Red, Orange & Yellow Peppers

[travis4567]

[FrankMi]

You have an excellent eye for composition, Travis! I like the colors and the jet black background. Stunning also in the shadows and reflections in the peppers.

The biggest detractor is the dust or whatever is sitting under the peppers. That drops the overall impression from top-of-the-line to just above also-ran. There is also a hint of a ghosting behind the upper left side. Fortunately those can easily be cloned out.

If you decide to reshoot, you might want to consider either evenly lowering the DoF or getting the right rear yellow pepper in sharp focus to match the others in the composition.

[mstrozewski]

what was your settings on this? and lighting?

[Mike Buckley]

Agreed with Frank on both the strengths and weaknesses of the image. In addition to his comments, what is creating the straight line in the tabletop on both sides of the red bell pepper in the center?

[Stagecoach]

Good composition Travis.

I have played around with similar peppers and it's not easy making a good arrangement like these.

Personally I believe you have got the DOF spot on as I'm not a lover of seeing everything tack sharp. I look forward to seeing some more arrangements.

For info f8, 1/30th, ISO800, 100mm from Exif

Grahame

[Shadowman]

Travis,

I'd like to know what your setup was also. I was working on a similar still life, various objects (leaves, buds, glass) on a black cloth. The items were in a light tent, white side panels so I believe there was some light spillage from the sides which allowed every defect to become visible. Also, trying to get a reasonably exposed image during post processing, exposed every dust bunny visible. Lesson one and two, start with a reasonably clean surface, iron your drop cloth if necessary.

[NorthernFocus]

Excellent composition and lovely colors. I'm guessing these are laying on a granite/quartz surface rather than on cloth? Just a guess due to the spots and reflections pointed out by others.

[DanK]

Very nice composition and colors.

I agree with Frank:

The biggest detractor is the dust or whatever is sitting under the peppers. That drops the overall impression from top-of-the-line to just above also-ran. There is also a hint of a ghosting behind the upper left side. Fortunately those can easily be cloned out.

Another way to do this, given your monochromatic black background, is to select the background based on color and then push the background to total black with a levels adjustment. I do this fairly often with black backgrounds, and after the first time or two, it gets quite fast.

Re DOF: that is all a matter of taste. I lean towards crisp focus for everything that is really part of the subject, blurring what you don't want the eye to focus on. In this case, I would keep everything in focus, which might require a bit of focus stacking. However, that's just my particular case. Lots of folks have different preferences.

[Brownbear]

Amazing image... I too, adore the composition, black background and gorgeous colours.

[Wavelength]

Wonderful colors and composition; i too wonder what the powder around them? was that a deliberate inclusion. I have a suggestion; make such an arrangement and take for images as seen from for sides; hoping to see more

Regards

[travis4567]

Thanks for all your comments. This was a difficult capture as I am still learning to work with black backgrounds. The peppers were sitting on a black felt background that obviously had lots of white lint on it that went unnoticed until looking at the photos. The setup was in a white cloth light tent with fluorescent lighting from both sides and the top. I used a diffused fill flash straight on. Canon 6d on tripod, Tokina 100mm macro lens, 1/30 sec, f8, 800 iso

[Shadowman]

Thanks for all your comments. This was a difficult capture as I am still learning to work with black backgrounds. The peppers were sitting on a black felt background that obviously had lots of white lint on it that went unnoticed until looking at the photos. The setup was in a white cloth light tent with fluorescent lighting from both sides and the top. I used a diffused fill flash straight on. Canon 6d on tripod, Tokina 100mm macro lens, 1/30 sec, f8, 800 iso

Thanks for the additional info.