Still Life: Onions C&C Welcome

[cgipson1]

Thanks!

I cheap is fine.

I'm just trying to work out how to not get the blown highlight, without ruining what you have.

There's a lot of information online regarding building softboxes. That may be an upcoming project.

Build a 3'x'3' frame of 1x2 or something.. or even a 4'x4' frame. Cover that with the tracing paper..... put that 16" to 24" from the subject. Then move the light to shine on that... to where the beam just covers it to the outside edges. It would be a much larger light source, and therefore softer.... make sense?

 

[RobN185]

View attachment 33982

Good idea!

SO beautiful ... makes me want to cry.:lmao:

 

[Rick58]

Thanks!

I cheap is fine.

I'm just trying to work out how to not get the blown highlight, without ruining what you have.

There's a lot of information online regarding building softboxes. That may be an upcoming project.

Build a 3'x'3' frame of 1x2 or something.. or even a 4'x4' frame. Cover that with the tracing paper..... put that 16" to 24" from the subject. Then move the light to shine on that... to where the beam just covers it to the outside edges. It would be a much larger light source, and therefore softer.... make sense?

I've seen a variation of what you just described made out of PVC pipe and fittings. They built in a pivot point with adjustable legs so the light source can be angled as well as raised and lowered. That sounds like a fun project.
In all the years I've been in photography, indoor photography was reserved for built-in flash at a kids birthday party. I had zero interest in artificial lighting. I would never have thought I'd enjoy playing around with staged still lifes. Maybe as I'm getting older, it's easier then trudging through the snow and cold...

 

[Rick58]

@ Charlie: "Photoshop CS5 here.... and I am not really that good at it... lol! I have so much to learn...."

I don't know about that Charlie, I've seen some of your stuff

 

[sm4him]

I'm a day late and a dollar short here (so what's new? lol) but I love the original and agree with Bitter, I'd hang this in my own kitchen. I liked the version that had a little bit more on the left side, but neither the hotspot or the WB really bother me. In fact, that warm WB just seems perfect for the overall mood of the photo, to me.

Now, I need to go pour another cup of coffee...and put onions on my shopping list.

 

[Rick58]

I'm a day late and a dollar short here (so what's new? lol) but I love the original and agree with Bitter, I'd hang this in my own kitchen. I liked the version that had a little bit more on the left side, but neither the hotspot or the WB really bother me. In fact, that warm WB just seems perfect for the overall mood of the photo, to me.

Now, I need to go pour another cup of coffee...and put onions on my shopping list.

LOL... Thanks Sharon. Rather late then never. Wow, with you and Bitter hanging this on your wall, I better plaster a big 'ol nasty watermark all over the thing. There will be no stealing my art work...

 

[amolitor]

The two onions isn't working for me. Odd numbers work better, for some reason. You almost have a third onion represented in the skin, but not quite enough for me. Shoving them in a row also isn't working for me.

Fantastic, gorgeous, light, and a great location. The board under and whatever the background is literally could not be more perfect.

This is also ripe for bringing in another element, a knife, a bowl, a basket, a copper pot, almost anything.

 

[amolitor]

I've made several softboxes out of cardboard. Cut 4 identical triangles with their tops chopped off, these will form the sides of a pyramid with its top chopped off. Glue aluminum foil down to one side with a glue stick, or whatever you have handy.

Duct-tape the pyramid together.

Use any sort of this paper to cover the bottom of the pyramid -- I happen to have some drafting paper around, you could probably use newspaper in a pinch. Use the comics for an interesting gel effect! Fabric works as well, cut up an old sheet or T-shirt or whatever.

Rig up some kind of contraption to hold it where you want it, and to hold your flash shoved into the top of the pyramid.

The advanced model creates a square tube on top of the pyradmid by leaving a "flap" where you cut the top off your original triangles.

Start small. My current one is like 24x24 (for which you need an enormous cardboard box to provide the materials) but the first one I made was probably 10x10 or less.

 

[ceeboy14]

You can buy soft boxes, flashes, etc quite inexpensively at this address...They held up under my student's constant useage, so I can attest to their durability and usefulness:

Buy Photography and Camera Supplies from #1 Store in Dallas | Cowboystudio.com

 

[Rick58]

The two onions isn't working for me. Odd numbers work better, for some reason. You almost have a third onion represented in the skin, but not quite enough for me. Shoving them in a row also isn't working for me.

Fantastic, gorgeous, light, and a great location. The board under and whatever the background is literally could not be more perfect.

This is also ripe for bringing in another element, a knife, a bowl, a basket, a copper pot, almost anything.

Ok Naysayer, get off my praise thread...:lmao:


I know nothing about art whatsoeverbut many years ago I was touring a formal garden. I stopped to compliment one of the groundskeepers on how perfect everything looked. During our conversation, he mentioned a trick in landscaping is to never use even numbers. For whatever reason I retained that.
I'm glad you picked up on the skin because that was actually my intent. The wife only had two onions. Very boring. I was hoping the arched skin would simulate a third object or "onion". It sounds like I didn't quite pull it off for your taste...

Thanks for the tips on the soft boxes. That's pretty much what I found on youtube

 

[KenC]

Away for a couple of days and just catching up to this one ...

I like the warmth of the original, which imo makes the hot spot a non-issue because it has some color gradation to help it. The only quibble I have is the soft lower left corner is a little distracting, but you could crop the bottom a little - just a thought.

 

[sm4him]

I'm a day late and a dollar short here (so what's new? lol) but I love the original and agree with Bitter, I'd hang this in my own kitchen. I liked the version that had a little bit more on the left side, but neither the hotspot or the WB really bother me. In fact, that warm WB just seems perfect for the overall mood of the photo, to me.

Now, I need to go pour another cup of coffee...and put onions on my shopping list.

LOL... Thanks Sharon. Rather late then never. Wow, with you and Bitter hanging this on your wall, I better plaster a big 'ol nasty watermark all over the thing. There will be no stealing my art work...

Hey, before you go adding that watermark, could you post a higher-res image? I took this one to Walmart and got a 16x20 made, but it just didn't turn out that good.

 

[Rick58]

I'm a day late and a dollar short here (so what's new? lol) but I love the original and agree with Bitter, I'd hang this in my own kitchen. I liked the version that had a little bit more on the left side, but neither the hotspot or the WB really bother me. In fact, that warm WB just seems perfect for the overall mood of the photo, to me.

Now, I need to go pour another cup of coffee...and put onions on my shopping list.

LOL... Thanks Sharon. Rather late then never. Wow, with you and Bitter hanging this on your wall, I better plaster a big 'ol nasty watermark all over the thing. There will be no stealing my art work...

Hey, before you go adding that watermark, could you post a higher-res image? I took this one to Walmart and got a 16x20 made, but it just didn't turn out that good.

Only a 16x20? I'm crushed

 

[sm4him]

LOL... Thanks Sharon. Rather late then never. Wow, with you and Bitter hanging this on your wall, I better plaster a big 'ol nasty watermark all over the thing. There will be no stealing my art work...

Hey, before you go adding that watermark, could you post a higher-res image? I took this one to Walmart and got a 16x20 made, but it just didn't turn out that good.

Only a 16x20? I'm crushed

Well, I wanted a 30x40 canvas print but you just didn't give me enough to work with here. :lmao:

 

[gsgary]

Placement of black cards would make a big difference