Rudder's 52 - Week 14 - Shoot... loaded :)

Love the feel of the first one. the tryptich is excellent and it's an intriguing little story you've told too. I agree with Ian about the last shot.

The third shot does look exposed more for the sky than the people on my lappy... it does look a bit dark.
 
I love your first one - the sepia processing suits it so well and it could have been taken 80 years ago. Both locked in their private worlds - well spotted. The rest are good too, though the distant shot is too dark to see much on my monitor. The triptych is a great idea and works well even though it is a pity the background people are a bit distracting. Maybe you could blur them a little?
 
Number one is the pick of the crop for me. Looks like you did a good job getting that from the original shot. (y)
 
Cheers for the comments everyone, I'd seen the lady in the sepia shot walking around and wanted to get her picture so when I saw her sat down later I took the opportunity, I agree there are too many other distractions in the triptych.

I think in most of my shot's I'm relying too much on processing after the event to rescue bad shot's, I think I'm learning more about photoshop than photography, hopefully when the weather's a bit better I'll be able to get out with a camera more1
 
Week 08 Mechanical

Here's my take on Mechanical...

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I decided to go for a mechanical pencil (that's what Wikipedia call them) and contrast it with some older pencils in the background with a pencil sharpener.

I wasn't originally planning on it being a b&W image but there was a distracting lighter area in the top left of the colour image I was having trouble getting rid of! :bang:
 
i really like that, its nice and simple and the DOF really works for me!! Spot on!
 
That works very well. Nice conversion and composition. DoF perfect. Really like this, simple and very effective :clap:
 
Hi Dave:wave:

I love your 2nd 'Chopped' and the B&W street shot is a winner for me...Lovely! As is your 1st 'People' shot. Mechanical is a really good shot if not quite as charismatic as some of the others :)
 
Very simple, very clean, and the conversion works well. nicely done and on theme
 
Hullo, love the story telling Triptych. Like you I wonder why she is taking a picture of herself like that. I found it hard to try and give it a happy ending.

Your Mechanical looks nice and clean. Something I'm still having trouble getting right myself. The shallow DOF with the mono conversion works really well too.
 
Love the clean simple image. Processing is spot on.

(y)

Ian.
 
Dave - Love the processing of the old lady - really effective!

The Triptych is really nice - not thought about doing one to tell a story before so will have to try that at some point!

Mechanical is a lovely take on the theme, and a nice crisp shot. No nonsense - love it!
 
Can't believe I missed your people week Dave - and so many shots to choose from.

I absolutely loved the first shot as soon as I saw it and I really don't care about those couple of blown highlights. They almost add to the aged, antique photo feel of it.
After seeing the original that you took this from, all I can say is wow! That's some very skilled PP there.

Second and third are good, but not really doing that much for me - although the brightness in the third looks absolutely fine on my monitor. I think it must be your work's one making it look bad. I often do the same. Some shots look hideous on my work monitor :LOL: :LOL: :LOL:

Love the story within the triptych - really nicely put together and a very effective way to present it.

Mechanical : Yep - on theme and a good clean, crisp image.
White background works well, but I think perhaps you could do with a bit more DoF. The pencil sharpener's almost getting lost on my monitor because it's not quite defined enough.
 
Thanks for the comments everyone

L'Cham said:
Hullo, love the story telling Triptych. Like you I wonder why she is taking a picture of herself like that. I found it hard to try and give it a happy ending.
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klc_001 said:
The Triptych is really nice - not thought about doing one to tell a story before so will have to try that at some point!
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SarahLee said:
Love the story within the triptych - really nicely put together and a very effective way to present it.
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I think the triptych is the one I'm most proud of probably because it's the first time I've done something like that, both a triptych and capturing a moment in someones life, when I took them I wasn't thinking of doing that but when I saw them that was the only way I could think of presenting them to keep the story.

SarahLee said:
White background works well, but I think perhaps you could do with a bit more DoF. The pencil sharpener's almost getting lost on my monitor because it's not quite defined enough.
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I was slightly disappointed over that, it is a bit more obvious on the colour version, maybe it could have been better placed somewhere between the mechanical pencil and the others because apart form that I am happy with the DoF.

I often find with my 52 images that, after looking at them properly and the criticism, there's something I should have done slightly different but because of the subject matter I can't motivate myself to try a reshoot, except for the Chopped image but I think that's just because the idea came to me and I really liked it. Of course the good thing is that all the lessons learnt each week help you to think about things like composition first before taking the image.
 
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Week 9 - Play

Here's my submission for Play, I wanted a photo of a playground and decided to get up earlier than normal and nip to one I drive past on the way to work, upon opening the curtains It was rather misty but I decided to go anyway, I quite like the effect it gives. To me there's a slightly spooky empty feeling there

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I decided to try spinning the roundabout as I didn't like the look of the shot being totally static. The only P&P (apart from border & resize) is using the Color Efex Color Stylizer and removal of a distracting leaf in the foreground.

C&C please
 
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Nice idea!.....I like it the trees in the background give a nice eerie feel.....maybe a little more contrast would give it a bit more ooomph it's a shame there's not another tree to fill the gap as the sky is so blank, but you can almost see the ghosts of the past at play!
 
i like it. had a similar idea but couldn't find an empty round about. lol. Have you tried B&W having a bit of a thing for B&W at the min.
 
Totally agree with Sonia on this. It's a great eerie shot that works very very well.

However the sky is a little bland and the tree definition is a bit lost in the bright light (over-exposed?)

The idea though is excellent. It's a shame things like the swings are so far away, as it would have been cool to see lots of movement in the shot and no people.

10/10 for effort though.

Ian.
 
Very clever Dave, I like that, very eerie and on theme too. The sky is a bit bland, but you know what... it helps with the eerie feel... I don't think a nice blue sky and cloud patterns would have helped here.
 
I like this a lot - the movement of the roundabout certainly adds to the shot and I like the muted colours : )
 
Does look a little eerie with the empty spinning roundabout (is that sherdley park by any chance) fits this weeks theme well(y)
 
Cheers for the comments everyone :)

I have considered making a little set of empty playground equipment, setting the swings swinging first etc, although I think I probably look strange enough taking photo's of "invisible children" without running round pushing swings first!:wacky:

The original photo had a bit more definition round the top of the trees, still a totally blank sky (due to the mist) I had problems keeping the definition with the colour processing but decided it was worth it for me.

aztec said:
Does look a little eerie with the empty spinning roundabout (is that sherdley park by any chance) fits this weeks theme well(y)
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It was taken in Haresfinch Park up by the Woodlands pub :D
 
Should have spotted the Haresfinch park shot as thats were I have been living for the past 40 odd years :LOL:
 
aztec said:
Should have spotted the Haresfinch park shot as thats were I have been living for the past 40 odd years :LOL:
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Does the bench not get uncomfortable after the first 10 years?:p

clud17 said:
I like it Dave, i think the white sky just reflects the frosty morning. was there any early dog walkers about, i bet they thought you were crazy.
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There was a couple of them about :confused: I was on the way to work in a shirt & tie so I just hoped people might assume I'm there for work purposes... from the council or something and not just stark raving mad :LOL:
 
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I'll tell you what this looks like to me. It's like an apocalyptic scene with the bomb going off and whiting out the background as it races towards the playground. Chilling, but ace.
 
I like the idea and the processing. The left side is a little tree heavy though and I feel the roundabout needs a longer exposure to get a full circular blur.
 
Great image Dave.
I like the movement in the roundabout and the whole scene is well composed.
Do you have a more saturated version of it. I would be interested in seeing the colours pop out more. Well done, a good take on the theme. iain
 
The23rdman said:
I'll tell you what this looks like to me. It's like an apocalyptic scene with the bomb going off and whiting out the background as it races towards the playground. Chilling, but ace.
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:agree: That's exactly what I thought of when I saw it.
Eerie and slightly surreal - it really works well. I like this one a lot :clap:

Composition is spot on. I love the stark, bare trees on the left - they're a really good balance to the main focal point of the roundabout.
I also like the little detail of the empty roundabout being in motion. It gives a ghostly feel to the image . . . or makes me wonder why somebody left it in such a hurry.

Rudders said:
I often find with my 52 images that, after looking at them properly and the criticism, there's something I should have done slightly different but because of the subject matter I can't motivate myself to try a reshoot, except for the Chopped image but I think that's just because the idea came to me and I really liked it. Of course the good thing is that all the lessons learnt each week help you to think about things like composition first before taking the image.
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I know what you mean. I really want to reshoot "chopped" because I was disappointed in it . . . it's just not a theme that I can build much enthusiasm for though.
:shrug: But even if you don't reshoot, those are the little details that you'll think about next time and even if you're not conscious of it, it all helps with the learning curve.
 
Week 10 Chemistry
What I really wanted for this week was a photo of a nice tanker, preferably chrome, with a lovely red sky, too busy/lazy for that now so will make do with my second thought.
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When we went the chippy a couple of weeks back one of our number had a kiddies meal and got a free carton with it, it's sat in our fridge ever since.

I was slightly surprised that it didn't contain any orange at all and that gave me the idea for this.

I'm not overly happy with it, I quite liked the effect from the original photo but it didn't say chemical to me so I decided to add some text, a yellow border and a biohazard logo just for fun.
 
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Interesting feel to the shot Dave. I think the feeling of desolation works really well added by the spinning merry go round. Good job.

Cheers, Rob
 
Thanks for looking everyone and for the comments :D
blakester said:
Do you have a more saturated version of it. I would be interested in seeing the colours pop out more. Well done, a good take on the theme. iain
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The colours are quite muted anyway as I reckon it was painted quite a while ago and due to the fog, a bit of a shame as I did quite fancy some very bold primary colours in my original idea for the shot.

dlh said:
I like the idea and the processing. The left side is a little tree heavy though and I feel the roundabout needs a longer exposure to get a full circular blur.
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I took a couple with a longer exposure but the movement wasn't as obvious as the framework formed a full circle.

The23rdman said:
I'll tell you what this looks like to me. It's like an apocalyptic scene with the bomb going off and whiting out the background as it races towards the playground. Chilling, but ace.
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When I see playgrounds, or even chain-link fences, I always think of the scene in Terminator 2 (I think) where Sarah Connor has the nightmare of seeing the nuclear strike near the playground, that probably explains why I went down this route.
 
Nice idea for chemistry. I really like the way you've lit the drink and caught its reflection, it is almost glowing like your typical biohazard :) I can understand why you've added the text, but something isn't quite right about it. Might just be the font. And whilst the border certainly frames the idea well, it's hurting my eyes :D Good image though (y)
 
Cheers for the comments :)
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Here's an edited version using a different font, I think it's an improvement...

To be honest I really wanted the border to be like hazard tape but couldn't think of an easy way to do it...
 
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I love the way that you've lit this one - that drink looks positively radioactive :puke:

Good background, good reflection and I like the inventive use of the text and biohazard symbol - the amended font is definitely better.

It's a humourous take on the theme, but very well executed and it works well for me.
 
Font is much better. Still hurting my eyes but at least I can read it whilst I go blind now :LOL:
 
watch out this drink glows in the dark ... :LOL:

Very well done Dave (y) the lighting is excellent, everything about it screams toxicity, which I'm sure was the intent of the image, and the font on the second is much better.
 
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