Table center piece decoration

[AlwaysOnAuto]

3.2 sec exposure, no flash.

Comments welcome.

[madcrow]

Nice image and colour.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Alan,

Not bad, but; is there anything you'd do differently if you re-shot it?

While I could tell you what I might do, may be it will help you more if you work it out for yourself.

Think hard and tell us - and I'll add any ideas (I think) you missed.

Cheers, Dave

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Dave - If I were doing this as a totally posed shot I'd do the following:
1. Remove the place mats
2. Shoot straight on, not from the side, although I'm not sure how shadows would be effected as the window would be behind the camera, not off to the left as in this shot.
3. I'd remove the chair(s) from the back/fore-ground, leaving just the quilt on the wall as back drop.
4. Dust the table.
5. Straighten the wick on the candle on the right.

As it is, I left the place mats to give a sense of it's our dinner table, same with the chair in the background.
Maybe try turning on the lights which are dim-able to see what effect they might lend.

Suggestions?

[Dave Humphries]

Good calls for a shot of the centre piece alone (you got all I was superficially thinking of), but I agree, it may be wise to retain some context.

Therefore, perhaps just:
Move the place mats a little further from the centre piece (so they may be slightly hanging off the edge of the table)
I think it needs a rotation (ccw)
If we're retaining context, the current angle is (almost) good enough - no need to shoot from straight on, although that would expose a bit more of the LH candle stick
So, from where you were; I would move the chair back sufficiently, relative to the DoF, to make it less sharp, perhaps with its back against the quilt, so it is not directly behind the subject, but still in shot
Then I'd shoot from a position slightly further right of where you were, so the RH candle stick is against the pale wall behind
I'd also try a reflector off to camera right, or raise the shadows in PP, to tonally separate the most RH fruit from the table top

HTH, Dave

[AlwaysOnAuto]

I'm not sure on the rotation as that is going to throw the wall vertical all off kilter.
I'll see if I can setup the shot as you suggest.

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Here's a hasty remake of the shot with Dave's suggestions.
Lighting is different as the sun hasn't come around yet so there's more light coming in off a wall that is reflecting the light in the window to the left of the end of the table. More is coming in from the window camera left too.
I may have to stop down one more f-stop to get the DoF the same too.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[IzzieK]

You know, if this is my table, I'd get some glow in the night bracelets or necklace, crack it open and drip the content inside the vase and take a shot with only very little light. Night shots. Try it.

[Wavelength]

Alan, may I suggest something?

They look too organized and appear like sitting for a group photograph. Too much of objects make it clumsy too.
I don't suggest an alternative, please try several other options with less objects....

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Izzie - that sounds kind of messy, but I have another idea I'm going to try that might accomplish the same thing. Stay tuned.

Nandakumar - I didn't re-arrange the arrangement, it just turned out like that. In fact, I actually removed some wire-frame turkeys from the set to make it less cluttered.