weekly Photo 52 - 2012 - Donnie - Week 33 TIME - posted Tuesday 21st August

An excellent interpretation to the theme Paul. Well shot and composed, and you've mentioned the background.
 
Really good setup and take on the theme. Great when you get play around with new toys.

The eyes really draw me in but I do get distracted by the watch. The watch brings dimension to the shot but its too strong in terms of the theme and the focus on the entrance to you!
 
Another selfie shot :thumbs: Love the highlights in the eyes and the focus but the watch is a little distracting for me, am I being stupid when I ask I don't get what that has with 'entrance'? I get the eyes, that part is on theme!

You don't look bad for someone who was up at a rather ungodly hour! I am up just about every day at that hour and my eyes would look like saddle bags until the caffiene kicked in and the concealer is applied!

Lynne I'm just getting to grips with layers and masks, it is dam frustrating when you forget which layer you're working on but it is a very clever tool!
 
Marsha:

"en·trance    [en-trans, -trahns]
verb (used with object), en·tranced, en·tranc·ing.
1.
to fill with delight or wonder; enrapture.
2.
to put into a trance: to be hypnotically entranced."

On that basis, the watch is absolutely key to the shot.

OK so technically it should be hyphenated ("en-trance" not "entrance"), but it's a very clever take on the theme none the less :)

I really really like this. I think you have the perfect look for this kind of shot, and have posed yourself perfectly too. Exposure, lighting etc is spot on; can't fault it!

BUT, I nearly missed it, and in fact only spotted it because you've put it in the Flickr group, because you haven't updated the spreadsheet :bang: :rules::bat: Clearly you need to be hypnotised in order to get into the habit!!!!
 
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Southdowns said:
"en·trance    [en-trans, -trahns]
verb (used with object), en·tranced, en·tranc·ing.
1.
to fill with delight or wonder; enrapture.
2.
to put into a trance: to be hypnotically entranced."

On that basis, the watch is absolutely key to the shot.

OK so technically it should be hyphenated ("en-trance" not "entrance"), but it's a very clever take on the theme none the less :)[/QUOTE

Thanks for that, I figured it was me being a muppet!
Click to expand...
 
You're OK; I like Muppets ;)
 
LOL, thank you all, sorry Ive not been on here most of the week, just too much going on.

Yes, Southdowns got it, ie to entrance someone :-)

I was fairly pleased with the shot altogether given it was a bit last minute, a bit like this weeks too but as I thought we'd be getting our new kitten this week I just had to wait :D
 
And here is my Soft shot.


Photo 52 - 2012 - Week 15 - Soft by Donnie Canning, on Flickr

You can't really get much softer than a kitten!

This is Bob, our kitten we just picked up today so thought he'll fit the theme perfectly.

Set up was waiting for him to settle on my roll of white paper on the dining room table.

I had my flashgun set up with it's softbox and flashing from above via wireless trigger, it was set at 1/8th power.

In post I copied the layer and cloned out 2 small pieces of dry cat food that were just in front of him.
then I added a levels layer and pulled the sliders in slightly to lighten the background and that was it.
 
Vice – On theme. I wonder whether a B&W of these might give it a grittier journalistic style image

Entrance – I disagree about changing the colour of the background. I think the black would work but just needs some lighting on the shirt to make it stand out more.

Soft – Great shot. As Sarah said our dogs wouldn’t sit like that for their photos :lol:
 
Cheers all :D

I don't know why he just settled down for it, I mean we'd only brought him home less than an hour and he was fairly chilled out :)

I think it was more luck than anything to be honest :)
 
Hi Paul. Vice is a great take. The lighting has worked well to show the main elements with the rest idarker to give the wicked look, and I like the placement of the syringe.
Magical, well thought out and as others have commented about the background it could do with some seperation. Personally I think this adds to the idea of coming out of the shadows and into the mind.
Soft, just aaaawww but could do with less crop at the front, and less lighting to the left as the side of face merges into BG.
 
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Hi Paul,

Great 52 thread mate, in a rush catching up so ill comment on the last two(sorry) and keep on top in future.

Entrance, Great idea, nicely lit and bang on theme

Soft, well you can't get softer than a kitten that's true, the cats colour works well against the white background, great pose to the cat also.

Good work all round

Matt
 
Hi Paul


love your take on En-trance...nice bit of thinking & a great shot .I'm thinking I like the BG as it is , not sure why but the fact you kinda blend in with the BG works really well...all the focus being on the eye's & watch...:clap:


ooooh....what a cutie...great pin sharp eye & nose , lovely coloring little tight on the crop but yes...beautiful capture :clap:
 
Hi Paul
I have no explanation but I cannot recall looking at your thread at all even tho you have been kind enough to comment on my efforts:bonk:

But I have now had a quick run through of your shots and they are of a very high standard. You have a very good sense of composition, good ideas and your lighting skills are excellent.

so to keep u going now i will coment on the last 2

Entrance - good idea , good composition, very well lit - altogether good for a selfie.:thumbs: so did you get up at 5.30 and put your coat and tie on?

Self - again really good lighting and good focus. A real cuddly bundle of softness.
 
Donnie said:

Photo 52 - 2012 - Week 12 - Magical by Donnie Canning, on Flickr

Setting up the magician was easy enough but making sure he was looking at the "audience" was necessary as well as making sure his wand was in the left hand. If it had been in the right hand I think it would have spoiled the composition.

Next was getting the stormtrooper to "float". For this I simply folded some white card and using a little blutak balanced him on it.

The figures were placed on a roll of white wallpaper and placed so there was an infinity curve.

I set the camera on M with a shutter speed of 1/200th to sync with my flash (off camera and firing at the background).

Once I was happy with this I took a couple of test shots and was happy other than the fact that the figures looked a little flat lighting wise, the needed some fill in light. However as another flash would have been way too much I opted for 2 reflectors (table place mats wrapped in tin foil) and positioned both until I was happy with the amount of light.

Opening the image in Camera Raw I boosted the contrast a little as well as the clarity then opened in photoshop.

Here, I copied the layer before doing any work, allowing me to go back to the original just in case.

First I evened the white colouring of the background as everything in front of the figures was a definite light grey. I tried using a levels layer to adjust this but it had too much effect on the stormtrooper washing him out completely.
To get round this I made another new layer and filled it with white and added a layer mask. This allowed me to brush the figures back into the picture without any of the background at all.

Now I flattened the image as a new layer but it was missing something, first there was too much of a gap between the figures so a quick cut and paste allowed me to move them a little closer then the only thing to do was to create a shadow under both figures, especially under the floating one to give it some depth and reality so to speak.
To do this I used a brush of the desired size and opacity set to about 20%
Click to expand...

Brilliantly done and I love the explanation - kudos
 
Paul, Entrance, cracker..good focus and lighting and great expression. Pure black BG would be the icing.

Soft, a kitten, really, a kitten....who doesn't like a kitten :D Again, great lighting and I like the softness of kitties fur.

Cheers.
 
Aww cutie indeed, great shot.
 
All great explanations thanks for sharing. ' Soft' is a lovely image and works very well !
 
Soft, bang on theme, just needs a little more room around the puss and it would be spot on. Iain
 

Photo 52 - 2012 - Week 22 - Temperature by Donnie Canning, on Flickr

Not the best picture in the world but as I've not managed to keep up it's time to play catch up as I've not posted a pic since week 15!!

This was a simple enough picture in that I simply went into my greenhouse at midday and recorded this temperature or 30 celcius with my tomato seedlings in the background.
I used my 50mm prime for this shot to enhance the depth of field.

In post processing I added a little sharpening, warmed the picture a little and spot healed one small speck of dirt on the thermometer and that was it.
 
Hi Paul

wondered if I'd missed some of your weeks , makes sense know you say you've not posted since week 15...thought it was me being dimmer than normal :lol:

Temperature...well , right on theme for sure , good use of DOF & focus in just the right place :thumbs: Not sure if portrait may have enabled you to get more of the thermometer in..I'd have liked to see the bottom half of it but thats just my thoughts...still a good shot :thumbs:

Good to see you hanging on in here , well done for still being with us & here's to next 30 odd weeks :)
 
I like the DoF, well done :clap:
 
Bang on theme, and nice composition. Personally I'd like to see the thermometer all in focus, with all of the leaves blurred, but that is a matter of taste.
 
Well done for trying to catch up:thumbs:

Temperature - I like the off set composition but think your image would benefit from the thermometer being upright and in focus. The tomato plants make a nice back drop. Bang on theme - nick :thumbs:
 
Well done, good image with nice DOF and colour ... and enjoy the tomatoes :D
 
Thank you all for the feedback and encouragement, finding it really hard going at the moment :-(

I'd have loved to have had some toms in the pic too but they arent fruiting yet :-(
 

Photo 52 Week 24 - Symmetry by Donnie Canning, on Flickr

My canon eos 800D :-)

A quick idea that came to me, simple and fast to do in a bid not to fall behind any more.

Setup was simply a white backdrop behind the camera which was facing a mirror, then I needed to use the off camera flash for some fill in light and to show the 50mm blades up.

Once the shot was taken, post production was straight forward with a slight increase in exposure then cropping to half the camera, copy and paste into another document, then flip it, copy and paste it back to the original as another layer and move them together. Flatten and upload :-)
 
Hah! I had the same idea, but was going to do it from above the camera!

Really well done, with great results. Only two tiny issues for me; there's a slight issue with the roundness of the lens top and bottom; you can see the join (though you have to look very hard!), and I think I'd have liked the lettering (Canon at the top, and the lens markings NOT to be mirrored. It works well like it is, and it's truly symmetrical, but I think it would have been more interesting as a true mock up of a "new ambidextrous camera from Canon".

I don't think the theme requires absolute symmetry to work, it just requires symmetry to be implied or central to the shot.

Great work :)
 
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