Karlos's 52 for 2010 - Week 12 - Produce - Page 6

I love this one - great colours and processing do justice to all the fascinating shapes and textures. :clap:
 
I'm running very close to the deadline with this weeks photo,
for once the theme was quite an easy one, and I had quite a few ideas, so I managed to shoot a couple of them this weekend, but I still didn't end up with a shot that I was 100% happy with.

Ok, after much deliberation (it's taken me about 35 mins to decide, and I've changed my mind twice already while writing this post) I've decided to go with the shot that I spent the most time on, as it's a better reflection of what I was trying to achieve, and the critique will help me improve more (this was my first real go at using off camera flash), whereas the other contenders were a bit point and shoot and had a lot more luck involved in them.

What I don't like about the pic is the way that the bottom is slightly cut off, and how it lacks any real interest. I did try a few with my Sackboy in the photo but didn't get a composition that I was happy with.
On the plus side its almost exactly as it came out of the camera, all I did in PP was remove a small highlight on the background, and I really like how the reflection came out.


Looks much better on a black background (flickr slideshow).
Some of the other contenders on my flickr.
 
It's a good one Karl - only point as you have already said is the chopped off reflection.
 
Indeed, a little wider to fit the reflection would have helped. As it is it's composed and lit well enough and the reflection is crisp. Perhaps needs a tad burning in on the top of the console where it's a little lighter than the background.
 
Agree with the above comments. Techincally great though.
 
Looks good technically... lighting works well and even better since this is straight from the camera. There are a couple of odd reflections that are not mirrored though - I might have been tempted to "lose" them :D

Arthur
 
This may be simple, but I think it's very, very effective. :clap:
Clean sleek lines and a lovely crisp reflection. That bright splash of colour in what's otherwise pretty monochrome really lifts it too.

As you said, it's a shame about the bottom of the reflection being chopped off - and it's made more noticeable by the large black area on the top left. That's throwing it off balance a bit for me. It looks too open top left and too cramped bottom right, if you see what I mean.
In the absence of a reshoot I think cropping a bit off the top would help address the balance a bit :thinking:

I'm also getting a bit confused by the reflection. There seem to be a couple of symbols on the mirror (or whatever you've used for the reflection) which are spoiling the lines a bit for me. That really is me being picky though :lol:

All in all it's worked well though. And there's definitely more that I like than I don't :thumbs:
 
Thanks for all the comments, I may have a go at re-processing it one evening this week and incorporate some of your suggestions.
The things that can be seen in the reflection, which seem to be causing some confusion are the power and eject buttons of the ps3, they are actually part of the reflective surface.
 
nice and simple (ok I know it probably wasn't simple to take !) fits the theme well
 
I just looked again after Sarah's comment about the reflection... and you know... I like it with the buttons there... very clever using the built in surfaces like that... just need to see a bit more of it... Otherwise... very good and on theme.
 
Week 10 Chemistry

Had some fun doing this weeks image, it's was shot with one flash at about 60 degrees to the left of camera, 5 shots all fired in sequence and as quickly as possible. The reaction is from just 2 mentos droped into a 2 litre bottle of diet Pepsi, explanation of the chemistry under the image.

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When you drop the Mentos into the soda, the gelatin and gum arabic from the dissolving candy break the surface tension. This disrupts the water mesh, so that it takes less work to expand and form new bubbles. Each Mentos candy has thousands of tiny pits all over the surface. These tiny pits are called nucleation sites - perfect places for carbon dioxide bubbles to form. As soon as the Mentos hit the soda, bubbles form all over the surface of the candy.

Couple this with the fact that the Mentos candies are heavy and sink to the bottom of the bottle and you've got a double-whammy. When all this gas is released, it literally pushes all of the liquid up and out of the bottle in an incredible soda blast.
 
WICKED, this is great, lovely shot right on target to theme, and I am now going to find a bottle of coke and a mento and the clean up the kitchen just for the hell of it.:lol::lol::lol:
 
That is quality! Wish I'd thought of it!
When you say you took 5 shots, is this a composite or the best of the 5? If it's the best could you combine it with one or more of the others to get more action from the outer bottle?

I have got to try this at some point :lol:
 
Play - I'm afraid I don't know what it is but you have done a pretty good job of capturing it. I like the simplicity of it and with a little more care in framing it would be a winner.

Chemistry - Fabulous! :clap: (Still to do mine - I thought of doing something very similar but couldn't face the mess :D)
 
Mechanical is spot on theme and looks pretty cool.

Play is a nice, clean, effective shot.

Chemistry is a cracker Karl, just a tiny shame the top of the highest shot is cut off.

Great work, keep it up:thumbs:

Cheers, Rob
 
Briony said:
and I am now going to find a bottle of coke and a mento and the clean up the kitchen just for the hell of it.:lol::lol::lol:
Click to expand...
nooooo, don't do it indoors!! look at the level of the last bottle, that's 1 and half litres lost in about 3 seconds, I'd get shot for doing that indoors :lol:

Rudders said:
That is quality! Wish I'd thought of it!
When you say you took 5 shots, is this a composite or the best of the 5?
Click to expand...
yeah, its a composite of 5 consecutive shots, i did try doing two bottles at once but it wasn't as spectacular and one cast shadows over the other

Rob Bartley said:
Chemistry is a cracker Karl, just a tiny shame the top of the highest shot is cut off.
Click to expand...
For some reason the diet pepsi had a much bigger reaction than the cheapo bottles of coke that I tried and it went right out of the top of the shot
 
Chemistry - Absolutely superb! My single criticism is that the top of the highest squirt is off frame. What more can I add, except I'm jealous. I wanted to do similar, showing my eleven year old son's delight at seeing it for the first time. My wife, however, has discouraged this particular essential part of his education. :lol:
 
Brilliant shot for chemistry. If you hadn't said it was a composite I would have still been thinking you'd used 5 bottles together. Action is spot on through the sequence and the lighting works very well. Excellent :clap:
 
:clap::clap::clap: superb... Love it Karl. I'd thought of doing something like that with salt, it's not as explosive but you get a weird foam... but didn't have any coke anywhere and no chance to go get some either.
 
Catch up time!

Love the shot for mechanical, the desaturation works really well.

Play...I don't think I could have kept the dut off mine long enough to get the shot. :thumbs:

Chemistry...I remember the guys on Mythbusters doing this to get extreme height. You have done a great job capturing the explosive power!

:thumbs:
 
Excellent Chemistry shot Karl. As it's a composite of 5 shots, what does it look like if you place the bottles in order? Just a thought.
 
Karlos said:
Not sure I get you, they are in order :thinking:
Click to expand...

Dont mind me Karl - I was thinking maybe starting at the left with the spray getting higher and higher. Now looking again I see you have done that and finished on the empty bottle. :bang:
 
Week 11 Candid

This is attempt No. 2 of candid, I first tried walking the streets of B'ham and snapping away, but it was really hard to get close enough and I got some right evil stares from people, partly due to the 18-55 that I was using being my longest lens. (need to upgrade :) )

So this morning I went down to the Sports Relief event in Birmingham, and it was much easier, there were so many people walking around with cameras that nobody seemed to mind, and everyone just seemed in a happier mood than in the city centre, I even managed to get a shot of Superman!

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I'm not sure whether it's strictly candid - it's definitely not posed though, but I thought it was a better photo than the other more typical candid shots I got, even if it is a bit blurry in places.
I may still post another one up later.
 
Fits the theme very nicely and a nice type of shot.:thumbs:
 
Can't trust anybody these days can you? Who nicked his parachute ? :naughty:

As you say, a touch blurry in places. That just adds to the sense of movement.

Must be candid because I am quite sure he wasn't aware of the camera. He would have had other things on his mind :lol:

Andy
 
Second one is fun Karl - she's definitely 'lost' in her own little world there!
 
Playing catchup here Karl. Apologies for the delay...

Chemistry is great. Really like the explanation and the execution. You learn something new every day!

I really like your Superman shot for Candid. Great expression on the face, and a good instinctive capture.

Good stuff!

Ian.
 
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