Put away your cameras, and get into the kitchen...

[arith]

How long have you had the 50D? Good choice. Is the wine to celebrate?

About four hours and this is the first image taken almost with thought, just been going through functions and reading the instructions but the sun is out tomorrow.

[Wirefox]

Eggistentialism

Rob, I genuinely like all the shots you have posted here but the sensual eggs....just superb. I love it when images just feel right. It is an eggscellent demonstration of how simplicity of subject and composition produces the most striking images. But for gods sake clone out the spray on serial number in the 2nd image.

Steve (Arith)

Congratulations on the new camera. After reading your struggle in trying to decide on the 'right' camera in other threads I really believe you have made the right choice.

Steve

[arith]

Cheers steve; it will take some time to get used to it. Already I've noticed maybe DPP is better than ACR, I've used the RGB histograms to get perfect exposure which became blown in ACR but later I tried DPP and it was ok. The one here was the first underexposed attempt. Oh well it is going to be fun.

[JK6065]

Hi Rob,
As a replied on Flickr, I absolutely love your vision on photography and your eye for the extraordinary shot in the ordinary subjects. You really encourage me to look further than some kind of standard naïvety everybody (me also, though I tend to get rid of) seems to looks at things around them.

But with these shots you tempt to draw me away from my favourite thing in the kitchen, creativity in cooking, and drive my family nuts by turning the whole kitchen upside down to photograph things they can't even imagine as being a nice subject to shoot . To me they suit the image of the naïve everybody very well...

but anyways, you seem to like the new camera very much . Well go ahead and keep doing these beautiful things.

[ScoutR]

First of all I just want to say that for me these things are incredibly difficult, and I don't have an eye for it at all, so C&C on composition, lighting, cropping is greatly appreciated.

I'm already aware that this shot is quite noisy (forgot to reset ISO to 200 )

I kind of like the lighting in this one, but wonder if I should black out or crop the background.

These are just experiments, and a learning exercise for me. I'm working with a 75W halogen floodlight (not photographic) clamped to a step ladder. I have another one of these lights but nothing to clamp it to at the moment. I had the white balance set to Auto, but had to adjust it quite a bit in LR, as the colour was way to yellow (still is actually). I'm pretty sure I have a grey card around here somewhere in one of the Kelby books. I'll try to find it for the next series.

Any help or suggestions on this or any other shot I post in this thread (there are more to come) is appreciated.

Thanks Wendy


1/60s: f18: ISO 800: 18mm: Spot -1 (which made it too dark, but otherwise I had blown highlights)

[ScoutR]

1/100s: f11: ISO 800: 40mm: Spot +1/3

C&C welcome

[ScoutR]

1/40s: f11: ISO 800: 55mm: Spot
Colour not corrected. This is what I get with WB set to auto with this Halogen bulb. I left it as is for this because I liked it


1/100s: f11: ISO 800: 18mm: Spot -2/3
White balance corrected. This is closer to actuality


1/80s: f11: ISO 800: 44mm: Spot -2/3

C&C Welcome

That's it for now. I think for the next set, I will try to copy some of the ones that have been posted already and see if I can duplicate the lighting and DOF on the ones I like

Wendy

[Shadowman]

Wendy,

The composition is fine, I like the DOF, and the table in the foreground is almost perfect. The far background is fine and it does not compete with the subject, but it looks like you were doing some photo editing directly behind the fruit.

First of all I just want to say that for me these things are incredibly difficult, and I don't have an eye for it at all, so C&C on composition, lighting, cropping is greatly appreciated.

I'm already aware that this shot is quite noisy (forgot to reset ISO to 200 )

I kind of like the lighting in this one, but wonder if I should black out or crop the background.

These are just experiments, and a learning exercise for me. I'm working with a 75W halogen floodlight (not photographic) clamped to a step ladder. I have another one of these lights but nothing to clamp it to at the moment. I had the white balance set to Auto, but had to adjust it quite a bit in LR, as the colour was way to yellow (still is actually). I'm pretty sure I have a grey card around here somewhere in one of the Kelby books. I'll try to find it for the next series.

Any help or suggestions on this or any other shot I post in this thread (there are more to come) is appreciated.

Thanks Wendy


1/60s: f18: ISO 800: 18mm: Spot -1 (which made it too dark, but otherwise I had blown highlights)

[Shadowman]

These are pretty good, especially the second one.

1/40s: f11: ISO 800: 55mm: Spot
Colour not corrected. This is what I get with WB set to auto with this Halogen bulb. I left it as is for this because I liked it


1/100s: f11: ISO 800: 18mm: Spot -2/3
White balance corrected. This is closer to actuality


1/80s: f11: ISO 800: 44mm: Spot -2/3

C&C Welcome

That's it for now. I think for the next set, I will try to copy some of the ones that have been posted already and see if I can duplicate the lighting and DOF on the ones I like

Wendy

[rick55]

Hi, Wendy;

You're doing great with these. The apple shot, I was troubled by the yellow on the skin: I'd love the overall composition, looking like a still life painting, with a perfect, red apple. With the yellow, what about backlighting it, so the skin is hinted at, rather than central?

The spaghetti are all quite interesting. I like the third best: #1 is interesting, but somewhat abstract (which is fine, of course). #2 is very practical. #3 is a great blend, with the focus on all the intersecting lines, but the mouth of the jar to give it context.

Cheers,
Rick

[ScoutR]

Wendy,

The composition is fine, I like the DOF, and the table in the foreground is almost perfect. The far background is fine and it does not compete with the subject, but it looks like you were doing some photo editing directly behind the fruit.

Thanks Shadowman: I was not sure about the far background, glad to know it does not seem too distracting. You caught me, I did try to blur it a bit, and also cloned in some of the brighter spots.

Wendy

[ScoutR]

Hi, Wendy;

You're doing great with these. The apple shot, I was troubled by the yellow on the skin: I'd love the overall composition, looking like a still life painting, with a perfect, red apple. With the yellow, what about backlighting it, so the skin is hinted at, rather than central?

Yes, this whole shot is still too yellow looking. Thanks for the suggestions. I will definitley keep playing around with these, and try another with a nice uncut red apple. I have to play around with the lighting too.

The spaghetti are all quite interesting. I like the third best: #1 is interesting, but somewhat abstract (which is fine, of course). #2 is very practical. #3 is a great blend, with the focus on all the intersecting lines, but the mouth of the jar to give it context.
Rick

Thanks Rick: the spaghetti surprised me a bit. I actually like them. You should see the ones I tried with a cucumber slice sitting on top of a white opaque tupperware container that was placed over a night lite. LOL they were quite horrifying.

Wendy

[rick55]

You should see the ones I tried with a cucumber slice sitting on top of a white opaque tupperware container that was placed over a night lite. LOL they were quite horrifying.

Wendy

That sounds like some good raw material (no pun intended) for some of Rob's transformations: run them through some filters, and you never know what you might get.

Cheers,
Rick

[Superka]

really strange shots you got here, all of you. I like them

[ScoutR]

1/200s: f5.6: ISO 200: 55mm: Matrix -1/3

I can't duplicate the Rob's lighting or technique, but this is my version. C&C welcome.

[ScoutR]

1/30s: f25: ISO 200: 55mm: Matrix -2/3

My favourite snack. Tomorrow I will try to get a shot of some popping, hopefully without burning the place down.

C&C especially the second C always welcome on any of my shots.
Wendy

[Donald]

Wendy

Have you still got that cracked egg? If so, how about it alone, on a matt surface, in landscape format? First impression was that that could produce an amzing image.

[carregwen]

These are just experiments, and a learning exercise for me. I'm working with a 75W halogen floodlight (not photographic) clamped to a step ladder. I have another one of these lights but nothing to clamp it to at the moment. I had the white balance set to Auto, but had to adjust it quite a bit in LR, as the colour was way to yellow (still is actually). I'm pretty sure I have a grey card around here somewhere in one of the Kelby books. I'll try to find it for the next series.


1/60s: f18: ISO 800: 18mm: Spot -1 (which made it too dark, but otherwise I had blown highlights)

A hot-light is fine. The only problem is that it is not very good for flower shots as the heat willl cause wiliting after a while. But it's fine here. I like the composition - makes me think of warm summer evenings outdoors. I might have cut a thin slice off the apple and placed it on the table so you could see the detail.

[carregwen]

1/200s: f5.6: ISO 200: 55mm: Matrix -1/3

I can't duplicate the Rob's lighting or technique, but this is my version. C&C welcome.

Wendy, I shot my eggs on white watercolour art paper, which has a slightly mottled finish. It was just right for the shots I did.

[carregwen]

really strange shots you got here, all of you...

That, Pavel, is because we are all really strange people on here...