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I'm bummed I lost the rich greens in the avocado, but I just could not make it work with just two flashes. Had to do a lot of photoshop just to get this. I think it is successful but far from professional.
I don't particularly care for the catch lights in the stuff either. I did not bother to construct a snoot although I DID try to tape up the side of the diffuser that came today.
No lighting expert here, but the right side seems too blown out, especially the garlic and cloth. I also wish the background material extended all the way across.
Your attempt is far more successful than mine would be, but I don't like the uneven-ness of the lighting. The lighting on the cabbage especially seems odd and my first impression of the two peppers was that they were "floating." I love "produce" shots, and you're off to a good start (I understand those type shots are hard), but between the lighting and the composition (the bg cloth in particular), I think this one could use more work, IMHO. And, hey, at least YOU are posting pics....
________________________
Paula
Your editing is welcomed. A picture is worth...
All can look. Few will see. Less will know.
The Truth can be anything it will. I just want to know Truth.
Frog. I think the white garlic is slightly blown. Not completely but definitely on the edge. I deliberately worked in p-shop to pull that back from a lower f-stop rendition. I don't think the darker garlic is blown at all.
But the cloth definitely is pushed beyond pixel death. Which is a shame, because there is a lot to like about the rest of it.
This using flash is tough. Beleive it or not, even with the flash these wer 30 second exposures. Lots of problems pop in there.
The race is between my figuring this crap out and throwing up my hands in frustration....
Paula: haha. The people who are really good at this, well, you know, the truly brilliant just can't be touched. I don't care how many chickens i sacrifice (and I am working on it) I will never be Ansel Adams. Or even his slow step son.
I am having a good time with this now, but it is hard. And it is easy to get frustrated.
And yeah Paula, the unevenness of the lighting is due to the fact that I could not get the exposure I wanted with two strobes. One was aimed from behind and one bounced from the wall on the right. But lots of stuff in the middle and left did not get enough fill. So I did another shot bounced off the ceiling and photoshopped it all...
I SERIOUSLY would rather get my shots from one good exposure. It opens up so many opportunities with Raw I think. But I still like this in general. But I have a lot to learn of course
Hmm. While I think the comment about the floating peppers is helpful (too much contrast around the edges I think.), I think one major flaw is the color of the squash in the middle. Trying to recover it from the shadows I created a color that is roughly equivalent to what I think that slightly pustulent clotted cream might look like. Very weak.
Hey,Daq I like that your really experimenting with this and the lighting. I'm not crazy about the arrangement of the veggies on the table or the fact that they look like they are sitting on a serving cart in a livingroom whereas I would like this better if it were the old classic wood table or something where there is the feel that this is on a food table or kitchen.
Aside from that becuase i'm not very good at arranging table setting myself, I think your two sppedlight flashes are more than capable of lighting this well. It might be time for you to invest in a couple of shoot thru and/or bounce umbrellas to help you spread the light softly and evenly if you need.
You might be able to get some more help by posting thee attempts in the studio and lighting forums.
Keep at it, and never give in. . .
daq, don't give up in frustration, there are a few counter intuitive principles in shaping light that once you get accustomed to, make things much easier (stuff like - put the light CLOSER to the subject to get it to fall off faster, making a more dramatic scene)
I know there are a lot of issues ppl have with this that I probably won't bother to fix, because I think it would be too much work for a picture that may not be worth it, but at least I leveled it, darkened the background that did not match the main texture and fixed the color problem on the yellow squash. Successful experiment. So... so... picture.
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Originally Posted by daq7
