OOYCZ 1 - Playing with Still Life Challenge

sapphire73

Here are a few attempts at a still life - with a very primitive set up for the night shots. Not sure whether I will have time to redo any of these, but I would welcome your input on them.

1. Bitter Bike Anyone?


2. Tulips 1


3a. Tulips 2


3b. Tulips 2 (brightened up & cropped just a bit)


4. Tangerines


5. Tulips in Daylight

Norske

Responding to Still Life
Very good work. It is obvious that you know how to light glass --- a very difficult subject. My personal preference is for numbers 1 and 4. Maybe I just don't respond as well to flowers.

Good work!

JAG

Very nice Sapphire!

You seem to have grasped the concept. Of these images, 1, 2 and 4 are flawless in technique and it would only be up to the matter of taste that would be deciding factor. Of those 3, I would say that I looked at 2 the longest. The reason was because the contrast of lovely dramatic background with wilted flowers had me thinking why you would set it up that way? Usually fresh or dried flowers are used. I absolutely love that fact that you stirred an emotion in me, even if it was not a pleasant one. This is what photography and art is about. Picasso was one of the first to try and break away from traditional art and create emotion in the viewers. Even if it was the emotion of hate. Not that your image does that, but it made me wonder of possible medifores that you could be thinking.

1&4 are very straight forward, but there are many still life out there that look similar.

3&5 have some technical difficulties. 3 is too dark. I know you probably put a mask over it to dim the edges? I think 2 is better. 5 seems to have the vase floating in air. I would say you need to have a small light on the table surface itself to be able to just barely see it but give some feeling that the vase is not floating.

sapphire73

Thank you both for your input on these! JAG, I went back and lightened #3 which also looked dark to me. Ironically, I bought these green and white parrot tulips the day I photographed them against the maroon cloth, so they were fresh flowers. Last spring, I noticed that the tulips I had carefully arranged seemed to keep growing. Googled it and it turns out that tulips do keep growing up to an inch or more - unlike other cut flowers.

Here is the revision of #3 and I also will go back and add it above.


Thank you!

Gretchen

P.S. One of my sons found the recipe for a "Bitter Bike" - a layered drink sometimes served during the holidays. If I reshoot that one, perhaps I should include the layered drink itself.

JAG

Gretchen, when I posted my reply the first time, I was looking at the images on my cell phone. Now that I am seeing them bigger, I still like 2 the best because of the red being so much more prominent. As for the type of flowers, I had never seen those before! I thought they were wilted tulips. But still, they had created an emotion and caused me to pause to study it more.

If you reshoot the #1 image, try to move a little more away from the wall. On my cell phone, I didn't see the wall texture that has little lines and a pock mark or two in it. I would try to move the table out more so that you get a good DOF going and the wall texture becomes more OOF. And yes, a picture of the drink might make it more interesting!

sapphire73

JAG wrote: »

Gretchen, when I posted my reply the first time, I was looking at the images on my cell phone. Now that I am seeing them bigger, I still like 2 the best because of the red being so much more prominent. As for the type of flowers, I had never seen those before! I thought they were wilted tulips. But still, they had created an emotion and caused me to pause to study it more.

If you reshoot the #1 image, try to move a little more away from the wall. On my cell phone, I didn't see the wall texture that has little lines and a pock mark or two in it. I would try to move the table out more so that you get a good DOF going and the wall texture becomes more OOF. And yes, a picture of the drink might make it more interesting!

Thank you, Joyce! If I can find the time, I hope to reshoot #1 and was thinking I would need to find a different background. I appreciate your tip/reminder that I could just move away from the wall and adjust the DOF. But I also like #2.

grandmaR

I like four and five. I think I would like the parrot tulips better if I could see that they were fresh flowers and not wilted.

sapphire73

grandmaR wrote: »

I like four and five. I think I would like the parrot tulips better if I could see that they were fresh flowers and not wilted.

Thank you for your input on these. Image five is a daylight shot of the same tulips so that tells me something about the importance of the lighting.

Thanks again for taking the time to comment at this busy time of year!

kdotaylor

I like the idea of #1, but to me the items look too far apart--try some overlapping. #2, #3 and #4 all seem a bit dark to me, although I like the composition; the revision is a bit better. I LOVE #5--the lighting, composition, everything!

sapphire73

Kate, thank you very much for the input!

Gretchen