Rustic Knife & Fork

[shorty97]

Hey Guys,
I took this picture a couple of days ago with my new Canon 550d / Rebel T2i with the kit lens (Getting the 55 - 250 for Christmas and the 430EX ii Speedlite Flash) This is my first DLSR. Please be picky I really want to know how I can improve. I only turned 14 about 2 weeks ago.

Thanks Matt


Rustic Knife & Fork by shorty19972010, on Flickr

 

[TenaciousTins]

For me (noooob here) the crumbs are distracting, I want to see the rest of the fork and knife, the light makes my eye go to the "x" towards the middle/bottom of the fork. But don't give up...keep taking pictures, lots of them...and the speedlite will help you tremendously!

 

[michaeljamesphoto]

It's got some nice color, really like the pop of the background, but the "feel" of the knife doesn't compliment the "feel" of the fork in my opinion, do you get what I mean? Sorry for being vague, couldn't think of a better way to describe it

The crumbs aren't distracting in my opinion, and I don't think you could benefit from seeing the rest of the fork and knife. Sorry to disagree, just my opinion

 

[shorty97]

Thanks Guys for the great criticism. Might go take another picture now with the whole knife and fork and without the crumbs and maybe one of the fork alone. Also do you guys have that speedlite and do you recommend it?

 

[michaeljamesphoto]

I don't know much, if at all, about Canon equipment, but Speedlite flashes are very useful. Just make sure that the angle is adjustable, as I believe it is on that unit. When you can adjust the angle of the flash you can avoid harsh shadows and give photos a much more natural feel by bouncing the light (aiming the flash away from the subject)

 

[shorty97]

I don't know much, if at all, about Canon equipment, but Speedlite flashes are very useful. Just make sure that the angle is adjustable, as I believe it is on that unit. When you can adjust the angle of the flash you can avoid harsh shadows and give photos a much more natural feel by bouncing the light (aiming the flash away from the subject)

Thanks for the tip

 

[KenC]

It's an interesting composition, but these are utensils with a lot of character, so I'd rather you didn't cover up part of the fork. With still life there are always many likely arrangements and you have to experiment quite a bit. You could probably keep yourself busy for a few hours with combinations of a few utensils and a few surfaces. The lighting is good, although I might overexpose just a bit to get a little more detail on the dark part of the fork.

 

[bazooka]

Concerning the flash, it really depends on what you are going to be doing with it. If you plan on leaving it on camera, then yes, the 430EXII is a very capable flash. Even if you use it off-camera, it can do awsome things. This guy uses 3 of them for his ocf work. He does some excellent stuff.

Flickr: matthewcoughlin's Photostream

I prefer manual flash for off-camera stuff though. It's cheaper, it's more predictable/reliable. Perhaps more time consuming too, which is why I recommend it if you have time to set up the scene.

 

[kidone]

I agree with KenC. Maybe up the exposure on it or even take the shutter speed down by a notch to capture a little more light. I like the bread crumbs! Gives it character!