weekly Lorraine's 52 in 2015 - Week 24 Spiral Added

Machine - These get everywhere across our landscape now. A solid capture. Although the light is fairly flat on the ground it nicely lights the blades. The slightly off centre approach works for me

Alphabet - I feel the background lets this one down slightly although the composition of all the bits and bobs on the table is fine. The edited crop works better for me

Sound - An amusing take on the theme. Watch out for those distracting shadows on the background though. Good choice to convert it to mono.
 
rpn said:
What a brilliant idea for the theme. The bg and shallow spoil an otherwise a great shot.
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Thanks Stan :) it was the only idea I came up with for a tricky theme. I agree about the bg - Im working on it and might be improving with the experiment theme. The shadow was intentional - it's a bit of a mish-mash, but I was thining of the gun being coaught in a searchlight beam. I've couldn't get the vignette the way I wanted it forst time, but here's an edit looking edited more like what I had in mind (still the same rubbish bg though :-()

View attachment 35431


69Bonni said:
Hi Lorraine
Like the machine shot, don't know that it's a shoehorn, there's a lot of machinery up in the top there behind those blades. Nice light hitting the back of the blades. Sits well against the blue sky.

Alphabet ... Clever take on the theme. I see another B they all missed 'Balance' it's a very well balanced shot. I like the cropped version better. Works well for me. I also like that sepia look gives it that sort of Art Deco feel about it.

Sound ... Ha ha Bang Bang my baby shot me down (1966) now you've got me at it! That's a great idea! Yes I guess in this day an age walking round the streets with a pistol would probably upset the local bobbys ( are there local bobbys any more?). I like the lighting,moody and it workers for me!

Nice work, well shot!(y)
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ooh, I never even thought about balance for the alphabet shot - thanks Steve :)

I'm glad you like the machine & sound shots too :)
 
Delta Skies said:
Machine - These get everywhere across our landscape now. A solid capture. Although the light is fairly flat on the ground it nicely lights the blades. The slightly off centre approach works for me

Alphabet - I feel the background lets this one down slightly although the composition of all the bits and bobs on the table is fine. The edited crop works better for me

Sound - An amusing take on the theme. Watch out for those distracting shadows on the background though. Good choice to convert it to mono.
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Thanks for looking & commenting Peter. The light was fairly flat on the machine shot - it was early afternoon when I took the shot iirc.

and I agree about the backgrounds - but I might have the answer with this week's shot (fingers crossed).
 
Week 16 - Experiment

well, these themes aren't getting any easier :D, but thanks to some good advice from @Dark Knight, I've invested in a speedlight and I've been doing a bit of experimentation today... I've sharpened the shots and cloned out some little bits of fluff from the bg and a couple of blemishes on the rose.

The first shot is natural light, from the side

View attachment 35434

which shows up a load of creases in the bg (black velvet), even after I'd ironed it a few times :) and the reflections are awful

for this one I used the speedlight, set to standard and bounced off the ceiling

View attachment 35438

and I like it - works wonder for my bg. The final shot was using bounced flash again, this time on the even setting..

View attachment 35440

I'm quite pleased with the final shot - I think I might have finally cracked the bg problem. I wanted to put all three shots into a triptych, but I couldn't get the sizing right for some reason :confused:

Thanks for looking :)
 
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That's a nice series of shots and your subject choice works really well as a contrast to the black background.

However I do feel that the speedlit ones could do with a bit more brightness in your subject. This is a personal thing though. If you're going for that "look" then obviously it works fine. It's nice & sharp and the slightly off-centre composition is spot on. The daylit one though is probably my favourite because the background adds context. The brighter light brings out the green of the leaves and subtle variations in light compared to the speedlight's "even coating". The complete black of your speedlit ones make it look like your subject is suspended in space. Again - this is personal preference and doesn't make your chosen shots "wrong".

Sound is genius :)
 
Thanks Lorraine ... congratulations on your speedlight investment.

I think I prefer the rose in the first pic ... tho artificial lighting is not my forte.

Hey ... love the experimentals (y)
 
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Hi, well done for trying something new, they look a little dark to ma and the white balance needs looking at, they seem slightly blueish
its a good start and I am sure you will get the hang of it
 
Hi Lorraine.
Sound - :) very good. Nice vaudeville shot that.
Experiment - Good on you for trying something new to you. I don't find the creases a particular distraction so I think I prefer the first shot.
 
Harlequin565 said:
That's a nice series of shots and your subject choice works really well as a contrast to the black background.

However I do feel that the speedlit ones could do with a bit more brightness in your subject. This is a personal thing though. If you're going for that "look" then obviously it works fine. It's nice & sharp and the slightly off-centre composition is spot on. The daylit one though is probably my favourite because the background adds context. The brighter light brings out the green of the leaves and subtle variations in light compared to the speedlight's "even coating". The complete black of your speedlit ones make it look like your subject is suspended in space. Again - this is personal preference and doesn't make your chosen shots "wrong".

Sound is genius :)
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Thanks for your comments Ian. I can see what you mean about the darkness of the speedlit shots. I tend to get myself very wrapped up in nailing one aspect of a photo and I can forget to 'see' other things - I think I need a checklist :LOL:. However, I'm really pleased that they all seem to be a lot sharper than some of the other stuff I've done - I'm slowly getting there I think :-)

And I'm very chuffed at your comment about the sound shot :)

d00d said:
Thanks Lorraine ... congratulations on your speedlight investment.

I think I prefer the rose in the first pic ... tho artificial lighting is not my forte.

Hey ... love the experimentals (y)
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Hi David, thanks for looking and commenting. I suspect this was the first off many experiments I'll be doing with tthat speedlight. I've invested in some incense sticks and I'm going to have a go at smoke trails :-)

rpn said:
Three nice experimental shots but can't pick which is best but may be a mixture of the three. The well lit rose from the first and the dark vase from the other two.
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Thanks for stopping by and commenting Stan. I really didn't like the reflections in the vase on the first shot, and I wanted to play about with the light (not too adventurously, I'll admit), still, it was a good excuse to buy a bunch of flowers :-)

LC2 said:
Hi Lorraine.
Sound - :) very good. Nice vaudeville shot that.
Experiment - Good on you for trying something new to you. I don't find the creases a particular distraction so I think I prefer the first shot.
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Hi Tim, thanks for commenting. I'm glad you liked sound :-)

Experiment - well, I've got a long way to go with lighting, but it's nice to have something different to try :-)
 
Hi Lorraine


Sound....simple but effective & on theme shot, the vignette works a treat (y)

Experiment......think I'm with Ian on this one.... the daylit one works well as the vase is grounded but they're all sharp with some nice detail in that beautiful rose (y)

Large sheets of black or any colored card you want make ideal backgrounds & don't break the bank ,if you have a local Hobbycraft or The Range stock plenty of colors & sizes , I buy the big sheets as find them easier to use for infinity type curves . Try your local DIY stores for large floor or wall tiles as well, B&Q sell sample ones for around £2-£3 & I find them useful for textured bases & bg's (y)
 
I love sound very well thought out :) experiment - I love the natural one but the lit ones are far too dark :( you've lost the sparkle (especially the water) and there's no definition in the flowers. However, the theme is experiment and you are experimenting :) And it takes a lot of experimenting to get flashed shots right, this is why I'm using the whole challenge to learn it lol (phew)
 
Sound is genius :ROFLMAO: made me LOL

Experiement - I too love the first one using natural light. The ones using the flash are just too flat for my taste, but that's the whole point of experiment isn't it ;)
 
blondie606 said:
Hi Lorraine


Sound....simple but effective & on theme shot, the vignette works a treat (y)

Experiment......think I'm with Ian on this one.... the daylit one works well as the vase is grounded but they're all sharp with some nice detail in that beautiful rose (y)

Large sheets of black or any colored card you want make ideal backgrounds & don't break the bank ,if you have a local Hobbycraft or The Range stock plenty of colors & sizes , I buy the big sheets as find them easier to use for infinity type curves . Try your local DIY stores for large floor or wall tiles as well, B&Q sell sample ones for around £2-£3 & I find them useful for textured bases & bg's (y)
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Thanks Lynne - I've got a long way to go with the flash I think. I bought a black tile a couple of weeks ago from Wickes - it's a nice big square and it works pretty well (I used it as a bg for the elegant reshoot). I've played with the rose a bit more - see below

posiview said:
Wonderful plans there, but they all look under exposed/dark, any brighter?

Cheers.
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Thanks Andy - I can see what everyone means about the flash shots being too dark - edit below :)

sturisoma said:
I love sound very well thought out :) experiment - I love the natural one but the lit ones are far too dark :( you've lost the sparkle (especially the water) and there's no definition in the flowers. However, the theme is experiment and you are experimenting :) And it takes a lot of experimenting to get flashed shots right, this is why I'm using the whole challenge to learn it lol (phew)
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Thanks Summer -glad you like sound :) and I do agree with the comments about the rose being too dark - edit on its way

Bruja said:
Sound is genius :ROFLMAO: made me LOL

Experiement - I too love the first one using natural light. The ones using the flash are just too flat for my taste, but that's the whole point of experiment isn't it ;)
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Hi Jill, thanks for your comments. I'm glad the sound shot raised a chuckle - it was one one of my rare flashes of inspiration I think :-D

and the flash shot - well.....I can't argue with what you say. I've played about a bit - hope the edit's better
 
I'm useless ant flash lighting....so for me your experiment first shot is the winner :-)
 
I´d go for the first of the set of three, or the edit.

In fact maybe the edit as the creases in the fabric have gone..

But then again with the creases it looks ok anyway.

Oh b****r, well they are both the best of the lot!!!
 
BobBCN said:
I´d go for the first of the set of three, or the edit.

In fact maybe the edit as the creases in the fabric have gone..

But then again with the creases it looks ok anyway.

Oh b****r, well they are both the best of the lot!!!
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ha ha ha....you're about as decisive as I am :ROFLMAO:, thanks Bob
 
Week 17 - heat

Well, it hasn't been the best of days - I must be the only person on earth that can take flash photos and still underexpose them :confused:, clearly I need to practice this dark art of lighting :D

So, after faffing about for ages I decided to go for plan B - chillis basking in the sun. Not the best shot I've done. The shadows were intentional, but the chillis look a bit dark, but I don't think I'll get a chance to do anything better during the week, so here goes...


View attachment 36121
 
no Lorraine that's a brilliant shot! I love the sunlight and the shadows - after the weekend of rain tis nice to be reminded that the sun really was out last week :) really love this :clap:
 
Hi Lorraine ....is it three weeks since I looked in :wideyed:

Love your Sound shot ....what a great fun idea, definitely a good idea from Lynne to get assorted sheets of card ... It's really handy for backgrounds.

I think the first shot in Experiment is the best, but your edit looks really good too, not an easy subject with a glass vase but well done for trying lots of ideas.

Heat .... I know what you mean about faffing, I do it all the time and then end up with something totally different! I really like the idea of the sunlight on the chillies, it makes a smashing natural shot. I'm not sure about the triangle shadow in the corner, it seems a bit at odds with the shot in general, but as summer says it good to see something that reminds us of last weeks sunshine.
 
I don't think the chillies are too dark, I like the contrast between the sunlight and the shadows and the dark side of the chillies is inevitable. I'm not sure if the triangle adds or takes away from the picture but I lean towards adds as it would look a little stark without it.
 
I like it! Proper sunshine! I think the triangle adds ... but not sure if the plate adds. o_O
 
Hi, nice idea to take them in the bright sun, shadows and the light on the chillies work really well
 
Hi Lorraine :)

Machine - Love that, it really made me smile when I saw it, perfect for the theme and liking the set-up/lighting :)

Experiment - Congrats on the speedlight, it will take some getting used to, but you will notice you will capture much more quality detail... your playing around with the flower image is the perfect answer to the theme, lots of variety of exposures, and good explanation of what you were trying, the final image is a peach of a shot, a good combination of lighting and minimised background :thumbs:[

Heat - Now then, this I really like, loving the strong shadows, lovely bright colours too, and the shapes of the chillies really helps add a good bit of depth to the image for me, super image :clap;
 
Certainly hits the theme for Heat Lorraine and my only niggle is the dark bit at the bottom right but a small crop will fix that.

Just goes to show that faffing around doesn't always produce what you want and going 'quick and simple' works wonders. I know why you wonder about if it's good enough cos I do too when a shot seems 'too simple' but, according to feedback here they are the ones people seem to like best. We seem to relate complicated to better and that's really not the case. I think you need to be pretty good at photography to pull off a simple shot :clap::clap::clap:
 
Hi Lorraine
Experiment... love the sequence of shots that's excellent as you can see how you've got there! I think the last edit is very good as you can still just about see the background. I would just be careful about the very centre of the Rose its getting very bright and losing definition. I think some judicial touching up with the adjustment brush would help there, or maybe tickling down the highlights.
I think I'm the worlds worst and there's a lot of truth in what Jill says. I think the more tools there are in LR / PS the more were obsessed with using them!
Last Edit for me, looks good(y)

Hot.... UUUmmmm Flash lighting is my nemesis too Lorraine!:eek: Re your underexposing fun on your 7000... Have you had a tweak of the flash exposure compensation button on the LH side of your flash (and the rear command dial) on the camera? Just a thought. Anyhow flashes aside I like the shot, for me I really like that strong dark diagonal shadow the top, seems to anchor the shot. Love that bright green highlighted curve of the pepper, and the best of all is that curved reflection in the rim of the plate of the red pepper, that's fantastic! Personally there would be 3 bits I'd work on, one is the little triangle of white on the plate I'd get rid of that, the little knob of shadow that spoils the circular shadow of the plate in the foreground, and finally at the bottom edge of the picture the dark line running out from right to left. (personal opinion).

Nice Work Lorraine(y)
 
Hi, Heat, not really feeling this, I'm afraid. Good on you for having a go at flash, but it's too harsh for me. A lot of the detail in the peppers has gone. And the harsh shadows don't work well.

Defused flash would have helped with a reflector of some kind to lift the shadows.

Keep at it, though and if you had some more time I'm sure you could have experimented more with flash power.

Cheers.
 
sturisoma said:
no Lorraine that's a brilliant shot! I love the sunlight and the shadows - after the weekend of rain tis nice to be reminded that the sun really was out last week :) really love this :clap:
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susiejb said:
Hi Lorraine ....is it three weeks since I looked in :wideyed:

Love your Sound shot ....what a great fun idea, definitely a good idea from Lynne to get assorted sheets of card ... It's really handy for backgrounds.

I think the first shot in Experiment is the best, but your edit looks really good too, not an easy subject with a glass vase but well done for trying lots of ideas.

Heat .... I know what you mean about faffing, I do it all the time and then end up with something totally different! I really like the idea of the sunlight on the chillies, it makes a smashing natural shot. I'm not sure about the triangle shadow in the corner, it seems a bit at odds with the shot in general, but as summer says it good to see something that reminds us of last weeks sunshine.
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ShinySideUp said:
I don't think the chillies are too dark, I like the contrast between the sunlight and the shadows and the dark side of the chillies is inevitable. I'm not sure if the triangle adds or takes away from the picture but I lean towards adds as it would look a little stark without it.
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d00d said:
I like it! Proper sunshine! I think the triangle adds ... but not sure if the plate adds. o_O
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alsjazzera said:
Hi, nice idea to take them in the bright sun, shadows and the light on the chillies work really well
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Dark Knight said:
Hi Lorraine :)

Machine - Love that, it really made me smile when I saw it, perfect for the theme and liking the set-up/lighting :)

Experiment - Congrats on the speedlight, it will take some getting used to, but you will notice you will capture much more quality detail... your playing around with the flower image is the perfect answer to the theme, lots of variety of exposures, and good explanation of what you were trying, the final image is a peach of a shot, a good combination of lighting and minimised background (y)[

Heat - Now then, this I really like, loving the strong shadows, lovely bright colours too, and the shapes of the chillies really helps add a good bit of depth to the image for me, super image :clap;
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Bruja said:
Certainly hits the theme for Heat Lorraine and my only niggle is the dark bit at the bottom right but a small crop will fix that.

Just goes to show that faffing around doesn't always produce what you want and going 'quick and simple' works wonders. I know why you wonder about if it's good enough cos I do too when a shot seems 'too simple' but, according to feedback here they are the ones people seem to like best. We seem to relate complicated to better and that's really not the case. I think you need to be pretty good at photography to pull off a simple shot :clap::clap::clap:
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69Bonni said:
Hi Lorraine
Experiment... love the sequence of shots that's excellent as you can see how you've got there! I think the last edit is very good as you can still just about see the background. I would just be careful about the very centre of the Rose its getting very bright and losing definition. I think some judicial touching up with the adjustment brush would help there, or maybe tickling down the highlights.
I think I'm the worlds worst and there's a lot of truth in what Jill says. I think the more tools there are in LR / PS the more were obsessed with using them!
Last Edit for me, looks good(y)

Hot.... UUUmmmm Flash lighting is my nemesis too Lorraine!:eek: Re your underexposing fun on your 7000... Have you had a tweak of the flash exposure compensation button on the LH side of your flash (and the rear command dial) on the camera? Just a thought. Anyhow flashes aside I like the shot, for me I really like that strong dark diagonal shadow the top, seems to anchor the shot. Love that bright green highlighted curve of the pepper, and the best of all is that curved reflection in the rim of the plate of the red pepper, that's fantastic! Personally there would be 3 bits I'd work on, one is the little triangle of white on the plate I'd get rid of that, the little knob of shadow that spoils the circular shadow of the plate in the foreground, and finally at the bottom edge of the picture the dark line running out from right to left. (personal opinion).

Nice Work Lorraine(y)
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posiview said:
Hi, Heat, not really feeling this, I'm afraid. Good on you for having a go at flash, but it's too harsh for me. A lot of the detail in the peppers has gone. And the harsh shadows don't work well.

Defused flash would have helped with a reflector of some kind to lift the shadows.

Keep at it, though and if you had some more time I'm sure you could have experimented more with flash power.

Cheers.
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Thank you all very much for stopping by & your feedback & comments (both good and not so good). I think I'm learning a lot by doing this challenge - and I've got a long way to go - but I'm trying new things all the time, which is great.

more experimentation with the flash is called for, and maybe a proper read of the manual....I did take a look, but there seemed a lot of maths in there :runaway:...I didn't dial in any exposure compensation on the flash (I didn't know how to) and I can't recall now if I'd entered some compensation on the camera . I think part of the problem might have been the metering mode - there's just so much to choose from! Anyway, if this weather keeps up over the weekend I should get some time to play about a bit.

:):)
 
"Proper read of the manual"???????
Are you serious?;) OMG!
 
rpn said:
Hi Lorraine, I actually quite like the Heat shot. The contrasting light and shadows work for me and I also like the patterns of the shadow too but a wee shame about the stray tip of one of the chillies.
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Hi Stan, thanks, I'm glad you liked it - you're right about the chilli tip, it doesn't belong, does it :-)
 
BobBCN said:
As said by others, light and shadows make for a non-flat shot. Simple, effective.
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Thanks Bob:-)

LC2 said:
Heat: Fantastic use of the available colours, nicely sharp. I'm not sure about the shadow across the top left hand side, what does it look like without it? Good shot though.
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Thanks Tim :-), I left the shadow in to emphasise the strong light/heat, but it does seem to be a bit marmite, so might go back and crop/clone the shadow out at some point
 
week 18 - Figures - or is it the return of the shoehorn?

Well, first off this was the hardest theme by far for me. About the only thing that came to mind was lego, but I'm guessing a few people have gone that way. Sooo....one of the other definitions of figures seemed to be shapes and this is what I went with. I wanted only one of the pieces in focus, leaving the rest to just suggest a shape, which felt to me to be a better fit with figures.

Then setting the board up was a bit of a challenge, I wanted the set up to look fairly realistic, but I didn't want too many pieces in the shot. Once I'd sorted that bit out, I looked for the best place to take the shot - I wanted a clean background for this. After loads of test shots, I went with the board on my dining table, which is where it might be I suppose. Now, to say my table is distressed is an understatement, which is one of the reasons why the full board isn't in the shot. I've tried to clone out most of the scratches, but I don't think I've done the best job of it. Then I messed about with lighting - natural, camera flash and my new toy bounced & diffused. There doesn't seem a massive difference between the two flash photos, but I think the bounced flash does look a bit less flat. The third shot was hand held - I quite like it for the set up, but it's not even close to sharp - I might go back to try it again at some point.

Thanks for looking

1 - bounced flash

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2 camera flash

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3

View attachment 36632
 
Hi Lorraine, thanks for visiting my thread. I haven't completed my catch-up yet but I thought I really should return the compliment.

Firstly, I really like your images for Pattern - especially the second one, which reminded me of a frozen forest. I also really enjoyed both images for Fragile and for Elegant, and your abstract for Vertical is a cracker. while I like your alternative taken on Crowd and the rose for Close-up is really lovely. Bang up to date with Figures, and I really do like the light and bokeh of the single piece with the OOF pieces around it.

I'll be following your thread to stay up to date :)
 
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