Project 52 by Peter

[Ricco]

We had some flowers in the house over the week so figured it was a great chance to practice my composition and lighting.

My pick of the week - I like both the elements of the photo mentioned above:


And some others




Probably my second favourite in terms of composition:

[Donald]

... it was a great chance to practice my composition and lighting.

And to that end it has, I suggest, been a great success. Both the composition and the lighting on these are, I think, very good.

In terms of the B & W, I would comment that, clearly, it's strength was always going to be line and shape, with tone and texture as part of that mix. It was, obviously, not going to be about colour. That being the case, I wonder if the lines needed to be sharp right across the image, so that the shapes were very well defined? In other words, did this one need a deeper depth-of-field so that everything would have been in focus?

I don't think the same issue pertains in, say, the last one in which the unopened head in the background is not in focus. But that's fine. It works like that, because the colour is there to hold it together very well.

Just a thought?

[Ricco]

Good advice thanks Donald - I think you are right.

I played around with black and white for a few of the photos and came to a similar realization that the colors were holding it together.

In hindsight I agree that perhaps the dof worked against me in this instance.


Thanks.

[Dave Humphries]

Appreciate the positive comments guys.

This week I had a bit of experimentation going on. I think I know where I went wrong and will probably have to try this again at a later date (possibly with different flowers). I need two photos and a link to explain what I was trying to do.

First - I have been pretty intrigued in the past with some of Harold Davis' transparency shots. As an example, have a flick through this link ( http://photo.net/learn/digital-photo...unds-with-lab/ ). I was trying to recreate a similar effect.

The end result is this.


To give you an idea where this came from - this is the shot out of the camera.


To take the shot I backlit the subject at pretty much every flash exposure I had from 1/128 - 1/1. The best one was the one above which retained some detail in the centre of the flower.

The end result certainly wasn't perfect, but was a good learning experience. I think what really worked against me was the thickness of the flower. Because it was pretty dense, the middle didn't get a lot of the backlight going through. If you look at Davis' flowers, they appear pretty thin and probably suit themselves to backlighting much better. The petals around the edge certainly captured the feeling that I wanted.

Another tack that I should have probably tried in this case was to light the flower from the front as well as the back. I think this would given me a lot more contrast to play with through the flower. As it is, I was pretty much stuck with a middle grey.

Anyway - am glad to be able to post something of interest. While the final shot isn't perfect, it is pleasing and has some level of potential. Hopefully by the end of the year I will revisit this style with a little more success.

Hi Peter,

Missed this last week, sorry - and so did everyone else

Before I read the text, I preferred the light (original) one because brighter, the problem with it being the sea of grey in the middle, so yes, some light to add contrast there would help. The end result is interesting, but shows a lack of DoF and is a bit dim. I think you are correct about a thinner subject being better, it'll help on both counts.

All the best,

[Ricco]

Thanks Dave - it was certainly a shot were I learnt a bit from not getting the result I was after. Hopefully by the end of the project I'll have an example that demonstrates what I'm trying to achieve and can wow everyone....

Hopefully.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Sorry - struggling to keep up with the workload from the new job at the moment! For your last week's shot I think I prefer the end result but would have like to have seen the whites highlighted a bit more - which I guess is a similar problem with the original having grays in the centre but the reverse. I wonder what a bit of fill light would have done.

This week - your pick is my pick but from my inexperienced flower taking perspective, they're all great shots.

[Ricco]

Was on a working visit to Canada over the last 2 weeks so I've got 2 postings to make. These were shots that I took during the visit.

I was really impressed with the beauty of Vancouver - the tulips through the city streets are great and I managed to find this one poking through.

[Ricco]

One of my aims in the project 52 was to try a bit of street photography. This is one that I took walking round Vancouver.

[Donald]

That is a beauty.

A question - What about the slightest crop at the bottom so that amount of ground we see is the equivalent of the depth of the frist step - just to maintain the harmony? Or did you want a bit more ground just to emphasis that this is the bottom of the steps?

Wonderful lighting. Super tones. I love the hint of the pillar behind the lion's head.

And don't tell my partner that you loved Vancouver. She has got as real hankering to visit there! If truth be told, so do I, so long as we could come back east by train and stop off on the way.

[Wendy Stanford]

Hi Peter, Love the composition and the vibrancy of the tulips, the little one makes the shot, the lion image has great lighting, the monocrome colours contrast very well, the person in the frame adds perspective and interest

[Ricco]

Donald - thanks for the comments. The original shot had a fair bit more ground and I played with a couple of versions to get the right crop. In the end I settled on the crop shown as there was enough to give the steps a bit of context (for want of a better word). The comment on lighting is interesting as it was taken with pretty direct light - usually not the photographers best friend. In this shot I think it probably plays to my advantage.

With regards to Vancouver - I think I was lucky and got a few good days of weather. I heard from some people that it can be pretty grey all year round there. But it is a really beautiful city - there is something about cities with large mountain ranges in the background that I love. Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to venture out into the mountains but there was some pretty spectacular scenery when flying over them. I have heard that the train ride through them is something to behold. Next time.....

Wendy - the little tulip was my main focus (hence the title "the kid"). I was wandering around the city taking photos of tulips for my wife as she loves them and then noticed that little one amongst all its bigger brothers. I tried a couple of different compositions and liked this one the best.

[Ricco]

I haven't been at this for a while due to a variety of things. Clearly my photo a week aim has gone by the wayside. However I'm determined to get to 52 so I'm going to post a few shots that I have taken since my last post.

[Ricco]

And continuing from the previous post - one from our backyard.