Romantic Still life

[DougGrigg]

Here's a shot of my still life project I created for myself, Romantic still life portraying a romantic night at dinner gone sour.
I was even privileged enough to have it featured at a local exhibition and even on the posters for it shown below enjoy!


C&C encouraged!

 

[sashbar]

To be honest with you, I struggle to see a/ a story of a dinner went sour and b/anything romantic about the still life image.

First of all it is the tablecloth. It is drab. When I see such cloth with a yellowish border, that has never seen an iron, on a restaurant table, I leave, even if alone, never mind a "romantic dinner".
Vignetting adds to the negative impression making it more dirty and drab than it really is.
The rose. This rose was dead yesterday. So much for romance. The petals are too dark on the white cloth, why not using a lighter colour? Black roses symbolise "farewell", but these are not black either..
Why bread? Why not a chicken leg or a fish tail ? Really, I am not joking. The vignetting and composition highlight this piece of bread as the main point of interest. What is so symbolic, romantic and story telling about this piece of bagette that left crumbles all over the place?
I used the word "composition" here, but to be honest I can not see it. Funny enough the organisers have mercilessly savaged the composition for their poster and it did not become worse or better. And the reason is - there is no composition. Why did you use a square - the least elegant format for such supposedly elegant theme? Why there is no consideration for visual weight and balance? Why the lighting range is so dull, there is no bright reflections on the glass, no silverware that can add contrast, broaden up the dynamic range and make it deeper and more dramatic? There is a lot of questions about the image, that is supposed to be carefully arranged.

If in doubt look at the image through the half shut eyes - and here you will clearly see a face, something like a kid's drawing. That is not romantic in my book.

I am not trying to be negative, but it is, as stated on the poster, the second year photography, and you have mentioned earlier that you have worked with the best photographers in the world and that you are being tutored by one of them... This is quite a statement.. Bearing that in mind, I am at a complete loss here. To me it is just a casual snapsot of a restaurant table rather than a "romantic still life project" or a romantic dinner went sour... A quarrel in a 2nd rate joint at best.

Just my 2p, we may have different views on romance. I am old-fashioned.

 

[Mike Lamb]

I like it. I would crop out a little of the left side and lose that one petal. There is something sad and almost pathetic here.
Personally, I don't care for any explanations of what a image is supposed to be about. It should stand alone and this does.

 

[pgriz]

The time element in this image doesn't make sense to me. The roses look like they are at least a few days old, the napkin looks like dinner just started, and the bread looks somewhat stale. So I'm having some difficulty imagining a narrative that pulls those elements together. There is a certain flow to a meal in a restaurant, and I have difficulty recognizing it here.

 

[DougGrigg]

Cheers for all the feedback guys, heres some points of my work that have been addressed to me (this piece was around 2 years old so I was quite new to the still life game also)

The square imagery wasn't chose purposely, the format of the camera dictated that for me(Using a Hasselblad 503cw) and I never like to alter how the camera see's my work as I like to keep as much information in the image as I can as I'm pretty anal about my details.

The bread is old, the flowers died, the tablecloth creased. To me I thought all this out as a sense of time passed and I didn't use black roses as I still wanted to have the thought that there was previously a romantic meal, even if a few days have passed and all this has been abandoned, it isn't necessarily a restaurant shot I just originated my imagery from 17th century dutch painters, where they have used creases and folds in tablecloths to give a composition.

Thanks mike I'll definitely crop out that petal.

In other thoughts, my use and understanding of lighting at the time was pretty average and I had no idea at the time i just had a thought in my head that if i eliminated reflections in the glass and all that to a certain extent it would just symbolize the end, primarily all the aspects of my image do indeed have symbolism its just pinning it all together its a very mismatched and too much going on i totally respect that, this was at a time I was spending 10 hours a day in the studio for around 2 weeks so it really brought out loads of ideas that unfortunately couldn't see light within my work.

Thank you very much for your C & C guys, its really appreciated and I'm definitely going to take quite a few of things said here on board! cheers again!

 

[Steve5D]

Huh.

I don't see a restaurant at all.

What I see is a romantic dinner at home, during which the couple decided they should blow off dinner, head to the bedroom, and get down to it.

I guess I could sit back and pick the image apart, and dissect it for perceived flaws, but that would be pointless.

What matters is the initial impression...

 

[DougGrigg]

thanks for the comments steve!

 

[amolitor]

The point isn't really that there's a specific story that hangs on it. The point is that it evokes a story. You see a dinner gone bad, Steve sees a dinner gone good, I see a murder-suicide. But we all see something.

So, well done, I say!

 

[Steve5D]

I see a murder-suicide.

Well, that's certainly another way to go!

Actually, given the state of the roses, yeah, I can definitely see that...

 

[DougGrigg]

The point isn't really that there's a specific story that hangs on it. The point is that it evokes a story. You see a dinner gone bad, Steve sees a dinner gone good, I see a murder-suicide. But we all see something.

So, well done, I say!

thank you, I now think I shouldn't mention anything when I show my image to push this across, a story of what the viewer pushes thank you for the comment