Christmas' meal

[Pohled]

Hello,

A picture that I have taken minutes before our Christmas' meal. What do you think of it?

[Skitalez]

I think, that all are do the same! Nobody makes comments! Let people eat the Christmas' meal

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Jonathan,

It is quite a 'busy' picture, some limitation to the subject might help - while a little extra could be argued to provide context (e.g. the table and what is on it), I think there is a bit too much (e.g. the candle, chair and room beyond).

Getting the table level in the background would also help.

The exposure is ok and so is the white balance, though.

Hope that helps,

[CNelson]

It made me hungry if that counts for anything. It's a nice shot but I tend to agree with Dave to a point. A pulled back view with the bird can accommodate more detail. The detail you've included tends to convey the idea of a Christmas meal and that's important to the picture. The problem is, taking the time to set up and arrange the background elements would likely get you lynched by the hungry people waiting for the meal.

I did a ham for Christmas and it wasn't photogenic.

Chuck

[Pohled]

Hello,

Thank you for the comments. I agree that the candle and other things aren't nice. But, do you think that chair is really a problem as well? For me it is part of the scene.
Dave, what do you mean by getting the table level in the background?

Unfortunately, misters, I can only try it again in one year from now =D.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Jonathan,

It may, at least partly, be an illusion caused by the table coming towards the camera, whereas I had originally assumed it was against the far wall and basically parallel to the camera.

Here is a view of the top half of shot with a grid superimposed;


Do you see how almost everything in shot* appears that if rotated anti-clockwise, it would be better?

* even the door frame, where cursor is positioned is not vertical

Here's one corrected;


The finished thing with;
a crop to remove sloping edges that were caused by rotating it,
a small grey point levels adjustment (1.2) to brighten foreground,
a Local Contrast Enhamncement with USM (20%, 60px, 0th) and finally;
a small sharpen with USM (90%, 0.3px, 3th)



Each are small changes, but (I think) build to a better final result, without waiting until next year. That said, I think a candle would be a good thing to have in shot, just positioned a little better (or a shorter one) so we can see the top of it, ideally lit - now that will have to wait.

Hope that helps,

[Pohled]

Hello,

Thank you once more Dave for your explanations and for the edition!
I'll try other food shots in other celebrations, we don't need to wait until Christmas.

The candle in the picture is really odd, as you say, it should be in another position or be a smaller one.
I don't understand anything of post-processing at the moment, but I'll keep your steps in mind for when I learn something.