First picture post (Still Lifes)

TristanP · January 9, 2005

I've been doing a lot of still life work for a current Challenge elsewhere, and have come up with a variety (so to speak) of shots. I was thinking of maybe printing and framing some of these (small of course) and hanging them in our kitchen. Any critique or comments? Thanks in advance.

GREAPER · January 9, 2005

Very nice, I am impressed. They definatly look worth hangin on the wall.

Ann McRae · January 9, 2005

They are really, really nice, Tristan.

ann

Sam · January 9, 2005

TristanP wrote:

I've been doing a lot of still life work for a current Challenge elsewhere, and have come up with a variety (so to speak) of shots. I was thinking of maybe printing and framing some of these (small of course) and hanging them in our kitchen. Any critique or comments? Thanks in advance.

They look very nice to me, but why small of course?

Sam

TristanP · January 9, 2005

Sam wrote:

They look very nice to me, but why small of course?

Not a lot of wall space, that's all. We have a 6-8 inch ceiling drop along two of our walls for can lights - I think they'd fit there nicely. Thanks for the kind words, everyone.

pathfinder · January 9, 2005

TristanP wrote:

I've been doing a lot of still life work for a current Challenge elsewhere, and have come up with a variety (so to speak) of shots. I was thinking of maybe printing and framing some of these (small of course) and hanging them in our kitchen. Any critique or comments? Thanks in advance.

Nice clean, spare, graphical design. I like your use of a mirror surface and your use of color. These are very lovely images.

Welcme to dgrin! Would you care to describe how you set up the lighting for these shots? I think that would be very informative for our readers.

ian408 · January 9, 2005

Tristan, nice job!

I like the simplicity of the shots. Are you lighting them with bounce
from an on camera flash?
Ian

TristanP · January 9, 2005

pathfinder wrote:

Nice clean, spare, graphical design. I like your use of a mirror surface and your use of color. These are very lovely images.

Welcme to dgrin! Would you care to describe how you set up the lighting for these shots? I think that would be very informative for our readers.

Thanks for the comments. I have to give some inspirational credit to Dan Koyanagi and WillemD - they have some wonderful images out there.

Lighting - all shots done in the garage (white walls and low ceiling) with Sony F717. Flashes used were either one or two Sunpak 383s (one on hot shoe, one on lightstand with optical slave).

Apple - single ceiling-bounced flash on hot shoe (IIRC).

Mortar and Pestle - both flashes used, the camera-mounted one aimed backwards and up (both to trigger the slave and to add some fill from the front) and the other on camera right bounced off the ceiling. That one took MANY tries to minimize glare and get fairly even lighting. I like the way the background fades darker from bottom to top.

Spice - both flashes, ceiling-bounced from front and right. Spoons on white foamcore.

Wine & Glass - 15W bulb behind 32" Photogenic Eclipse umbrella, 2 second exposure, subjects again on foamcore.

Now, if I can get the kids to sit still long enough, maybe I can do some protraits. I think these type of shots are easier (for me) since I can take as much time as I want to tweak.

wxwax · January 9, 2005

Terrific work, Tristan.

I think the spices shot is a real winner. The wine glass is a close second. Be nice if there was a way to make the wine in the glass a little richer, maybe a backlight of some kind?

The mortar and pestle is really nice. The apple is beautifully composed, maybe a little more atmosphere? Anyway, hope this doesn't sound like carping, you're way past my skill level at lighting objects. Nice work.

TristanP · January 9, 2005

wxwax wrote:

Be nice if there was a way to make the wine in the glass a little richer, maybe a backlight of some kind?

It's a really dark red wine (that's the extent of my wine knowledge), but at this point, I'm not sure how I'd do that - possibly a snoot of some sort. It's something on my list to look into. Thanks for the comments.

wxwax · January 9, 2005

TristanP wrote:

It's a really dark red wine (that's the extent of my wine knowledge), but at this point, I'm not sure how I'd do that - possibly a snoot of some sort. It's something on my list to look into. Thanks for the comments.

Great work. Is this your first attempt? Sure doesn't look like it.

jwear · January 9, 2005

???
how about if you water the wine down some and make it more opaque would that work???

TristanP · January 9, 2005

wxwax wrote:

Great work. Is this your first attempt? Sure doesn't look like it.

It's the first occasion I've put the time and effort towards such specific shots. They represent spare time over a week or so. I've done some other studio/product-type shots, but I just got the second Sunpak and the other lighting gear (stand, umbrellas, slave) for Christmas and found the time to get to know them. The perfect timing of the current Challenge (Still Lifes) over at STF was a plus, too.

TristanP · January 9, 2005

jwear wrote:

how about if you water the wine down some and make it more opaque would that work???

You mean less opaque?

I never thought of that. Great idea.

Sam · January 9, 2005

TristanP wrote:

You mean less opaque? I never thought of that. Great idea.

Again I think they wpould all look great framed and hung on the kitchen wall. After some of the comments with regard to the color of the wine, I took a shot at it in PS. If you or anyone objects to my playing with thier photos. PLEASE let me know. I don't know how this will look on your monitor, but here is a quick try at it.

Tim Kirkwood · January 9, 2005

Tristan,

Love this one!!

Nice work.

TristanP · January 9, 2005

Sam wrote:

If you or anyone objects to my playing with thier photos, PLEASE let me know. I don't know how this will look on your monitor, but here is a quick try at it.

Nah, I don't mind. Honestly, all I see is less of the reflection in the glass. Is that what you were going for? My monitor is an almost 5-year-old 19" CRT and I need to replace it, so maybe I'm missing something.

Sam · January 10, 2005

TristanP wrote:

Nah, I don't mind. Honestly, all I see is less of the reflection in the glass. Is that what you were going for? My monitor is an almost 5-year-old 19" CRT and I need to replace it, so maybe I'm missing something.

That's what I ment about different monitors. The red is a little deeper, and the yellow is more pronounced, giving it a warmer tone, I think. The changes were not humungus, but if I put them up side by side on my monitor the difference is very noticable,

Again these are great shots! Keep sharing.

Sam

gtc · January 11, 2005

red wine
lovely images

re red wine-from what I know about food photography-not much..read a book-is that food photographers usually substitute red wine for something lighter- I would consider something like a red berry cordial with water and experiment with concentration to get the right amount of "glow"

greg

TristanP wrote:

It's a really dark red wine (that's the extent of my wine knowledge), but at this point, I'm not sure how I'd do that - possibly a snoot of some sort. It's something on my list to look into. Thanks for the comments.

dkoyanagi · January 14, 2005

TristanP wrote:

Thanks for the comments. I have to give some inspirational credit to Dan Koyanagi and WillemD - they have some wonderful images out there.

Wow! I'm very flattered. I'm usually the one that gets my inspiration from other photographers. Thank you Tristan, you've just made my week.

TristanP · January 14, 2005

Dan, you're more than welcome.

First picture post (Still Lifes)

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