Strawberries & Sparkling Water C&C Please

Eco · Dec 8, 2009

I spent some time this afternoon playing around with dropping strawberries into sparkling water in order to capture both the strawberry and the splash. While I'm happy with them overall I want to learn how to make them better since they are so much fun to shoot!

Your thoughts?

Eco · Dec 8, 2009

Two more:

Jeni · Dec 8, 2009

For some reason the quality seems kind of low (maybe because of cropping? I'm not sure)

I think for what you were trying to do (capture the splash of it and all that) you're doing well. Practice makes perfect.

Some of them seem a little underexposed and the colors are a bit dull.

TJ K · Dec 8, 2009

The quality on these seems horrible like worse than a cell phone picture. Did you do some resizing or something very weird.
TJ

Wolverinepwnes · Dec 8, 2009

TJ K said:
The quality on these seems horrible like worse than a cell phone picture. Did you do some resizing or something very weird.
TJ

:thumbup:

indeedies · Dec 8, 2009

I would love to see TJ take the same type of shot with a cell phone and get something better!! The second one seems the best. I have no idea how to get something like that so keep up the practice

Don Kondra · Dec 8, 2009

Lower iso and get closer, you're shooting at the max of your lens which may not be the sharpest.

If you could post a shot of your set up we can get more particular

Perhaps an even more pastel/white background with black reflectors and a larger glass?

Good concept, keep at it.

Cheers, Don

Eco · Dec 8, 2009

Jeni, thanks, I've noticed that my MacBook tends to be a little brighter than what comes out in print or when I post something on-line and then view it from other monitors.

TJK, I formatted them to 8x10 in Iphoto and then to 550 pixels wide so I could post them on my blog. Not sure if that had anything to do with it or not.

Don, I'll try the lower ISO again. I tried it at first and was getting a blur if I caught the strawberry before it hit the water. It's funny that you mention a larger glass, the small glass created such a large splash that my white poster boards and reflector were soaked and that's why I switched to my dark one. Also I had to move my camera back (hence the shoot at max 200) to keep the sticky sparkling water off of it.

I'll try to post shoot it again on Thursday and post a picture of my setup.

RancerDS · Dec 9, 2009

I like them all, with green and turquoise backgrounds the most.

If you are scaling your images, you may want to play around with different software programs to make sure you get the best results. Some even have a choice on how the scaling is performed. GIMP has linear, cubic and Sinc/Lanczos-3. I usually use MS Paint or another one for comparison, using the Picture Viewer to jump back and forth (files have to be saved/stored in sequence to do this).

obxshelley · May 25, 2010

Actually you need a faster ISO, what speed are you set at for these shots. I would set it at 800 or faster. Try using something besides poster board for the background, perhaps some fabric or vinyl. What is your lighting setup? On camera flash or umbrella lights, spots, etc? Another thought, in order to get plenty of light, try shooting this outside. Calibrate your monitor if you can, if not, turn down the brightness on the monitor when you are editing images.

reznap · May 25, 2010

obxshelley said:
Actually you need a faster ISO, what speed are you set at for these shots. I would set it at 800 or faster. Try using something besides poster board for the background, perhaps some fabric or vinyl. What is your lighting setup? On camera flash or umbrella lights, spots, etc? Another thought, in order to get plenty of light, try shooting this outside. Calibrate your monitor if you can, if not, turn down the brightness on the monitor when you are editing images.

His EXIF: ISO Speed Ratings = 1600

Also, you bumped a 6 month old thread..