OOMCZ#1 Still Life

grandmaR

I had a lot of ideas of how to do this but putting what I had in my mind into a photo wasn't so easy. This is the one I did with the things that were the easiest to get to (I wanted to do one with onions and garlic but I am not able to stand long in the kitchen (and there is no place to sit there while my husband has everything disorganized to re-do the kitchen which project started in 2012) to organize the things.

So these are what I have come up with













These are not necessarily in any order of my preference

JAG

I see where your going with this and these items can have loads of possibility. First I would say that all of the images feel cramped and cropped too tight. Thus maybe backing off a little more from your set up, since I get the feeling that you might not have a post editor? If you do have a post editor, then you can always take the image further back and try different crops.

I recognize the Holland America Line medallion and not sure if it would fit a time period of the photos. Although, with the photos in the images in mind, I like the ones with just the book and older images/album in it. It seems that the theme is somewhat confusing when you add the 3rd picture. Also in each of the images you have a clear plastic or glass object, that I really do not have a clue to what it is. Is it a vase or some kind of antique decanter of some sort?

With the feel of antiqueness that you seem to be striving for in your images, I feel that you need to weed down your selection to just one period of time and create a story with your images. Is that a letter opener on the left? If so, then you could rearrange the whole image with some old stationary and hand written letter and some form of pen and inkwell or something. But the letter opener does not seem to go with the jewelry or the photos. The wooden box could go with the letter opener if it was open and contained some old letters tied in a ribbon or something.

Pick items and group them together to tell a story of just a period in time. Your lighting is good on the first through third image.

If you do have post processing available, you could always lay a faded mask over the top and make the image look old, depending on which items you choose to shoot for your story. So many possibilities with these items! Its just a matter of grouping the correct ones together and panning out a little further.

grandmaR

I concur completely as those were the problems I see myself. The old photos, the one on the left is my great uncle - I don't know who the lady is. The thing that is long and skinny was my great aunt's umbrella handle, and other crystal thing was my grandmother's perfume bottle. The separate photo is of my husband when he was a Midshipman and the uniform for that is the same over the years.

Originally my idea was to have lace, jewelry and furs with the old photos. But I can't find the lace (other than white lace on red satin which I don't think would work. The inlaid box does not fit very well and is awkward so I think I will take it out (it isn't really old) and look for something else. The book that the photos are in is in EXTREMELY poor condition in that the covers have completely come apart, and I mean in shreds and crumbles. The red velvet cover has worn away and all the padding has come out. Orginally I was going to have the clasp in the photo but not sure about that.

grandmaR

This is an interim re-shoot. I couldn't get the light that I wanted to turn on, so I will have to do it again tomorrow. Also I need to rearrange the stuff at the bottom and maybe take the snowman bank out.

JAG

grandmaR, this is looking better! I really like that you added the bow ribbon at the top. I do agree with you to remove the snowman. Try a few more shoots with the other items in different positions. Maybe try and not bunch up so much to one side. There is a plate in the upper left corner of the background, this should be removed from the scene in my opinion. As a suggestion to try, you could add a small book under the blue fabric, center and in front of the album. Then place the jewelry box on top of that and try draping the pearls down a little. If your able to bring the box and (if you decide to try it with the book under the fabric) book closer and away from the album. Then try focusing on the box and pearls and see if you can get the DOF (depth of field) to close down some so that the album is slightly OOF (out of focus). Just as an experiment to see how it looks.

Even though I will be posting the Entry thread tomorrow, you will still have 3 days to add an entry into it. Your doing well! You could try using flashlights or candles to see if you can make a more dramatic lighting. So many possibilities!

grandmaR

This is more or less the final shot. The only thing I might do is remove the pearls from the left side. The bow is from a Christmas basket that I got from my son - I was waiting to get it hoping that it would have something I could use and it came yesterday.

This is set up in a basket which is propped on a bookcase and file cabinet. The 'plate' was a button tin that I put to mask the file cabinet. The photo book is so deteriorated that I couldn't get it to 'sit up' without the cocoon of the basket. The problem with the basket is that stuff falls down underneath the photo book and doesn't lie flat (because it isn't flat).

Originally I was going to use red fabric with black lace, but I couldn't find the black lace. I have done a little post processing as suggested (I had to figure ut how to do it as I don't do that much of it) and I think it does look better.

JAG

Oh I like the arrangement on this one! Nice work on pulling it together GrandmaR! I like that you added the lace over the blue fabric and your masking layer looks great too! Kudos on the work!