Banana Leaf Mobile

[kingbriani]

Here are a few shots I took of a mobile my girlfriend picked up in Africa. It is made up mostly of banana leaves. Please leave comments. In trying to become a better photographer, and in trying to develop an eye for photography, I've been experimenting with taking pictures of random stuff around the house. Let me know what you think.

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[LaFoto]

Good decision NOT to use the flash on your camera. Kudos for that.

The DOF you had to choose (or had your camera choose) in order to deal well with the low light, however, has become very narrow (wide open aperture!), so focusing easily becomes a problem. So I feel that the focus has not landed where it ought to be: on the faces. It is mostly on the baskets they wear on their heads or on the stomach of the figurine in the last photo.

All in all I think a narrow DOF helps taking photos of this mobile, since otherwise the picture might become quite busy, if the figurines behind your chosen one become too clear, but maybe you should consider a reshoot when there is more available light coming in through the window (could it have been an overcast day on which you took these?), so focusing becomes easier (either for you or for your camera - I don't know how you focus?).

 

[kingbriani]

LaFoto, THANK YOU for the crticism. That is exactly what I've been looking for. I can't improve if no one tells me what I have done wrong. I'm shooting with a D40 and the kit 18-55 lens. I actually DID use the flash for these photos, but with a twist. I held a piece of tissue folded double to the flash to diffuse the light some. I started off shooting with no flash but the pictures were coming out soft (I dont yet have a tripod). So then I started to use fill flash but the lighting was much too harsh and I didn't quite get the effect I wanted. Thats when I decided to use the tissue paper, so it's cool that the effect produced was good enough to fool you, I was going for a natural look. There was natural light coming in from the window across the room (early morning sun) but not directly hitting the mobile. And I agree with you about the DOF, I was using program mode and using a wide open aperture to render the background figures blurry. I actually was trying to focus on the faces, but between standing on tip toes to photograph the mobile, and using one hand to hold the tissue paper, I must have been swaying front to back enough to move the very shallow DOF. Sorry if this has gotten long but THANK YOU again!