miffsmith's 52 2011 (another hard and clutter)

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miffsmith

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Mark
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Hello all.

Hope it's not too late to join in with the 52. My name is Mark, and I've been looking for a bit of a challenge to get me using my camera more and actually thinking about what I'm doing. I guess there are quite a few people in a similar situation.

I treated myself to a 50 mm prime for Christmas and this shot was taken with it about an hour ago, although it's taken me nearly that long to work out how to post the blardy thing. There is no photo processing at all (that's another thing to learn for the future).

I'm happy for any feedback as to the quality of my photos, even if you see basic mistakes. I'm not easily offended and am here to learn so any feedback will be more than welcome.

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My youngest son got a Playmobil farm for Christmas and so I thought this would probably do as accommodation. I made the mistake of looking at several other posts first and a lot of great ideas looked to have already been done.

Cheers, Mark
 
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so wanted to do playmobil but the castle was too bog and the house seems to have lost loads of bits :(
Really like this one esp as the cat looks as though it is trying to steal the milk :)
 
Neon as seen through a low voltage electrical discharge tube.

Tried it in the dark as well but wasn't sure about the quality of the shot. It looked a bit eerie with the red glow, but eventually settled on this one as I quite like the striped effect behind the discharge tube.

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Sharpened a bit in PS3 and messed about with curves.

Any better?

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Really like the first shot, great focus and depth.

Not sure how the second is fitting in with the theme??
 
The name neon is derived from the Greek word neos, which means new. That, plus it has a sexy red glow.

Like the new camera shot on your 52. How do you get the link on the bottom of your posts?
 
I like both shots - second one perhaps a little soft but a great effect.

The name neon is derived from the Greek word neos, which means new.
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Glad you gave an explanation - I would have been left wondering as well :)
 
I've had my first dabble into using any sort of processing with my post on 'new', since I luckily have CS3 on my work's laptop. I found a tutorial in one of the help sections on this forum so thought I'd give it a go, and have posted the result alongside the original. I've really no idea what I'm doing, there seems to be so many different ways of apparently doing the same thing (I used 'unsharp mask').

Any thoughts would be appreciated. (does it need more or less?)

Also, can anyone recommend a good guide book for photoshop?
 
Struggled for inspiration this week. Eventually settled on this and am reasonably happy with it.

Gibson and the recently departed jazz guitarist Les Paul teamed up to design a new style of solid body electrical guitar in the 50's to rival Fender, who had the Telecaster and the Strat.

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Tried quite a few different shots with the guitar upright on its stand, but learned a bit this week about the need for a simple, uncluttered background.

Not sure that the natural light from the left hand side is helping the image, it seems to be giving a strange glow to the left edge of the guitar head. Maybe I shouldn't have given it a once over with the duster.

Any comments?
 
Opening move. Thought the idea lent itself well to black and white, but unfortunately the white pieces were more of a beech colour and the white squares were actually beige, so not sure how well it's turned out. First black and white conversion I've attempted.

I tried to get a nice line of perspective on the pawns and deliberately left a bit of space on the right for the knight to look into. I don't think he likes what he sees though. Looks like he's a bit scared to me, which I quite like, hence his face turned slightly towards the camera and away from the battle, as if he might be changing his mind.

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Hi great set of pics. I like your weeks 1-3, but I'll just comment on week 4.

That's an "open" I often use when playing chess. I like the story that goes with this pic - he doesn't look like a very brave knight.

I like this pic a lot. V nice B+W conversion and well lit. Effective use of limited DOF, but I think I would have had a deeper DOF. Really good detail in the chess pieces. Not sure about the overall composition - for some reason it looks a bit incomplete.

Great start to your 52 :thumbs:
 
I really like this shot a lot, particularly the narrative that describes your thinking behind it. I am considering a similar shot myself but I was thinking of taking the shot facing the piece that made the opening move head on with all of his buddy's behind him and out of focus but still recognisable.
 
Wk3 Super picture of a wonderful piece of musical engineering :thumbs:

Wk4 Like the B&W conversion and the expression on the knights face, along with your explanation.

Simon.
 
Really like the take on this weeks theme. Think the dof of field and focus on the knight works really well. The b&w conversion compliments the shot very well. As a novice i really appreciate looking at all the other pics with a view of my self development. So thanks.
 
Hi

Im sorry i've missed your 52 up to now!

Week 1: I simply LOVED it... perfect... right on theme... great shot and amazing DOF effects!

Week 2: Just did not do much for me... I did not get the link to the theme!

Week 3: Loved this shot... again great use of DOF... seems to be one of your strengths!

Week 4: Probably your best shot and again stunning DOF... My only crit would be i'd have got a bit lower and made the knight a bit bigger in the shot... maybe a wee crop would do the trick! The move of the pawn with the king and queen behind may have worked better! Just maybe more obvious...

Great work so far though... looking forward to seeing more of your work...

Just cant wait to find out what the next theme is now!

Mark
 
Thanks for the kind words and encouragement. Have taken on board what Patrick and Mark said and tried a small crop.

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Maybe a slight improvement?
 
Had a couple of ideas this week. Hope no-one minds if I post more than one.

First one was my initial thought. He's a bag egg. A hard boiled gangster with a hard ass attitude, etc. etc.

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The second one was just something I saw while I was out with the family for a walk earlier today. It's alongside a reservoir and I presume is the old foundations of a long since forgotten bit of building work. Just a bit unusual. I liked the way the rusting steels circle the existing stonework.

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Had another idea that I might try later in the week depending on time.

Enjoying this now. Thanks for looking.
 
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miffsmith said:
First one was my initial thought. He's a bag egg. A hard boiled gangster with a hard ass attitude, etc. etc.
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Hahaha loved the egg one! Brilliant :)
 
blondie606 said:
Hi ya

but darn it, that was one of my choices as well , back to the drawing board :lol:
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Was mine also !!!!!!!!!!!!! "he that hesitate's waits"

great take on the hard theme, great creativity and style. :thumbs:
 
Hi Mark. I love the photo for week 4. Looks like you made a good choice making it B&W, and the face on the chess piece is fantastic. you played that into the photo really well.
Your photo for hard is cracking! (sorry, someone had to say it)
 
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Mark, some great photographs and great takes on the themes.

#1, is very cute, great colours, composiiton and depth.
#2, I did scatch my head with 'new' but neon, thanks fior the clarification. ;)
#3, good composition and it really looks like it's coming towards me, also looks like a miniature guitar.
#4, is my favourite, b&w really works well and fantastic take on 'open.
#5, #1 is superb and really made me smile - but now I'm very hungry!

Cheers.
 
A quality set of images mate, nice one.
And that egg one is comedy gold!
 
loving all the shots you have taken so far, reallylike the guitar and the playmobil!
 
I loved the egg photo mate... great fun and a good take on the theme... Great work!

If i'm honest now I see the chess crop... I think I was wrong! I prefer the original!
 
I like both your week 5 pics.
The egg one is really funny and a great take on the theme.

The landscape is an excellent pic and has a slightly surreal look. The composition is very good with the posts at different distances and filling different amounts of the frame. Good detail on the near post. The OOF background works well.

The sky is overexposed so has very little detail. A graduated filter would have helped.

Cheers, Patrick
 
Thanks for all the good egg feedback about my 'bad egg'.

If i'm honest now I see the chess crop... I think I was wrong! I prefer the original!
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Honestly, there's no pleasing some people.

The landscape is an excellent pic and has a slightly surreal look. The composition is very good with the posts at different distances and filling different amounts of the frame. Good detail on the near post. The OOF background works well.

The sky is overexposed so has very little detail. A graduated filter would have helped.

Cheers, Patrick
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Pleased you like the composition, which was the important aim for me.

I agree about the sky though Patrick. It was very overcast anyway, and being quite new to photography I have not invested in any filters. My understanding of graduated filters is that they limit the light reaching the sensor but the exposure time increases. Presumably this means using a tripod, but I have no understanding of how the longer exposure helps to improve the image. If the sky is better exposed then surely other areas of the image will suffer as a consequence. Or is the sky something that can be fixed in photoshop?

Also, a quick search of graduated filters gave far too many options for a beginner like myself. Any tips on a good one to start with?

Cheers, Mark
 
Ha Ha that egg shot is cracking :D well done Mark real good shot :thumbs:
some of your ideas this past month have been great well done
 
It's a bit late, but this is the other idea I had for hard.

It's a foreign language version of the Periodic Table (making it more difficult to understand) with a molecular model showing the structure of diamond sat on top of it. Diamond, as well as being quite hard, is an allotrope of carbon, hence the selective colouring. It was my first attempt at such a technique, adding to the difficulty for me personally.

Not really happy with the molecular model idea, as you can't see clearly what it actually is but I'm quite pleased with how the rest of it came out. I'm aware that I might have gone overboard with the hard idea though.

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Bonus prize if you can guess the language.
 
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Clutter proved really hard work, and to be honest, I'm not really enthusiastic about delicate either. I didn't want to just take a picture of a busy desk or my shed, but the image I ended up with is another still life anyway.

At least I've got a bit of background to it though. Anyone with children under ten may have a few of these Go-go's around the house. We've got hundreds of the little buggers. They normally live in an old chocolate tin, but invariably escape without warning, revealing themselves on a dark wooden floor late at night or early in the morning when the toes are at their most vulnerable. The cyclops with the shiny purple head (no jokes please) had me as a victim only last week.

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Hiya Mark,

Just found your photo52 thread so had a quick peek through.

I like all of the photos you have posted so far and especially like your week 1, although they are all good.

Well done and I look forward to seeing more your weeks.

Cheers

Dawn :)
 
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