artichokes

[deliriumsfrogs]

I took this yesterday.. I hung the artichokes by a window with a sheer curtain backing.. The narrow DOF is on purpose--I usually shoot that way. I like narrow DOF. The black and white is because that is what I'm formally trained in---I've found that even moving into digital, I still view things mostly in black in white---if only photoshop produced those wonderful chemical smells like the darkrooom!! alas... haha

[GB1]

deliriumsfrogs,

Hope this isnt too negative, but here goes.

I think there is a lot of potential here, and I think you had a good eye to see it. But there is way too little detail in the main subject, the chokers. The background is WAYYYY too bright, imho, esp at the top. The chokers are also not sharp... and they should be. I have no problems with the shallow DOF, but it should be sharp somewhere, and it simply is not. I view this as a technical mistake: either the things were swinging or the camera was moving or the focus wasnt correct. The shallow DOF demands precise calculations and exactness in those areas, but it just wasn't achieved here. The good news is that those are very correctable - using a tripod is a good start.

Btw try a crop where you only show the bottom 3/5... seems to make it stronger.

GB

[trog100]

i dont see many mistakes.. even the blown backgound is so blown it looks intentional as oppose to a mistake.. the cut top of the stalk would no doubt seem sharp enough seem at a more sensible size..

its not what i would do but i think the intended effect has been produced reasonably well..

i could in theory pan pretty well any image presented here simply for its small size.. but somehow i try and imagine them bigger.. hard to do sometimes thow..

mind u i might well be wrong to view the small practical websized images as being downsized purely for practicality and trying to imagine them larger and factor in the allowance i make for the "smallness".. dunno..

trog

[jbaldocchi]

Was this one of many or your only photo of this subject? What was your plan when you took this shot? Did you try different focal points and choose this one?

Jim B.

[J-Dogg Productions]

i like it its interesting i like the placement in the frame where were these hanging anywas\y did you jsut hang them for the shot?. but i would like to see more detail with a shot this close it should be more focused mabey show more detail on the leaves.

jay

[deliriumsfrogs]

yeah..all the 'mistakes' were pretty much intentional... I'm also not very good with photoshop--I realized that when I resize the images for this website, I'm completely messing with the pixels--it's making my posted images muddy. My prints (which I order from WHCC) are completely crisp. At 1/60, I don't usually have much of a shakey hand--unless I've had the entire pot of coffee.
This was one of a series of shots that I did--I had many that were details of the single stem, and some of just the leaves... I posted this one because I thought the two hanging together created more elements of interest. For some reason, I was really drawn to the twine on the stem--
The red filter may have blown out the image..but I just liked it better than without the filter--the contrast was interesting.
Anyways.... Thanks for all the comments!!