Staged plumeria shot, but...

[AlwaysOnAuto]

it is SOOC too.



Comments welcomed.

[AlwaysOnAuto]

And here is another shot that has been PP'd as much as I can do with my software.

[mknittle]

I like the simplicity of this shot Alan,

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Thanks Mark.
I'm a SOOC shooter, so to get this much detail with this lens is really something, considering it was a freebie.

[mknittle]

Thanks Mark.
I'm a SOOC shooter, so to get this much detail with this lens is really something, considering it was a freebie.

Can't beat that How come just SOOC? If you dont mind my asking.

[Geoff F]

Yes this looks good. Plenty of detail and bright but without being over exposed anywhere.

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Can't beat that How come just SOOC? If you dont mind my asking.

I guess I just see photography as capturing a moment in time and getting the camera to capture it as well as it can is a real challenge to me. Post processing isn't something I'm good at or really want to get into so getting the most out of my gear is what it's all about for me.

[mknittle]

I guess I just see photography as capturing a moment in time and getting the camera to capture it as well as it can is a real challenge to me. Post processing isn't something I'm good at or really want to get into so getting the most out of my gear is what it's all about for me.

Cool, There is something for everybody in photography and if you get tired of that there is always something else

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Take this shot for instance.
Used the Vivitar lens on my D7000 to take a 'glamour' shot of my Nex-7 with the macro lens on it.
This is a 6 second exposure.

[mknittle]

Looks good Alan, is that the lens you used on the flower image?

[AlwaysOnAuto]

No, this one is though.

[Loose Canon]

Hi Alan,

I consider post-production of vital importance with this genre of photography. But that certainly doesn’t mean it can’t be done without. I just think you can only get so far without it and all of your shots could greatly benefit from some time in post.

But, I didn’t visit your thread to preach about post or no post. I wanted to share some thoughts about what you have going on with your chosen path. So I will confine those thoughts to the fact that you are not going to process after the shoot.

The plumeria is a beautiful flower. Love the colors. I believe they could be a bit richer and the shot could use some contrast. It looks a little flat. Have you experimented with the saturation/contrast settings with your camera? Now not every shot will require the same thing and you have good examples of this with the floral and the camera shots. The floral shot might benefit from a little different camera set-up.

With this shot, and with all these shots universally, you have some very obvious background irregularities that jump out at you. So I would recommend keeping an eye for this detail during the shoot.

With the flower, the crop helps with the wrinkle/fold in the BG. What it doesn’t help with is the light fall-off you are getting that causes the BG to have color variations. If you can get your subject further away from the BG this will help immensely in getting a more consistent BG. The folds/wrinkles/lines are especially noticeable in the camera shots. In the first camera shot I would suggest that if you are going to shoot it on a “pedestal” you shoot it at a much lower PoV so that the pedestal shows as a pedestal rather than a line in the surface as it does here. Also, I would either add some foreground in front of the pedestal or again shoot it from a lower angle. It appears to be sitting on a ledge with nothing in the foreground. That’s cool but a background surface is there with nothing to balance it in the foreground. Maybe a low enough angle that does away with the background surface entirely with only the pedestal visible.

With the second camera shot you are losing to the surface on the camera left side. A little light reflected back into the camera from this side would be helpful. A white piece of paper would even work.

And regarding reflections? In the second shot I can see a piece of the window reflected in the front element of the lens. It might be better off not being there. Notice how nice the front element looks in the first shot (except for the smudge!).

A white or black piece of paper set such that it cuts that reflection will take care of that. You’d have to see which looks best to you at the time of the shoot.

You have some mixed lighting going on as noticed by the yellow color light on the camera mixed with what I’m guessing is daylight from the window. I would guess you have some room lights on. If you can do away with this or use daylight balanced bulbs it would help alleviate this.

And finally? Dust is the bane of the still life photographer and the cameras/surface have plenty of it. It is nigh on impossible to get it all cleaned off but it pays to try as hard as you can to do so.

The following will probably not interest you since it was processed, but all of these things can be dealt with at the shoot without processing.

[deetheturk]

Nice capture Alan!

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Terry - Thanks for taking the time to comment. All points well taken. I hurried the second camera shot, thus it was dusty as all get out. Reflections are the bane of my shooting camera shots it seems. This was a quick set up in my living room, so it looks it.
The material I use for the back ground is an old piece of auto upholstery vinyl which has folds and such in it. I think I need to visit the fabric store and get some nice black cloth that would be more even in texture.
Again, thanks for the helpful comments, you guys (and gals) will make a serious photographer out of me yet.

[Wavelength]

Very nice images