John's 2010 52, Part 2, Week 52 @ the end - Together (Jan 1st)

It definitely fits the theme John, and makes quite uncomfortable viewing - which to me means that it works.

I think that a little bubble of blood just at the tip of the knife would have worked well, but asking you to cut yourself in the name of art is going too far and this close up I think fake would just look fake.

Works for me just as it is and the PP is perfect for it.
 
jeangenie said:
Hi John, time for a big catch-up from me. Sorry I've not dropped into your thread for ages - and I really appreciate the encourgements you've been giving me. :)

Relaxation: You've been very hard on yourself and I don't think you've messed this up at all. The cat's face is really sharp and the colours sing out. Trying to tell a cat to keep its eyes open isn't an option. :lol: I also love the NLC minus the tree - that is also a relaxing image in itself. :thumbs:

Grace: Two really good interpretations of the theme (and the second one is also relaxing, imo!). I think there is another shot to be found in the first one, but I'm not sure what it is. :bang: Access probably isn't very easy and scrambling onto the heads (say) to get a close up of the joined hands isn't an option. Nevertheless, I think you've done well, and I like the lighting.

The lighting in the second one is fantastic and I actually think it's better that she's in the shade because she helps the eye to travel round the glorious architecture. You could have asked her to adopt a more 'prayerful' position, though! :D This is my favourite of the two - and even more so since you had so little time.

Endings: I don't think you need blood to get this message across - it's clear there's an intention! Yes, it's dark and uncomfortable, but photography isn't always puppies (or cats!) and pretty flowers. It fits the theme, and as Darren says, it's a good job you didn't slip - especially after working 15-hour days. Well done on getting a powerful shot in such a busy week. :thumbs:

Jean
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No worries Jean.

The choices for the first grace were sadly lacking... I was wedged between the fencing and a pillar to get that shot... there wasn't room to get to the other end, and if I'd climbed on it, I think I'd probably have been carted away...

The second one, I probably only spent a minute or two getting setup for it, kneeling on the cathedral floor (and feeling oddly uncomfortable about taking the shot) although, I wasn't disturbing anyone to get it.

I'm glad endings came across as I'd intended it too.

SarahLee said:
It definitely fits the theme John, and makes quite uncomfortable viewing - which to me means that it works.

I think that a little bubble of blood just at the tip of the knife would have worked well, but asking you to cut yourself in the name of art is going too far and this close up I think fake would just look fake.

Works for me just as it is and the PP is perfect for it.
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Thanks Sarah, it was supposed to do that, so it's worked well. Given the location, and any, even a minor cut was likely to be nasty, I decided against it (although I did, briefly, consider how I could do it).
 
jgs001 said:
No worries Jean.

The choices for the first grace were sadly lacking... I was wedged between the fencing and a pillar to get that shot... there wasn't room to get to the other end, and if I'd climbed on it, I think I'd probably have been carted away... I guesssed that might be the situation - I've tried something similar and I definitely felt all sorts of hidden boundaries and felt I was really taking liberties. :(

The second one, I probably only spent a minute or two getting setup for it, kneeling on the cathedral floor (and feeling oddly uncomfortable about taking the shot) although, I wasn't disturbing anyone to get it. again, I know what you mean. In some ways I think it's more comfortable if you have to pay a fee to take a tripod into a cathedral because then at least you feel you have 'permission'. I wonder if anybody else has these reservations? :)

I'm glad endings came across as I'd intended it too.



Thanks Sarah, it was supposed to do that, so it's worked well. Given the location, and any, even a minor cut was likely to be nasty, I decided against it (although I did, briefly, consider how I could do it).
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Yeah... I think that probably is about right Jean... In Exeter there's a small fee to enter, and that provides full permission to take photos... yet here there wasn't. Having said that, it didn't seem to worry anyone else, but they were all using P&S cameras and snapping the obvious things... which probably weren't coming out as they were expecting anyway... given the silly dynamic range of the lighting on some of the usual snaps in there.
 
Thanks very much Sue, it came across as intended :thumbs:
 
Thanks Jenny... yeah still here.. you can't get rid of me that easily ;)
 
Not much to say about this one... not quite so mad as last week, but still mad...

IMG_5898.jpg


55-250, Raynox DCR250, CD Spindle Ring Flash
 
That's a pretty good macro shot John, nice dof it looks like it is from an older plug too. Not sure about the composition, the fuse tends to lead the eye out of the picture too soon. How do you like the Raynox? i decided to get some extension tubes myself for macro but i did consider the Raynox.

I like your endings shot, it looks like you took the same route as me, the mono gives it a darker mood.
 
Thanks Chris, Not sure how old... it's a salvaged spare from the end of something that died... I tried some cheapy tubes, but found them too hard to use, what with the lack of lens control, even with a manual lens. When I picked up my Raynox they were £30 so much cheaper than tubes with contacts, and I find it great. With it I can get up to 2.5x lifesize.

As for the comp... is this better ? (a reshoot last night)

IMG_5981.jpg


For endings, yep we went along similar lines, personally I preferred yours... I was aiming for a really dark mood, as it fits better for this sort of thing in my mind.
 
Hi John, although I do sort of agree with what Chris says, I prefer the first. The reason is that you have the focus on the fuse which is the electrical bit, and that is the theme. The screw could be any old screw.

I would also be tempted to brighten it a bit and increase the saturation. I really like the DOF.

Jenny
 
while you`ve got the raynox out, try and cocentrate on the electrical conection going into the fuse. just a suggestion.

Ian
 
Have to agree with Jenny, preferring the focus being on the fuse in the first rather than the screw of the second :)
 
I prefer the first one ... but I do like the colour of the fuse more in the second.
 
First one for me too John.
I'm with Jenny on the saturation and I think you could maybe afford to crop a little off the top . . . but for another mad week this is really very impressive!

I agree with you on those cheap extension tubes. I bought a set, but I really couldn't get to grips with them at all. Not too bad linked up to a PC in LiveView but I found it impossible to get the focus right any other way.

I'm currently playing with some of those cheap screw on magnifying filters to see how they go - I'm assuming that the Raynox works in the same way.
 
First one for me as well. The focus works better on the fuse as that matches the theme.

Andy
 
Thanks all.. Hopefully this is better... I only noticed the differences in the colour and exposure when I posted the second shot... It's still not quite the same, but I've boosted it a bit.

IMG_58981.jpg


Sarah, the Raynox is very similar to those screw on filters. The main difference, I believe, is in the construction and fitting. The construction on the cheapy screw on filters is a singlet lens, whereas the Raynox is a triplet. This means the Raynox, in theory, should have better correction of CA. It also clips onto the filter threads, rather than screws on, so switching between telephoto and macro is just a clip... means if you're out and about at somewhere like a nature reserve, you can be shooting bees at macro one minute, and a couple of seconds later, shooting birds in flight (my only experience of that, neither of them were actually very good... but that's my technique rather than anything else)
 
Hi John - a quick catch-up from me - I love the endings shot - I don't think any blood was required. Two minor tweaks would improve it IMO. The indentation made by the pressure of the knife could have been accentuated with a different lighting angle & although you were probably using the other hand to take the photo I would have preferred to see a finger along the top edge of the knife.

The last version of electric is by far the strongest - it is interesting compositionally and fits the theme well. The first version was lacking in punch and the second shot just didn't interest me at all. I like this last one very much though!

Phil
 
Thanks very much Phil... I guess putting the light camera right, instead of camera left would have put the light across the wrist, rather than across the knife and accentuated the depression.... Hmm... I didn't think about the finger along the top of the knife... You can see it there... but to be honest, the 10 second self timer isn't very long when you're trying to do this, and I didn't want to rush anymore than I was ;)... if you know what I mean, and didn't think about it... A possible reshoot.

I don't know why I didn't spot the first one for Electric was lacking that something... hey ho... I shot the second one for Chris, but when I shot the first one, I did try a whole load of different angles and view points without shooting any, and that, seemed to me, to be by far and away the best view of such an ordinary object... The obvious overhead was dull as dishwater... Personally, I'm sticking with the fuse in the foreground as my choice for the 52 (Sorry Chris ;))
 
Thanks very much Jean... I think that a set of tubes with electrical contacts would provide better image quality, there's no glass, but at 2 to 3 times the cost of the Raynox (nearer 4x when I got mine) it's hard to beat for price.
 
A bit of thinking, I did consider doing transforming a banana into a trip hazard but in the end, dug about in the toy boxes for a transformer... Then rather than do a triptych, or in this case quintych (is that a word :thinking:??) Decided on doing an animation instead... Really rushed, both in shooting and PP... and it shows... damn... if I get time over the next day or two, I'll sort that... although I might need to redo the animation completely and that's a pain.

transform.gif


I'm gonna be incommunicado for the next couple of weeks (I'm hoping to be able to sneak on and get the themes, but that'll be the limit of my connectivity)... I'll catch up when I'm back.
 
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Thanks guys... Jenny, the funny shadow is me rushing and messing up the dodging in PP... :bang:

I redid it, and this time saved the tif in case I have still got something wrong... That shadow wasn't clear on the Mac, but glaringly obvious on the laptop..

transform-1.gif
 
Hi John,

Nice close up in Electric - Third shot works well.

Like your animation and the improvements on the edit.
 
Sorry John but this isn't for me. Hope you have a good couple of weeks whatever you're up to :thumbs:
 
Thanks Ian.

no worries Darren, thanks for looking. Going on hols... hopefully unwind and chill out..
 
Thanks very much Jean... I think it might be slightly... the conversion from tif to gif has upset the shadow on the left rather badly (I don't think gif has the needed colour palette), so that might be a factor too.
 
Electric - I prefer the first shot for composition, there is too much flash reflection in the others. Nice idea and well executed, lots of detail.

Transfom - really good idea and well shot, know with a bit more pp you could make each photo more technically sound but I dont think it needs it, really fun as it is.
 
I agree with Dan, a fun image that fits the theme. I wouldn't change anything about it, I think it is fine as is, rushed or not. I'd love to know how you did that John, its quite clever. Iain
 
great take on the theme, I did wonder if someone would do "transformers" and how they could show the transformation .. now I know !
 
Catching up at last...

Endings: this works really well - composition and lighting are spot on. I think a little selectively coloured blood would make it even stronger - ketchup, perhaps?

Electric: I actually like the first one best - the lighting and colours are less harsh on my monitor, and I prefer the composition to the second one though I can't quite put my finger on it. I think it is the way the diagonal of the fuse is echoed in the OOF back edge of the plug body, and the way the other bits fall - there are some pleasing paths for the eye to wander round. The second shot just looks a bit messy to me, as well as being too bright.

Transform: very clever! It is just a tad pale for my liking but that may just be my monitor. A great idea.
 
I love your idea for transformers - my son mentioned doing something similar but I'd have no idea about how to get the shots in an animated gif!

Phil
 
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