CH:Dry 1st time entry~advice.

SnapHappy

First time I've had a go at one of these challenges, came up with this idea, any advice, its not Quite right yet, subject, advice?

Dry cork

XO-Studios

SnapHappy wrote:

First time I've had a go at one of these challenges, came up with this idea, any advice, its not Quite right yet, subject, advice?

Dry cork

I like the idea, but have a couple of suggestions for improvement

1) colors, the redish/purple of the wineside of the cork and the blue back ground don't do it for me.

2) Composition/Crop the cork doesn;t have enough room in the 'frame' plus is very central, w/o being symetric

3) Zoom/Detail level, it is too big for it to be a regular picture yet not quite close enough for it to be a macro.

I like the idea tho, but maybe zooming out a hair, leave some room around the cork and perhpas some dramatic side lighting hat would create a long shadow.

FWIW,

XO,

aero-nut

Snap,


I have to agree. It is a cool idea. The blue background kind of throws off the balance of the pic. Maybe a plain white would better emphasize the highlights of the cork.

SnapHappy

Acting upon such friendly advice I've recomposed the shot to this:


I have still a few ideas to try, any better I wonder?

XO-Studios

SnapHappy wrote:

Acting upon such friendly advice I've recomposed the shot to this:

I have still a few ideas to try, any better I wonder?

I messed with it a little bit to illustrate what I thought I meant, but while composition gets better, it looses the message. So at this time, no better input.

XO,

ps. hope you are not offended by what I did.

SnapHappy

XO-Studios wrote:

I messed with it a little bit to illustrate what I thought I meant, but while composition gets better, it looses the message. So at this time, no better input.

XO,

ps. hope you are not offended by what I did.

Not at all, I'm very grateful for your input. I tried a similar shot but I felt it didn't Quite carry the 'DRY' message as you have suggested.
I like the colour that you have put onto the background but unfortunately I can not play around with the image yet as I don't have enough RAM in the laptop to get Photoshop up and running as yet. So what I am stuck with what i get from the original shot.

Higgmeister

Hi Snaphappy,
Your second shot is better than the first. You have a good idea going:):. It says more corky than dry to me, but it's a large step in the right direction from the first. No suggestions at this point, just my .02.

Good Luck,
Chris

SnapHappy

I'm sort of pleased with the cork, but is it dry enough?

With 2 shots in mind I went looking today for a replacement for the cork. Hunting for hay bails and peoples washing lines weren't too fruitful. So I managed to snatch these few shots. Opinions please, stick with the cork? Or move on to one of these? Whilst I have (no chance) & no expectations of winning the challenge, my aim is to have a worthy contribution.
(dry on dry)

(a thirsty tree) My fav!

(..)

(dry on dry2)

SnapHappy

Apologies for the mass of options but i have been busy with the hunt for dry today. The last one:
(dry tree stump)

Higgmeister

Hi Snappy,
You have some very nice shots in there. The pinecones don't work DRY for me so I prefer the cork the those. I really like the dry tree shot, wonderfully dramatic lighting (I tend to gravitate to those). A little fill would also help here (I think, but not sure). I like this shot all the way around:D. The dry tree stump is also an interesting picture. I like the textures and forms created by the dry trunk. It needs some PP to pop or even a B&W treatment to bring out the textures and forms. This one says dry more than any of the others, though the dry tree I like the best as a photo.

So, to summarize, I think the dry tree trunk is the most dry out of all your shots.

Nice shots overall, thanks for sharing,
Chris

SnapHappy

Thanks for input. The only post work I can do is light/contrast basics in iphoto at the moment and won't get a chance to pop back to the location to take more. The stump in B&W as suggested:

I'm leaning towards the dramatic thirsty tree.

The tree was dead, so dry as a bone. I liked this feature, looks to me like the tree has a face with a dry open mouth, thirsting for a drink, cobwebs adding to effect. However, the stump looks good & dry in B&W.
Opinions please..........

SnapHappy

SnapHappy

improvement?

Higgmeister

I like it. There are some deep,rich blacks and the texture is coming out. I love all the dry cracks, wonderful design. Is this the one you are going with or have you decided yet?

Chris

SnapHappy

Higgmeister wrote:

I like it. There are some deep,rich blacks and the texture is coming out. I love all the dry cracks, wonderful design. Is this the one you are going with or have you decided yet?

Chris

Thanks for your comments Chris. I've gone with the tree, better pic IMO.