A piece of Wood and some Glass

leaforte

A piece of driftwood, a glass ball, and some rounded beach glass from Alki beach in W. Seattle.

#1


#2


#3


and #4


Thanks for looking. CC always welcome.

ian408

There's something to be said for beach combing. Nice finds. Floats, drift wood, and glass bits.

Nice group of shots.

Zarathustra

Shooting on glass is such a pain when you are looking to have a really wide DOF. The subject of the first shot is my favorite (wonderful positioning of the objects, well lit without overwhelming the glass sphere) but the background is very distracting to me with the edge of the glass being tack sharp. I'm not sure how I would work around that in camera since everything that I've shot on a reflective surface has been small enough to get the entire surface and subject in frame.

The second shot, even though you have a definite black point still makes me squint. It is a tad on the overly bright side for me. Again, your positioning, framing and subject matter are beautiful but the background is distracting.

The third shot is IMHO the best of the four. The subtle, warm lighting, the OOF and simple background, the positioning of the objects all come together to make a wonderful shot.

Shot four has a lovely interplay of shadows in front of the arrangement but I think that it could have been a tighter crop to keep the amount of void from becoming as dominant on the left hand side.

I really can't emphasize enough that even if I have sounded overly critical through this whole post (sorry), this set is beautiful. It is just that when I go into critique mode my compliment mode hides in fear. Also keep in mind that these are the ramblings of a rank amateur who doesn't like to wear a helmet because it makes it hard to lick the windows.

leaforte

Zarathustra wrote:

Shooting on glass is such a pain when you are looking to have a really wide DOF. The subject of the first shot is my favorite (wonderful positioning of the objects, well lit without overwhelming the glass sphere) but the background is very distracting to me with the edge of the glass being tack sharp. I'm not sure how I would work around that in camera since everything that I've shot on a reflective surface has been small enough to get the entire surface and subject in frame.

The second shot, even though you have a definite black point still makes me squint. It is a tad on the overly bright side for me. Again, your positioning, framing and subject matter are beautiful but the background is distracting.

The third shot is IMHO the best of the four. The subtle, warm lighting, the OOF and simple background, the positioning of the objects all come together to make a wonderful shot.

Shot four has a lovely interplay of shadows in front of the arrangement but I think that it could have been a tighter crop to keep the amount of void from becoming as dominant on the left hand side.

I really can't emphasize enough that even if I have sounded overly critical through this whole post (sorry), this set is beautiful. It is just that when I go into critique mode my compliment mode hides in fear. Also keep in mind that these are the ramblings of a rank amateur who doesn't like to wear a helmet because it makes it hard to lick the windows.

Thank you for the CC. It really helps. I'm not very good with OC lighting, but will keep practicing.

Zarathustra

The lighting was wonderful on every shot but #2, so don't knock yourself for the lighting. 1, 3, and 4 showed some great use of OC lighting, especially the shadow play on #4 and the warmth of #3. You picked a technically challenging subject (shooting on a mirror) and tamed it by shot 3. My nit with pic #4 can be easily fixed with a crop and I'm sure that many of the people here would disagree with me that the voids are a problem. Like I said in my previous post, when critiquing I find it hard to compliment and vice versa. I was really hoping that you would not come away from my post thinking that they were crappy shots because they aren't. I'm sorry if I came off too harsh. :

leaforte

Zarathustra wrote:

The lighting was wonderful on every shot but #2, so don't knock yourself for the lighting. 1, 3, and 4 showed some great use of OC lighting, especially the shadow play on #4 and the warmth of #3. You picked a technically challenging subject (shooting on a mirror) and tamed it by shot 3. My nit with pic #4 can be easily fixed with a crop and I'm sure that many of the people here would disagree with me that the voids are a problem. Like I said in my previous post, when critiquing I find it hard to compliment and vice versa. I was really hoping that you would not come away from my post thinking that they were crappy shots because they aren't. I'm sorry if I came off too harsh. :

You didn't come off harsh at all! I really appreciate the critique. It all helps me to get better. Thanks for looking.