C&C my marbles

Bend The Light · July 16, 2011

Hi all,

Really need your thoughts on this image.
What's good, what's bad, and what is not right. Let me know if I should ditch it.

I am having a difficult time finding time to shoot decent images for an upcoming competition with the theme "glass"...hence messing with the kids toys for 5 minutes.

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Ruby's Marbles sRGB by http://bendthelight.me.uk, on Flickr

Richard · July 16, 2011

What a clever shot! Great idea and well done.

OK, since we're talking competition, here are a few things I think worth trying. I'd lose the leftmost marble and just use three. I'd also force the background to black, except, of course, for the reflections. Finally--and here's the hard part, I think--I'd try to get the face in sharper focus.

Good luck and please post whatever you come up with as the final version.

Bend The Light · July 16, 2011

Thanks Richard.

I see the background a lot darker on this computer than on the wife's laptop. I need to go back and adjust the blacks, then.
I will see if I get enough time to reshoot the three marbles...I know what you mean about "three" being a good number - they do say that at our club.

I'll see if I can find the extra few hours in the next day or so...

Cheers

TonyCooper · July 16, 2011

The concept is great. Normally, I'd say "great shot" and stop there,
but you've asked for suggestion.

If your club's judges are like my club's judges, they'll pick on the
reflections of the windows in the back three marbles. It's not bad
to have reflection points of light, but those are discernibly windows.
You should be able to take care of that in post if you have PS or LR.

I agree with Richard on using only the three marbles. Three is the
magic group, and the fourth marble doesn't have enough color. Also,
the fourth marble is not reflected in the surface the way the other
three are.

The black background looks fine on my monitor.

Bend The Light · July 17, 2011

Thanks Tony. I did ask for suggestions, and so your comments are welcome. Thanks.
I have redone some shots, and I am just processing a few now...I used an LED lightsource below the marbles, so no windows...but has it's own challenges now!

TonyCooper · July 17, 2011

Bend The Light wrote: »

Thanks Tony. I did ask for suggestions, and so your comments are welcome. Thanks.
I have redone some shots, and I am just processing a few now...I used an LED lightsource below the marbles, so no windows...but has it's own challenges now!

No windows? I would have sworn the reflection is a bank of three windows on the left.
If they're not windows, then you need to change the image enough that it doesn't look
like windows.

Keep working at it. You're on to a good thing.

Bend The Light · July 17, 2011

No, I mean the NEW images that I haven't uploaded have no windows. They still have some annoying blown bits though!

Bend The Light · July 17, 2011

I did some more work on the marbles. I'm still not happy, though.
I tried this...but I am not convinced (no face...it didn't go right)

marble madness sRGB by http://bendthelight.me.uk, on Flickr

Then I got fed up of things not working, so went to town on a couple of marbles, and this was the result:

eclipse no frame sRGB by http://bendthelight.me.uk, on Flickr

Thoughts?

TonyCooper · July 17, 2011

Bend The Light wrote: »

I did some more work on the marbles. I'm still not happy, though.
I tried this...but I am not convinced (no face...it didn't go right)

You're not going to like this, but I liked the positioning in your
first image better if you would just set it up the same way with
just the three marbles to the right. The child's face was a great
touch.

You have great color and reflections in the new 3-marble image,
but the composition is not as good as the first image. It looks
contrived.

Now, you may ask, how can a deliberately positioned table-top
not look contrived? Can't tell you, but the first didn't. In
the new one, I look at it and I see the Mickey Mouse hat with ears.
(I live in Orlando, you know)

That first image was very good except for the 4th marble and
and the windows. With three in the same position, the
windows out, and a little tighter cropping because of less
in the scene...you have a winner.

I'm just one person, though.

Bend The Light · July 18, 2011

Ok, thanks Tony...I will have another go tonight, I think. Last chance tonight.

Richard · July 18, 2011

The face really made the original shot. The second shot has better color and pop and the background does look like true black on my monitor. The third doesn't do much for me, I'm afraid. While I agree with most of what Tony said about composition and reflections, if I had to choose one among these three, I would stick with #1, though I would try to darken the background.

C&C my marbles

Comments