365 Project Week 2-ish: A Selection for C&C

[OrionsByte]

So far so good on my 365 project. I've been sticking to a list of weekly themes, and this week's theme was "breakfast." I wanted to post a few of them for C&C, specifically in regards to composition and lighting as those are the areas I'm really trying to grow in right now.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

1. Kix - SB-600 camera left and bounced off the ceiling.

2. Banana - stuck a thumbtack in the back to make sure it stood up for me. Umbrella'd SB-600 at camera right, and the foamboard it's sitting on is folded up at 90 degrees or so at camera left to form a bit of a reflector. Unfortunately I didn't notice until it was on my computer that the popup flash on my D70 cast a shadow too. I have to remember to block that thing when I'm in close to the subject.

3. Cream of Wheat - mostly an ambient light exposure, but I did hide my SB-600 behind the box pointed back at the wall, just to see what it would happen. What happened was a white balancing nightmare, but I kind of dig the halo effect and might play with this more later.

4. Kitchen - HDR from three shots 2 steps apart (0, +2, -2). Mostly just goofing off with this one and I pushed the effect a little more than I normally would have (I prefer more realistic-looking HDRs) but I was just glad to be done with the theme.

Thanks for looking. Sorry for the wordy post, I don't know how not to do that.

 

[white]

Well I'm not going to lie: I think they're all dull. I'll try to come up with some reasons why:

1. I think I would have shot the bowl of cereal directly overhead, with a small cup of coffee nearby. Shooting overhead would emphasize the circular shape of the bowl, and adding a similar shape (coffee) provides a repeating shape and gives balance to the picture.

Yeah the picture subject is clear, but it is not composed well -- the spoon pulls me out of the frame.

2. I just hate shots like this. Banana floating in an empty void. Centered, too. Couldn't be more dull. Turn the entire frame into something abstract. That banana is banana-yellow, i.e., instantly recognizable. Try dividing the frame in half with the sloping curve of the banana. Turn it into a landscape.

3. eh. Needs balance. Or at the very least, something else in the frame. When doing stuff like this, revisit the basic rules of composition -- repeating shapes, patterns, balance, color contrast, etc. Put a green apple by that red box. Think of it this way -- it's not a Cream of Wheat box. It's a red square.

Hope this helps.

 

[OrionsByte]

Hope this helps.

It does, actually, quite a bit. Thank you very much for the honest critique. I need this kind of input if I'm going to improve.

 

[Nikon_Dude]

I agree with White. None are BAD photos persay, but I didn't find them especially interesting.

I do however like the kitchen shot alot and think its the best of the lot.

 

[OrionsByte]

I agree with White. None are BAD photos persay, but I didn't find them especially interesting.

I do however like the kitchen shot alot and think its the best of the lot.

Thanks for your feedback.

 

[OrionsByte]

Put a little more time and thought in to this one (the theme for this week is "macro" now).

Is this better, compositionally? A little less dull? Maybe? I know it's hardly apples-to-apples since they're completely different subjects, but hopefully it's still an improvement.

 

[Dominantly]

Yes, better.

 

[white]

Yeah. Nice job.

Maybe in the future experiment with placing the focus differently. Have the foreground out of focus, or perhaps soft focus the entire image.

Good luck.

 

[doziergraphic]

Love the concept. Makes you do something! Is it one shot per day you're attempting? Or a handful each week? Keep posting, will be interesting to see what happens when you run out of obvious themes!

 

[OrionsByte]

Love the concept. Makes you do something! Is it one shot per day you're attempting? Or a handful each week? Keep posting, will be interesting to see what happens when you run out of obvious themes!

Yeah I'm doing one-a-day. Originally I was just planning on shooting whatever I happened to find in front of my lens, but I decided that wasn't working, because I wasn't being very creative. I found a list of 53 weekly themes on digital-photography-school.com and I've been using that for the last couple weeks.

I'm not expecting myself to come up with a super shot every single day, but it definitely gets me to pick up the camera and learn a little bit every day, even if the pictures are total crap (maybe especially then?).

So far, there have been a couple I'm pretty proud of, a couple that didn't really work, and at least one that I flat out hate and wish I'd never posted.

 

[lildlege1]

Nice job!!! At least your trying new things..:thumbup:

 

[stroker]

Well I'm not going to lie: I think they're all dull. I'll try to come up with some reasons why:

1. I think I would have shot the bowl of cereal directly overhead, with a small cup of coffee nearby. Shooting overhead would emphasize the circular shape of the bowl, and adding a similar shape (coffee) provides a repeating shape and gives balance to the picture.

Yeah the picture subject is clear, but it is not composed well -- the spoon pulls me out of the frame.

2. I just hate shots like this. Banana floating in an empty void. Centered, too. Couldn't be more dull. Turn the entire frame into something abstract. That banana is banana-yellow, i.e., instantly recognizable. Try dividing the frame in half with the sloping curve of the banana. Turn it into a landscape.

3. eh. Needs balance. Or at the very least, something else in the frame. When doing stuff like this, revisit the basic rules of composition -- repeating shapes, patterns, balance, color contrast, etc. Put a green apple by that red box. Think of it this way -- it's not a Cream of Wheat box. It's a red square.

Hope this helps.

Very good post. Not my shots, but yet I still learned something! And it inspired new photo ideas for me. Thanks!