SimonTALM's Photo 52 Thread

Without the pen that is a strong shot.
The pen is a stroke of genius - I really like what you did there Simon.
 
-Rob- said:
Lovely shot Simon however looking at the Exif I see you shot at f6.3 which I wouldn't have expected to give such a short DoF. Did you achieve it in PP? However you got it, you ended up with a very nice result and that's all that matters.
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Thank you, I did nothing to the DoF in PP, what you see is what I got straight out the camera. I think this is the joy of a 105mm Macro at close range :). I have a shot of the setup I'll post over the weekend

To everyone else, thank you, your comments are really appreciated. I'd love to say that "Learning Curve" being on a curve or the pen was planned from the start but they weren't I just started the shoot with the dictionary definition in mind and added as I went along. I think if I reshot this I'd move the pen up a fraction and have a bit (a mm at most) of white space above "Learning".
 
very good Simon, I experimented with this for week 1 but decided against it as I couldn't get the shot I wanted. I think you've nailed it though:thumbs:
 
I was quite pleased with what I had managed for this weeks challenge, until I saw yours , superb.

Great idea, beautify shot.
 
i absolutely love this shot. Well done.
 
Great DOF - it's something I really struggle with too with my macro conversion lenses and I think you've done a great job :thumbs:
 
When I fisted opened up your page I got a feeling we had done the same sort of thing and as you posted 2 days earlier..thought oh no...:eek:

But mine was not a macro shot and know where near as classy...:clap:

I like all your stuff so far...excellent...:thumbs:
 
great shot simon. that is a touch of genius..... really like that one
 
Nice shot, Simon. I'm just trying to catch up on everyones shots from this week and initially was gutted to see this as it was about the only idea I'd had for 52.4!!! Very pleased you did such a good job of the capture!
 
Good shot, nice composition
 
Great shots here Simon, the Learning one is really good, so sharp and composition is spot on :thumbs:
 
I like these photos and agree with all of the above comments that I understand!! I am becoming quite drawn to B&Ws
 
Well, here it is... my Surprise photo.

I did originally thought of the Kinder Surprise Egg and took a few shots of one but quickly went off that idea. I had the idea to capture the surprised expression but only including the eyes. It was only when I tried to do this two eyes weren't working as I thought they would so I just focused on one of them. This is a large crop of a bigger photo (the original includes most of my face).


Click for EXIF

Things I've learned this week.

  • It's very difficult to take a photo of your own eye in a mirror and use flash at the same time, something gets in the way.
  • Eyes (in particular the iris and pupil) really need to be contrasty and sharp to look great so when you convert to B&W and make most of it white you need to make reduce the effect in the iris and pupil.

Like the rest of you I'm keeping my fingers crossed for an less cerebral theme next week, but as it is drawn at random there is nothing I can do about it. Please be aware that unless the theme may not be with you until Sunday evening this week as I am a black tie do Saturday evening and it will take all day to get there and most of Sunday to get back.

The one that wasn't quite there
 
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That looks like a difficult shot to get right, I think I would have preferred the dof to be a bit deeper so the eye was in focus too. I like the idea though, very clever.
 
maddog.mark said:
That looks like a difficult shot to get right, I think I would have preferred the dof to be a bit deeper so the eye was in focus too. I like the idea though, very clever.
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Ah you are refering to the softness, I suspect this is down to the 1000ISO noise rather than actual DoF issues - it's f8 at 70mm.
 
should've checked the exif:bang:. Must be the high iso noise then.
 
maddog.mark said:
should've checked the exif:bang:. Must be the high iso noise then.
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I'm not 100% sure but it would make sense this is a big crop of a 1000ISO image which has been attacked by noise ninja which works through removing detail.

p.s. Yes the 1000ISO was a mistake that I was too lazy to correct ;)
 
You can see how the pupil is dilated but i must admit i am not a big fan of shots of the eye.
 
I find this image mesmerising. There's lots of detail but I keep going back and looking to see what I can see reflected in your pupil! I'm obviously stuck in Week 1 somewhere. :lol:

I've never tried to do a self-portrait of any kind - and I've no idea how you achieved this. It must be really difficult. :clap:

Have a great time on Saturday. :)

Jean
 
Well done Simon, that's a tough challenge to get that, and it's come out well. You certainly look surprised :thumbs:
 
I like eye shots and this one is great :) I love the soft B&W processing which gives it an almost dreamy surreal look! And it certainly looks like a surprised eye :)

Nice one!
 
jeangenie said:
I find this image mesmerising.
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Look in to my, not around the eye, into the eye :lol:

This was quite simple stand in front of mirror point camera, shoot, chimp and repeat until happy. Then do a big crop on just one eye cropping out the camera, the rest of my face and the mirror reflecting the OKish hotel room. I'm guessing the reflection would be of the camera and my new (to me 24-70 f2.8 :love:)

I've not tried a non reflected, non hand-held self portrait...yet

P.S. Thanks everyone your comments are keeping me going (and the fact you are all wanting the themes - it's so much easier when there's a group of you)
 
SimonTALM said:
I'm guessing the reflection would be of the camera and my new (to me 24-70 f2.8 :love:)
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I knew, just knew, there was something very attractive about gazing into your eyes, Simon :lol:


It's an amazing bit of glass. As a matter of interest, and this might be a stupid question, but did you consider using the 105 macro for this?

Thanks again for this challenge - I'm thoroughly enjoying it - even when the subject is 'hard' (so that's every week, so far :lol:) :clap:

Jean
 
I do like eye shots and I think you have caught the expression well for the theme. I'm not sure on the processing myself - It does look dreamy and surreal like Dark Star said but I think "surprise" might come across better if it had a bit more oomph / impact.

Good effort though on a very tricky subject :thumbs:
 
I like the crop and the eye does show surprise. Would it have more impact if there was more contrast in the image? Difficult one well done.
 
A well executed attempt at a difficult shot - and a unique interpretation on the theme.

I think I would also like to see the overall sharpness improved - but as high ISO in these circumstances you did bloody good to get anything sharp!
 
I know how long it took me to get my reflections shot and that was using multiple mirrors so it must have taken a little while to get the shot you wanted.

I think its great that everyone is coming up with such different ideas.
 
difficult shot to attempt - but worth the result! Well done.
 
I like the surprise captured in this shot :thumbs: it would be a bit more punchier for me if the iris was a bit sharper, but I can appreciate the difficulties you must have had in getting a good capture.
 
Well done on getting a difficult shot :thumbs:
 
There were so many options to choose from for opposites; tall and short, up and down, in and out etc. but the one I chose was hot and cold. Especially as this week was the week that the UK weather chose to dump the most snow for 18 years on to half the country. I originally wanted the ice cube to actually have flames coming from it but this proved a little difficult, so in the end I chose to just pour the flammable liquid over the cube and shot against a black plate.


Click for EXIF

Things I learned this week are:

1) Don't leave it to the last minute as you'll only end up with one idea and you don't have time to make it work properly
2) Black bin liners don't make good back drops as they are partly shiny (I must remember to dig out my black material)
3) Remember to leave a fair amount of space in the frame for the flames to lick in to (I lost a fair number of shots as I had cropped in too close)
 
I love this image and the thought that went into it
Jon
 
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