Weekly Photoshots #4

[jerryph]

Ok... it's cold here and nature pics are out for me, so how about if I suggest this:

An item inside your home that is from another country or representative of another country. An example would be if you were from the USA, a picture of a bottle of irish whiskey representing "Ireland", or how about a pic of an old vintage radio with a tag showing where it was made, representing Taiwan? ... ok, I agree thats those were a couple of weak examples but I hope you get what I am trying to say.

I'll post a couple of ideas/pics tonight.

Extra credits for photographic creativity! :D

[dkippen]

Here is my entry for the week.

This is a bottle (or what was) of wine my son brought home after a trip to Germany. What is showing to the front is actually the back of the bottle. The front of the bottle has what looks like a clear window and the reflection from the back comes through. After about 20 shots, this was the best one.

[jerryph]

Thats exactly what I was thinking about, Debbie... and a great shot. Composition is unique, and the idea is original!

Here is a go for me, but I had a problem... I started having fun and did not want to stop with just one picture!:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2154/2275994622_a0714170cb.jpg
A 2nd generation hand carved crystal decantur from Germany. This was a gift from my uncle-in-law (my aunt's husband from my father's side), about 40 years ago. My uncle passed away many years ago and we are going to return this decantur to my uncle's only son as a momento of his father. We feel it belongs in his family more than ours. :)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2390/2275994716_42304d02fd.jpg
A vase from the czech republic. Hand made and hand painted with real 24 carat gold paint, it is a one of a kind piece that my parents brought over themselves to Canada from the then called Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). The horses symbolize a kind of protection... I guard this piece very carefully, as it is in perfect condition... a real challenge for my parents to have hand carried it all those thousands of miles back here to Canada and not chip, scratch or damage it in any way.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2253/2275994788_72e04d92ac.jpg
A still sealed bottle of fine Remy Martin 25 year old cognac from France that is itself in the shape of the Eifel Tower. My sister bought it in Canada at a liquor store that specializes in all kinds of unique kinds of alcohol for my father. Though cognac is pretty common, these bottles were made in very limited numbers only once and never again made since.

I had a fantastic time shooting these objects!

[dkippen]

Thank you Jerry - I realized as I was shooting, I was also getting a self-portrait of myself in the shot, which is something I didn't want, all the while trying to capture both front and back of the bottle.

I love your shots, especially the vase with the horses - you are very lucky to have such treasures and I am sure there are many stories theses pieces could tell.

[LensBaby]

OK I had the hardest time tonight with these photos because my husband is doing some remodeling of our dining room, and because of all of the dust etc. I went into the kitchen to do my photography because I didn't want to be around the dust with my camera. Our kitchen has these horrible halogen lights (real tiny and really bright) and I could NOT get my lighting right for anything, so I have shadows in some of the photos! UGH These are not my best photos that is for sure! The bottle of french wine is from the night my husband proposed to me. It was $189.00 a bottle back then, and of course I got nervous and knocked over my glass! It is from France!This is when I wished I could drink. I loved red wines. The other is of my olive oil from Italy. I know my noodles are a little out of focus but I wanted to focus to be on the OLIVE OIL FROM ITALY!! I had fun taking them!If I had room and could have moved the items farther away fromt he backdrop that shadows would be gone.http://www.proudphotography.com/forum/gallery/files/8/2/8/french_wine.jpg
http://www.proudphotography.com/forum/gallery/files/8/2/8/evoo2.jpg

[jerryph]

Way to go Sue! :)

A couple of questions... was your camera in auto or manual mode? I ask because I noticed that your EXIF data shows you fired a flash and were at ISO 800. Your shutter was set at 1/100th.

On most cameras the flash sync speed is 200 or 250 and when using a flash, if lighting is good lower ISO for better quality (I use only ISO 100, the lowest my camera can go).

First pic:
A good example of results done in a hard light scenario. This is a challenging environment to shoot in. Shadows will be hard and well defined. If sharpness was increased in post processing, a little more harshness would be added, but the clarity of the writing on the bottle pops out a little more.

I can almost taste the wine looking at the glasses! :)

Second pic:
What kind of confuses me is the blur at the top of the virgin oil bottle... your DOF is very shallow but you shot at F/5.6. The noodles are lightly and creatively blurred, and the bottom half of the bottle is sharp. The part that confuses me is the tomatoe (which is an awesome colour element, BTW!)... it is deep enough to be on the same depth of field plane as the front of the bottle and appear sharp, but it is also deep enough to be on the same plane as the neck of the bottle, and the back of the tomatoe looks sharp, but the left side of the neck of the bottle blurs enough to be visible? Makes me wonder what happened there and how. :)

Good idea for a backdrop too. It brings the elements of the pic together and hides anything that could be distracting behind it like in my shots. I was aware of this, and tried using blur via a VERY shallow DOF to hide the background some.

Ok, I saw we all meet in France tomorrow and discuss this!

You will have to excuse me now... all this good red wine, pasta and tomatoe (sauce) has gone and made me hungry (haha)!

[jerryph]

Thank you Jerry - I realized as I was shooting, I was also getting a self-portrait of myself in the shot, which is something I didn't want, all the while trying to capture both front and back of the bottle.

As soon as you said that I went back and looked. Of course you were not there. :)

That would be a pretty good idea for the next topic... a self portrait, that way we'd all know what we look like (and portraiture is always fun for me). It's always nice to put a face to a name, at least for me. :)

[LensBaby]

Jerry the one with the pasta was manual and the wine one was auto. I usually ONLY shoot 100 iso and for some reason this would NOT work for me ( I also usually always shoot manual as well. I also was confused about the blur. I only used photoshop for the cropping, and with the wine I had to lighten it a tiny bit. I do not know why I was having such a hard time with those photos, because I have not had that hard of a time in over a year. I was starting to think something was wrong with my camera (I hope not) Like I said though the kitchen light we have is H O R R I B L E. It is one of those track lights with the little halogen bulbs. I even tried changing my WB to different things, but nothing seemed to work. I am totally lost when it comes to these photos!

[dkippen]

Sue -

I love the olive oil and pasta picture, as of course, pasta is one of my favorite foods and of course the red wine to go with it.

[janine]

ok, i hope i got the idea of this week right - my picture is wall hangings i got for christmas all the way from tanzania where my dad lives...the lighting is not so good - i have to admit!

[LensBaby]

Cool I really like it (the photo) My whole bedroom has masks and carvings from all around the country!

[jerryph]

Nice!

Thats funny Sue, I also have a clay hand made mask on my wall... if it gets any more popular, it may have to be a future potential subject of the week. :)

[janine]

ok, i think this is one is a bit more original...a tin car made in south africa (my home) we bought it in cape town when we were there on our honeymoon

[dkippen]

Janine -

I like this one better, the originality and color is great.

[LensBaby]

This photos is great. It is very original. Great job!

[Snappers]

Ok, Here is my submition for this week.
I have not had an awful lot of time to do it so it was a little rushed, but here goes.
Its a pineapple from Costa Rica :D

http://www.proudphotography.com/forum/gallery/files/7/4/8/pinapple.jpg

[dkippen]

Yummy - but I think of pineapple coming from Hawaii.

[Snappers]

Well it said Costa Rica on the label :D

[dkippen]

I trust you - Living here in the states and having been to Hawaii twice, I just never think about pineapple coming from anyplace else. It's amazing how different parts of the world see the same thing with different eyes.

[jerryph]

Costa Rica exports some of the best pineapples in the world.

I think that to my eye, it looks as if the picture could be a bit brighter and a little extra touch of sharpening would spice it up. Give it a try and see... or if you give me permission to try, let me know, Andy. :)

It's still a nice pic and for a rushed job, its awesome!

[jerryph]

Who wants to suggest next week's fun? :D

[Snappers]

Here is my attempt at making it lighter
http://www.proudphotography.com/forum/gallery/files/7/4/8/pineapple1.jpg

Jerry, if you feel it can be improved more, please feel free to give it a try and then let me know the actions that you did to make it better. I am still finding my way around photoshop and therefore am not brilliant at it yet. ;)

[Snappers]

Oh and by the way, it was a very nice pineapple :)

[Snappers]

I'll sugest a topic for this week. See the post Weekly Photoshots #5
Enjoy :D:eek:

[jerryph]

Jerry, if you feel it can be improved more, please feel free to give it a try and then let me know the actions that you did to make it better. I am still finding my way around photoshop and therefore am not brilliant at it yet. ;)

I am still learning PS as I muddle through it myself, but here is my try:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2100/2289685726_39a08de43f_o.jpg

This is the 60 second version where I did 4 changes to your original shot:

1 - In CS3 just used AUTO levels (image - adjust - autolevels)

2 - brightened it +3 in (image - adjust - brightness/hue)

3 - added a vignette for fun (filters - distort lens correction - vignette)

4 - smart sharpened it (filter - sharpen - smart sharpen by 75%)

Your pic had a LOT of undiscovered detail in it, I think.

What are your thoughts?

[Snappers]

Yes I like it. In my picture, the colours look washed out (I perhaps lightened it too much) but in yours the colours stand out more. I like the added touch of the vignette too. It sort of brings your eyes into the picture.

Thanks for your time.

[ladyups]

Well, this is all I could come up with...I had some ideas during the week but company and other pressing matters kept me from pursuing those options. This is a gold necklace my brother sent me from Saudi Arabia...I could have sent in a picture of my nephew cause he was born over there...:)

This is a horrible exposure...I've read where its hard to expose and focus on reflective objects but this was the first time I'd actually tried to do it...I failed miserably but at least I got the topic done by Sunday night...now on to the shadows...you guys are really testing this old brain of mine...sure hope I can come up for something for that topic...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2217/2289907062_7ed7180e33_o.jpg

[dkippen]

Mary -

This is a beautiful necklace. Is there a story behind it? Do you think this would have turned out better if there was a space between the necklace and black fabric?

[dkippen]

Jerry -

You've done a wonderful job on Andy's pineapple.

[ladyups]

Mary -

This is a beautiful necklace. Is there a story behind it? Do you think this would have turned out better if there was a space between the necklace and black fabric?

Thanks, Debbie...my brother was in Saudi Arabia for 25 years working for the Amaco Oil company as a minister. He brought all us sisters this gold necklace when he first went over there. It was funny but one day I was making a delivery to a company and noticed this same necklace on the man that was signing for the shipment. I asked him about it and come to find out, his sister had sent it to him from the same place my brother was at and I found out later, my brother's and his sister's family were great friends and still corresponded even after they all came back to the states. Its a small world...

I'm not sure anything would have helped the necklace...I tried using my flash but it was too strong and caused the pendant to really over expose. I didn't have any good black velvet to use as a backdrop, so just used a black sweater I had. I'm thinking I should have had some better lighting for it but just didn't have it.

[jerryph]

Thanks for the pineapple compliments, freinds, and Andy, it was a pleasure to play with the pic, I had fun. :)


This is a horrible exposure...I've read where its hard to expose and focus on reflective objects but this was the first time I'd actually tried to do it...I failed miserably but at least I got the topic done by Sunday night...


It was NOT a failure and the solution is easy, if you want to try?

You likely took all pictures straight on and the flash bounced back into the lens. To show you how simple a small adjustment can make, try taking the same photo... but from a little to the left or the right.

With a little experimentation, you will find that the necklace comes out better depending on what angles ou use. If you want a straight on shot, take the picture in a bright room during the day and without flash.

You are running into what is called specular (or reflective), lighting issues.

I hope that helps!

[LensBaby]

Mary I like the photo, but do you think a lighter color behind it would have made the necklace stand out a little bit better? I don't know if it would have or not.