, but I am sure by now you know that so I won't go on, all good points above.

I do agree just the bottles by themselves would perhaps work better
 
alsjazzera said:
Hi, good idea, but the BG and general composition needs some work, but I am sure by now you know that so I won't go on, all good points above.

I do agree just the bottles by themselves would perhaps work better
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Hi Allan... thanks for looking and commenting (y) It's good to get a "duff'un" every now and again because it makes the better ones feel more special! Struggled with this theme, especially with the time I had this week. But it is now technically Thursday... where's @Cobra with that bag when you need him??
 
Thanks so much for the all the additional background on the lighting - it's always interesting. I think Andy nailed it with it needing the box either out of the frame or closer to the bottles. But love the bright colours, and as Susie said - super sharp!
 
Emja said:
Thanks so much for the all the additional background on the lighting - it's always interesting. I think Andy nailed it with it needing the box either out of the frame or closer to the bottles. But love the bright colours, and as Susie said - super sharp!
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Thanks Emma - and it's now Thursday so we can look forward to Cobra picking something suitably different for our next challenge today :)
 
Hi Paul. Nothing to add really.The photo fits the theme perfectly and you gave the same advice to me and others that you have given yourself."Some weeks are gonna be better than others but you just have to keep going" I totally agree with the lighting advice given too.

Gaz
 
cargo said:
Hi Paul. Nothing to add really.The photo fits the theme perfectly and you gave the same advice to me and others that you have given yourself."Some weeks are gonna be better than others but you just have to keep going" I totally agree with the lighting advice given too.

Gaz
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Spot on Gaz (y) and you have to go through the mediocre to properly enjoy the good!
 
Lovely composition, I particular like the clarity, colours and the DOF used to such good effect on the icing sugar.
 
Artificial....Really like it.
The only thing bugging me (OCD kicking in) is the lean on the box! :D
 
sparrow said:
Lovely composition, I particular like the clarity, colours and the DOF used to such good effect on the icing sugar.
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Thanks Liz - not quite there as an image for me, but I'm pleased it's worked for you :) It's easier to be critical of one's own photos which is something I'm good at!

viv1969 said:
Artificial....Really like it.
The only thing bugging me (OCD kicking in) is the lean on the box! :D
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Thanks Ruth - per the above, I'm not wholly sold on my own shot, but I'm pleasantly surprised it's worked for a number of you. (y) Yes, the perspective distortion (despite attempts to correct it) is what it is...


Right, onwards and upwards. Personal.

I did a selfie during the week to test out my "beauty" (ahem) dish. So I didn't feel like I'd get much more out of repeating that experiment, except an eventually cracked lens ;)

So, something else which is obviously incredibly personal to me is my family. Coming back from a rugby game on Friday night having enjoyed a few beers, I decided that then would NOT be the best time to grab any pictures, so I waited until Saturday evening. My five year old son was sleeping quite peacefully so I thought this would be a very intimate, personal shot. I lit it just using the modelling light on the beauty dish (I didn't want the flash to wake him) and processed quite heavily to create a harsher fall-off of light still. It wasn't shot at particularly high ISO, but my heavier processing has introduced an element of grain which I actually quite like. In addition to accentuating the fall-off, I added a little extra light onto his arm/hand as I felt that added something to the image.

His pirate pillow case might not ideal in terms of creating a clean image, but I think work well in the context of the scene - it's his favourite set of bed linen.

Comments and crit always welcome even though I know people can be reticent to do so with family photos.


Week 12: Personal by Paul M, on Flickr
 
That's adorable! I think you got the perfect amount of light on his arm to round off the shot, but for me the face,especially the cheek, is maybe a touch too bright for the setting? The fall off works really well. I love Pooh Bear and the pillowcase...and those eyelashes - wow! It reminds me of a shot I did with my youngest for a project on 'shadows' last year - he was pretending to be asleep (not easy for a 5 yr old and a long exposure!) and we positioned a crocodile toy to make a large shadow on the wall behind. I was advised to darken the image a bit and I think it worked better in the end...only IMO of course!
 
Emja said:
That's adorable! I think you got the perfect amount of light on his arm to round off the shot, but for me the face,especially the cheek, is maybe a touch too bright for the setting? The fall off works really well. I love Pooh Bear and the pillowcase...and those eyelashes - wow! It reminds me of a shot I did with my youngest for a project on 'shadows' last year - he was pretending to be asleep (not easy for a 5 yr old and a long exposure!) and we positioned a crocodile toy to make a large shadow on the wall behind. I was advised to darken the image a bit and I think it worked better in the end...only IMO of course!
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Hi Emma, thank you for the comments and you're almost certainly right about the excessive contrast of my image above. It's a bit of an experiment (maintaining that full dynamic range) and I'll confess I fall into that "default" with black and white all the time. Looking at it now in the cold light of day, it definitely looks too hot, even for B&W. This might be a bit better?


Week 12: Personal (lower key) by Paul M, on Flickr
 
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Beautiful photo, and subject. i prefer the first photo, the second is a touch dark to me. The babyness of the lips is lost in the second photo. Just my opinion though and feel free to ignore.
Truly a picture to treasure though.
 
Emja said:
I like the attention that's draw to his eyelid and mouth in the second shot and it seems more in keeping with a nighttime setting - it's a lovely image, Paul.
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Thanks Emma :)

De88ie said:
Beautiful photo, and subject. i prefer the first photo, the second is a touch dark to me. The babyness of the lips is lost in the second photo. Just my opinion though and feel free to ignore.
Truly a picture to treasure though.
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Hi Debbie... sadly he's becoming less and less like a baby every day, so it's nice to get occasional pictures where he does still look as innocent as the day he was born! Thank you so much for your comments and I'd never ignore an opinion as they're all good to get :)

Good point on the lips - I've actually just tweaked the colour mix to lighten the reds in that second shot. Good spot and thinking!
 
Prefer the second edit Paul, it looks gentler and as Emma said more like a nighttime capture. Very good photo and spot on for the theme
 
TBH Paul, I'd say somewhere between the two images for the amount of light on your sons face, of the two, I prefer the first one though,
as it actually highlights him, the rest of the light falls away quite naturally.

Nice personal image :)
 
sirch said:
Prefer the second edit Paul, it looks gentler and as Emma said more like a nighttime capture. Very good photo and spot on for the theme
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Thanks Chris (y)

LC2 said:
I agree with Emma, the second version of teh shot for me. The first seems to blow out his cheeks whereas you have detail in the second version.
Great picture.
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Another vote for #2! There shouldn't be any blowout on the cheeks, at least not on my monitor (or looking at the RGB values)... I've recently calibrated my monitor but it's possible it's drifted?? (y)

Cobra said:
TBH Paul, I'd say somewhere between the two images for the amount of light on your sons face, of the two, I prefer the first one though,
as it actually highlights him, the rest of the light falls away quite naturally.

Nice personal image :)
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Thanks Chris. That makes sense and I reckon I'm now in agreement - I like the fall-off of the first but perhaps more of the tones of the second. Maybe I just need to play with the curves a touch and pull it back at the white end? Cheers!
 
pjm1 said:
Another vote for #2! There shouldn't be any blowout on the cheeks, at least not on my monitor (or looking at the RGB values)... I've recently calibrated my monitor but it's possible it's drifted?? (y)
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It could easily be my laptop's monitor that's out, as I've never calibrated it (it doesn't have much in the way of controls bar brightness).
 
pjm1 said:
There shouldn't be any blowout on the cheeks, at least not on my monitor (or looking at the RGB values)... I've recently calibrated my monitor but it's possible it's drifted?? (y)
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It looks ok to me, border line but OK.

I just put it up on ACR and as expected its exposed to the left, but there are no "hot spots"
a minor exposure tweak does produce a couple of small hot spots.
+0.25 produces a minor hot spot on the eye lid, +0.55 produces a couple of hot spots on his cheek.
 
LC2 said:
It could easily be my laptop's monitor that's out, as I've never calibrated it (it doesn't have much in the way of controls bar brightness).
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Cobra said:
It looks ok to me, border line but OK.

I just put it up on ACR and as expected its exposed to the left, but there are no "hot spots"
a minor exposure tweak does produce a couple of small hot spots.
+0.25 produces a minor hot spot on the eye lid, +0.55 produces a couple of hot spots on his cheek.
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You're both right that #1 is definitely over-exposed (for some reason I didn't do my usual check*) but I think we're in agreement the highlights are just over, rather than blown - the main benefit being I can adjust them back down without clipping (as I did in #2).


* my usual check is expose as I think looks right and then adjust the exposure by a further +2.5 in LR. If any of the face/skin blows with the red blinkies then I adjust back until they disappear, then knock 2.5 off the exposure value. That avoids any hot skin, I've found (which equates to anything above 92% R/G/B in LR).
 
That's a wonderful portrait Paul. The edited one has my vote - it looks more "tender" in keeping with the subject. Lighting is perfect with Pooh showing up well but I particularly like the sheen you've managed to get on his eyelids and nose. Beautiful. :clap:
 
Carl Ayling said:
That's a wonderful portrait Paul. The edited one has my vote - it looks more "tender" in keeping with the subject. Lighting is perfect with Pooh showing up well but I particularly like the sheen you've managed to get on his eyelids and nose. Beautiful. :clap:
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Thank Carl... I'm pleased with the overall effect after a bit of exposure tweaking :) It's funny - that sheen might be seen as a fault in different circumstances, but I also quite like it. Thanks for looking and commenting :)
 
Hi Paul, what a precious portrait of your son. There are pros for both versions - the highlights on his lips in the first, and the gentler skin tones of the second - and it would be interesting to see one in the middle of the two, but overall the second is my favourite as the exposure gives more of a night time look and feel. Very nice indeed :clap:
 
Hi Paul ...at first viewing I did think the first looked a tad too bright, but at the same time I thought the second shot had lost something. I just took another good look on my ipad which I much prefer to my computer screen and I've decided I like the first best...I do really like b&w but it isn't always kind on skin tone and it's for that reason that it's the first is the shot for me. Definitely one to treasure, they grow up far too quickly.
 
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