weekly Raptor Mike's TP52 challange 2015 - CATCH UP!! Weeks 14, 15, 16 & 17 added

Welcome aboard Mike !!!
Good to have you here and you'll be into the swing of things before you know it . . . glued to your PC on a Friday night, walking around mumbling to yourself about various theme words, frantically googling random phrases for inspiration :LOL:

Seriously though - enjoy yourself and looking forward to seeing your shots :)
 
SarahLee said:
Welcome aboard Mike !!!
Good to have you here and you'll be into the swing of things before you know it . . . glued to your PC on a Friday night, walking around mumbling to yourself about various theme words, frantically googling random phrases for inspiration :LOL:

Seriously though - enjoy yourself and looking forward to seeing your shots :)
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Thanks, I'm looking forward to it. :)
 
Hi Mike....fun.....it's a vicious rumour it is :D Welcome aboard :wave:
 
So here's my first go. I chose to make a lego pattern. Taken with 2 pieces of black mountboard, one flat on the table and one stood up, using off camera 430EXII through and umbrella. Adjustments to WB, levels, contrast and crop and some lego 'cleaned' in PSE9.

Not sure whether to go for the f16 or f2.8 but on thinking as it's a macro (not sure that's quite the right word lol) I'm thinking go for 2.8, but f16 shows the pattern better. I also shot an f8.

f2.8

Pattern f2.8 by Raptor Mike, on Flickr


f16

Pattern f16 by Raptor Mike, on Flickr
 
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F16 for me. For this kind of photograph, with representative patterns, I feel front to back sharpness is better.

Just to add, the first few weeks of the TP52 can be mental, trying to comment on 80+ submissions can be very taxing. What I intend to do is for the first few weeks comment on what I consider to be the best submission for the previous month. Once numbers dwindle, which they unfortunately will, I'll comment on more. Of course, I would not expect you to comment on all my submissions (y)

Cheers.
 
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posiview said:
F16 for me. For this kind of photograph, with representative patterns, I feel front to back sharpness is better.

Just to add, the first few weeks of the TP52 can be mental, trying to comment on 80+ submissions can be very taxing. What I intend to do is for the first few weeks comment on what I consider to be the best submission for the previous month. Once numbers dwindle, which they unfortunately will, I'll comment on more. Of course, I would not expect you to comment on all my submissions (y)

Cheers.
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Umm I did wonder. Am I aloud to change it once posted?
 
As with Posiview, f16, should all be in focus. Like Leebert's image, this one does my eyes in after a while.
 
That's pretty damn impressive Mike.

Love the lateral thinking and creativity that's gone into it, and beautifully even lighting which is what's needed for that sort of thing.
Something Aztec about it to me - both in the pattern and in the resemblance to an Aztec temple . . . plus there's a sort of pulsing optical illusion thing going on which I really like (as long as I don't stare at it for too long!)

Raptor Mike said:
Umm I did wonder. Am I aloud to change it once posted?
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Of course you are!
Although just to muddy the water, I think I'm personally slightly more drawn to the F2.8.
The pattern drawing away from you adds to that Aztec temple shape and I like that the knobbly bits on the Lego aren't so crisply defined all the way through . . . saying that, the front to back sharpness of the f16 does really emphasis the patten . . . aaaaarrrrgggghhhh I don't know! :LOL:
 
SarahLee said:
That's pretty damn impressive Mike.

Love the lateral thinking and creativity that's gone into it, and beautifully even lighting which is what's needed for that sort of thing.
Something Aztec about it to me - both in the pattern and in the resemblance to an Aztec temple . . . plus there's a sort of pulsing optical illusion thing going on which I really like (as long as I don't stare at it for too long!)



Of course you are!
Although just to muddy the water, I think I'm personally slightly more drawn to the F2.8.
The pattern drawing away from you adds to that Aztec temple shape and I like that the knobbly bits on the Lego aren't so crisply defined all the way through . . . saying that, the front to back sharpness of the f16 does really emphasis the patten . . . aaaaarrrrgggghhhh I don't know! :LOL:
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:banghead::LOL: Thanks Sarah. I posted the fist one because it is like a macro and it has a little bohka effect and is sharp in the centre of the pattern. But the second does show the pattern better. I shouldve set the focus point on the bottom line of bricks. :)
 
SarahLee said:
That's pretty damn impressive Mike.

Love the lateral thinking and creativity that's gone into it, and beautifully even lighting which is what's needed for that sort of thing.
Something Aztec about it to me - both in the pattern and in the resemblance to an Aztec temple . . . plus there's a sort of pulsing optical illusion thing going on which I really like (as long as I don't stare at it for too long!)
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Sorry Sarah I missed that bit for some reason :oops: :$:sorry: (I think I just had f2.8 or f16 on the brain lol). Thank you so much for your nice comments. It started as the side of a pyramid going to a point at the top but I looked at it for a bit and decided to square it off. Thanks again (y)
 
Interesting start Mike,
gotta say I also like the sharp crispness of the f/16 too :)
 
A lot of people are saying if they look at it too long it makes them feel funny. Although it wasn't my intention, result!! Lol I find it OK but maybe that's because I've built so have seen the actual model so my brain relates to the actual model, noir the photo? I don't know?

Still if it makes the viewer feel odd then good stuff :)
Thanks for all the comments (y)
 
Hiya Mike. Nice idea and well implemented. You might find that lego makes a pretty frequent appearance in this challenge for many people :)

I definitely prefer the f16 but I can see why you wanted to try the shallow DOF version too. Lighting is simple but effective and the black background has been kept pretty even (tiny tiny light spill where it looks like the flash is coming from). I like the perspective too - a great start to this challenge and well done.
 
pjm1 said:
Hiya Mike. Nice idea and well implemented. You might find that lego makes a pretty frequent appearance in this challenge for many people :)

I definitely prefer the f16 but I can see why you wanted to try the shallow DOF version too. Lighting is simple but effective and the black background has been kept pretty even (tiny tiny light spill where it looks like the flash is coming from). I like the perspective too - a great start to this challenge and well done.
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Thanks you :) I didn't notice the light spill until I looked at it again on flickr which has a black background. Lesson learnt (y)
 
Oh I wouldn't worry too much: we get terrible obsessed about even white and even black background on this challenge. I get around this by making most of mine a muddy grey :)

The slight light spill is barely noticeable and, as you say, only really seen when put against a completely back BG. I actually smiled because it confirmed where I thought the light was coming from!
 
pjm1 said:
Oh I wouldn't worry too much: we get terrible obsessed about even white and even black background on this challenge. I get around this by making most of mine a muddy grey :)

The slight light spill is barely noticeable and, as you say, only really seen when put against a completely back BG. I actually smiled because it confirmed where I thought the light was coming from!
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The lenses was almost touching the bottom left of the brolly which was pointing slightly in and down :)
 
Lego, my second favourite toy after my camera. Likely to show in a shot of mine in the future.
Having looked at these two shots for a while. Liking the second image better due to the sharpness, shallow depth of field for this image does nothing for me. Love the choice of colours too. lots of possibilities could come from this.
 
Hi Mike

yup , #2 for me as well..... it does make my eye's go funny though :confused:

This is not crit....I'm merely asking a question as I don't understand lighting at all.....using ocf through a brolly....does it really make that much difference to the final image as opposed to say , natural light & reflectors ?
 
blondie606 said:
Hi Mike

yup , #2 for me as well..... it does make my eye's go funny though :confused:

This is not crit....I'm merely asking a question as I don't understand lighting at all.....using ocf through a brolly....does it really make that much difference to the final image as opposed to say , natural light & reflectors ?
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I shot mine at night, so yes ;) Tbh I'm quite new to ocf but I really like the way you can control it and have it where you want.
 
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