Teatime Still Life

[Dzerzhinski46]

Canon TLb, Ilford FP4+. An idea from a magazine. Comments and critique welcome.

Drew

[Furchin]

I think you've got a good concept here, but the lighting is a little flat, which makes the picture look soft. Also, I'm not sure I like the crop going through the biscuit at bottom left and the small pitcher at bottom right, especially since you've got room at the top.

[iJoe]

i enjoy the softness of the image, it matches the subject matter. there are several things that could help improve this though.

composition: in most still life compositions, odd numbers are more visually interesting than even numbers. here you have 6 objects in the composition 3 in the forground and 3 behind. you would benefit by either adding an object or removing one. you may also want to consider changing the height and arrangement of the objects, try to create some kind of balance and rhythem in the composition. if you crop the image to just the objects in the still life, it is quite unbalanced and heavy.

technical: you should try to improve the contrast of this image. i think that if you move your lights around to the left and use a fill or bounce card it will help.. the highlight running down the front of the vase is slightly distracting.

coffee is very difficult to shoot. good job if it is your first try... for coffee to be appealing in a photograph, it pretty much has to be shot seconds after being poured from the pot. this allows for steam and bubbles to be visible. it makes for a much more appealing cup of coffee.

it is not the crop of the image that is the problem, you have blown out highlights on 3 corners of this image, a good rule of thumb is to make sure all your corners and edges are slightly darker than the rest of the image. this helps to contain the subject and the vieweres eye.

keep at it. product photography is hard

[Dzerzhinski46]

i enjoy the softness of the image, it matches the subject matter. there are several things that could help improve this though.

composition: in most still life compositions, odd numbers are more visually interesting than even numbers. here you have 6 objects in the composition 3 in the forground and 3 behind. you would benefit by either adding an object or removing one. you may also want to consider changing the height and arrangement of the objects, try to create some kind of balance and rhythem in the composition. if you crop the image to just the objects in the still life, it is quite unbalanced and heavy.

Thanks for the tip. I actually shot this for an assignment. I was supposed to copy a still life found in a magazine. I don't know whether I was paying attention to how many objects I was putting in, but I was more concerned with having all the same elements in place. As for the arrangement, that could also be explained by the commercial photo. I was going for a copy so I pretty much put them wherever they were "supposed" to go. Within reason .

technical: you should try to improve the contrast of this image. i think that if you move your lights around to the left and use a fill or bounce card it will help.. the highlight running down the front of the vase is slightly distracting.

Sorry, the light source was window light, and coming in from the left. I didn't think about a reflector. Upon reflection (no pun intended) that seems like a good idea. Next time.

coffee is very difficult to shoot. good job if it is your first try... for coffee to be appealing in a photograph, it pretty much has to be shot seconds after being poured from the pot. this allows for steam and bubbles to be visible. it makes for a much more appealing cup of coffee.

It was tea, but same thing.

it is not the crop of the image that is the problem, you have blown out highlights on 3 corners of this image, a good rule of thumb is to make sure all your corners and edges are slightly darker than the rest of the image. this helps to contain the subject and the vieweres eye.

keep at it. product photography is hard

Thanks for the comments.

Drew

[gahspidy]

Not a bad attempt, and iJoe makes some good suggestions. One thing that I notice not mentioned that bothers me somewhat is seeing the shadow on the back drop behind the scene. I think it would be easier to lose the shadow by moving the set further away from the bg. Experiment with different lighting positions and see how it goes. Still , not bad