Golden Beets

[Mike Buckley]

This photo is added to the few photos of food I've made that present them in a context that we don't normally notice or experience. I'm used to seeing only the traditional purple beets, so when I saw these golden beets in the grocery store I immediately knew not just that I had to photograph them but also exactly how I wanted to photograph them.

EDIT:
Though I was compelled to photograph the beets because of their color, a few hours after making the color photo I realized that I would also enjoy a monochrome photo. It's unusual these days that I make color and monochrome versions of a photo; I almost always make one or the other. However, in this case my taste evolved from one to the other so it's perhaps understandable that I made both.

Though I realize most people prefer color photos, I have a penchant for monochrome photos. Perhaps that's one reason I prefer the monochrome version. Even so, whereas the color version displays primarily four main colors, another reason I prefer the monochrome version is the continuity that results from the display of the various shades of only one color: grey.

Setup
The bulbs were drenched in water to increase the color saturation. The background and tabletop are a single sheet of vinyl printed with a gradient. A medium continuous-light lamp is above the scene on the right side. A reflector on the left brightens that side of the bulbs and that area of the tabletop. A piece of translucent vellum covers just a small part of the lamp to create a very soft, light shadow on the right side of the tabletop. A polarizer eliminated glare on the bulbs.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done, starting to easily recognize the Mike Buckley look.

[FootLoose]

Good use of colour.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to John and Greg!

I added a monochrome version to the first post in the thread along with an explanation of how it came to be.

[NorthernFocus]

I can't believe I'm going to say so but I like the B/W version. It shows the lighting and textures to good effect. But the color version ain't bad either

[bje07]

Usually I prefer B&W, but in this case color version is IMO more "readable"

[bnnrcn]

The color image is very nice but the B&W image looks so great with light and tones of grey that I would prefer the B&W if I had to choose. I can see that it is not a direct B&W conversion from the color image and you added some more PP to the B&W image later or you edited the color image some more and converted it to B&W later. So , whichever you did , it created a super B&W image

[madcrow]

Mike, like your images but colour for me.

[Dave A]

The colors are subtle and pleasing to me. Nicely done Mike.

Dave