"Wooden Blossom" and "Revolution" C&C - BESP2

[bazooka]

The purpose of this exercise was to use lines to create two abstract photos.

The first one took a long time to set up and get everything right. There was only one light this time, but if you can't tell, these are cd's that have been burned in a microwave and shot with a macro lens. It was TOUGH to get them both lined up to reflect the colors and sizes that I wanted. Very frustrating. But I finally got the affect that I wanted after much adjusting and I think it turned out well. I couldn't resist adding the stars in post to top off the planet theme I was going for. I also smoothed the top right corner because the background disc was showing some OOF specular highlights which were distracting. I should have just used a good disc for this to avoid the highlights, but didn't think about it until now.

F/5.6
1/20
ISO 100
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM

This one I took while looking around in the backyard for something to spark my imagination. I feel like I missed the boat as far as portraying feeling but I do think it looks like an abstract flower or dandelion and I really like wood grain of all sorts. The subject is the fence around my backyard. Overall, I'm not satisfied with it.... probably because it didn't take much effort.

f/5.6
1/200
ISO 200
Canon 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro

Things I learned during this project.

1. Tripods are also good for positioning a subject at a specific angle, especially the small tabletop tripods with built-in ball heads. I mounted a P&S camera to a little tripod and taped the rear CD to it to get the right angle and keep it there. Not ideal, but it worked.

2. Abstract doesn't come naturally to me. Instead of just seeing something that catches my eye, it seems easier for me to think of a subject or feeling I want to portray, then create the shot with whatever I have on hand. I'm not sure which way is better, but I know which way is easier at the moment.

Thanks for viewing!

 

[luckyss]

I really like the colors in the first one - Nice Job

 

[pbelarge]

bazooka
I also like the first one.

I like the feeling of 3d - I can feel the depth of dimension. I really like your choice of colors they work well in this shot. In my humble opinion, your hard work has paid off with this shot.
Before reading your post, I had the feeling of planets :mrgreen:

 

[er111a]

1st one is SWEET!

 

[iBats]

1. very cool looking and such but the colors almost seem fake.

2. just dull and boring try a recomp

 

[Natural_Disaster]

Love the colors and the texture of #1....Very creative! Dont really have anything negative to say about that one. I think it works!
#2 I didnt notice the "flower' until i read your post. It does have lines...but lines we see every day. Im not trying to be negative...Trust me, i have taken pictures of everything around my house, my friends house, the park, and town trying to find something with creative lines, and ive got about 260 pics on my computer right now that rank right there with your fence. I like them..but they just dont have the creative abstract feel to them...no matter how much pp i try! LOL

 

[bazooka]

No, I completely agree with you guys, #2 falls short. Last night as I was waiting to fall asleep (takes a while for me), I was thinking about my thoughts (eh?) on #2 and realized that I instinctively knew that it was no good because I just didn't feel right about it. But I used it as my submission but was HOPING that maybe a few others would like it... I don't think the art side of photography works like that. Chances are high that if it isn't striking to me, the photographer, then most viewers won't as well.

Do you guys feel the colors are too saturated in #1? I didn't apply much saturation as this is pretty much what the raw looks like. Also, do the stars add or take away?

 

[pharmakon]

The first one is really good. The colors are great, and it would have taken a long time for me to guess had you not mentioned what it was. The detail in the cracks of the cd really pulled me in for a while. I also like how the lit areas are nice and crisp and the light seems to fall off about as fast as the DOF in the foreground subject. Great Job!

The second... good exposure, good DOF, but just not so interesting to me.

 

[gpardo64]

I really like #1. Funny than you and me were thinking about planets for this assignment.

I like the colors and the odd forms on the cd. I can't figure out how did you create the different colors in the cd. That was really good. The background to me looks fake, too perfect for the composition. Too much PP.
You may want to provide some details about how did you get the colors in the CD. I like those.

Regarding # 2: I think is not an abstract. To me it is a common picture of a wood fence.

 

[kundalini]

#1 - There was something unsettling when I first looked at it. I even put my glasses on and scootched up to the monitor. The veins all looked fuzzy to me with no sharp edges. I think the saturation needs to be brought down a tad. Also, if you could define the outer edge of the disc into the blackness, it would give a more complete feel to it. Then I read that you're using 100 f/2 macro at f/5.6. That could be a reason for the fuzzies. Stop down the lens somewhere between f/11 to f/16.

#2 - pffft, never would've made it passed my recycle bin.

 

[bazooka]

I appreciate all of the responses, they mostly reflect the feelings I had about each of the shots. Perhaps I should put less detail of how I feel at the beginning so as to not lead anyone in a particular direction. If I think a shot blows, you guys are probably more likely too as well. And if it truly does, I wonder if the reasons I think of are the same reasons you guys do as well.

The colors are available if you look at the back of any cd. You have to rotate the disc to just the right angle. To get the colors to fill the disc like in this shot, you have to get close and even more exact with the angle. It's difficult to do just handholding a disc, let alone trying to get two discs to line up perfectly standing up, and stay there.

I chose a shallow DOF because the specular highlights on the disc in the back becamse more and more refined as the DOF increased and it really looked bad. If I had used a non-destroyed disc, this probably wouldn't have been an issue.

Here is a non-pp version with default RAW processing applied.

Somehow the PP'd version got some hot pink in there which wasn't intentional. I would like to have gotten all the cracks in focus, but it was a trade-off between that and getting the rear highlights to be more subtle. If I had known I was going to shop them out anyway, it would have been a no-brainer. I was just hoping to get it au natural.