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05/07/2005 02:34:46 PM |
From the Critique Club:
This is a very nicely composed shot using a great piece of jewelry as a subject. The subject has great textures that with the help of good imaginative lighting would really pop out of the image. That said...
I think what hurts this image the most are two things. The focus and the lighting.
In a shot that is intended to highlight an object like this, you have to be very careful with the focus. You want the highlight of the subject to be in as sharp a focus as possible. In this piece, the highlight of the subject is the heart shaped pendant. This area of the shot is not very crisp. The loop of chain to the front (in relation to the pendant in this composition) of the shot is also important to the piece. It helps set this piece of jewelry apart from other not so nice pieces. This loop of chain is even softer than the pendant. This is a bit distracting. By moving your focal point to just in front of the pendant itself and using enough DOF (smaller f/stop setting in the camera) your main parts of the subject would be in better focus and bring the viewers eye to where you want it to fall. Did you sharpen the shot after resizing? This is a very important step in post processing photos for challenges. The act of resizing the shot tends to soften the focus and you need to fine tune the actual submission after making it presentation size.
You have the right idea in your lighting scheme as presented here. You have the primary light falling from the front and side of the subject. Lighting a subject like this is a tricky thing to do. You want to have enough light to make the subject look nice, but not so much light as to create blown out highlights. A good way to achieve this is through the use of some kind of light diffuser. An easy way to diffuse light is to hang a white sheet between your light source and the subject. Just remember that the diffuse light will be not as bright as direct light and will tend to make the colors duller. Another lighting technique that would help out here would be to have another light on the other side of your subject. This would help to soften the shadows on the cloth under the subject. It would also even out the lighting making your camera expose the shot better and helping to smooth out the highlites. I am not a lighting expert, but what I would try here would be to place the other light on the shadow side of your subject and either use a smaller wattage than your main light or move the light farther away from the subject. This will create fill light and leave the highlites where they are. It will also help to put more overall light on the subject giving you much more vivid colors. Don't forget though that anyway that you light the subject you still will probably have to play around with the levels in post processing to bring out the most color that is there.
Overall a very nice shot with a couple of minor technical problems. With a jewelery type shot though, these minor things are what will prevent a nice shot from becoming a great one. I hope you take my suggestions and play around with reshooting this. If you decide to do so, please post your results so we can see!
TC |
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Comments Made During the Challenge  |
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05/01/2005 12:06:16 PM |
| Maybe shift the Focal point closer to the pendant. Right now it looks like it's back on the band. |
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04/30/2005 08:33:14 PM |
| Good depth of field, maybe a darker background may have set it off better |
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04/30/2005 03:06:03 PM |
| not a compelling presentation. Item should be more crisp and clear for a print ad |
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04/29/2005 11:09:39 AM |
| Focus issues here and background would work better in black or another complimentary color like purple. Beautiful piece of jewelry and nice composition. |
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04/29/2005 10:10:25 AM |
| While I like the overall set up here, I don't like the bit of chain being out of focus in the foreground. I like the lighting, despite the occasional hot spots, and, again, the composition is very interesting. |
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04/29/2005 07:36:18 AM |
| The lighting could have been brighter I think to bring out the shine in the gold. I like the dof used. and the positioning of the necklace. 6 |
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04/29/2005 03:00:51 AM |
| Nicely done. The soft light is a good choice in keeping reflection to a Min. 7 |
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04/28/2005 11:33:58 PM |
| Looks like someone studied how jewelry is displayed, looking at the cloth and the circular support - nicely done. Focus seems a bit too soft for me, but may be a result of image compression (jpeg artifacts showing) (6) |
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04/28/2005 03:03:38 PM |
| Pretty composition but lacks something in lighting to make it really stand out. |
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04/28/2005 02:17:35 PM |
| Focus seems sharpest at the point just above the centerpiece of the jewelry. Nice layout and decent lighting. 6 |
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04/28/2005 12:39:51 PM |
| Would have need a second light source from the left I think.There's too much shadows created by the neckless and the ripples in the fabric. |
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04/28/2005 12:21:13 PM |
| The shadows bother me a little, because they seem to be coming from the lighting instead of from the jewelry. 6 |
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04/28/2005 10:02:29 AM |
| Plastic bowl underneath isn't it? ;^) I can see the second ring. I almost did the same thing but chickened out at the end. Nice piece of jewelry. Lighting and composition is good. The focus appears sharper near the top (at about the 7th link top left) than down farther...? Good luck. |
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04/27/2005 01:03:51 PM |
| not entirely sharp enough. jewelry is really difficult. I do think the raised portion the necklace is laying around is well executed. |
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04/27/2005 11:34:15 AM |
| Then pendant seems a little soft. I gave it a 9. |
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04/26/2005 11:53:04 PM |
| Looks as though it needs to be sharpened. Good light but wish the shadow of the chain was not there. |
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04/26/2005 02:47:13 PM |
| I'd have focused on the heart... if you tried to focus on the heart and got this, I think the heart was too close to the lens |
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04/26/2005 10:26:12 AM |
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04/26/2005 05:03:56 AM |
| great shadows, would have liked it a bit brighter, but a solid (& professional looking) entry |
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04/26/2005 03:17:41 AM |
image lighting seems to be flat it needs a bit of enhancment I feel.
nice bracelet |
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04/25/2005 10:13:14 AM |
| Good. I think there's a lot of shadow on the background |
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04/25/2005 08:51:20 AM |
| I like this, but I think the safety chain really distracts from the image, and draws your eye awy and out the bottom of the image. |
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| Photographer found comment helpful. |
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04/25/2005 02:47:42 AM |
| nice photography...little dark...gl 8 |
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04/25/2005 02:14:48 AM |
| not sure where the focus is set on this. |
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| Photographer found comment helpful. |
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04/25/2005 01:31:45 AM |
| Too much shadows that do not positively contribute to the photo. 5. |
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| Photographer found comment helpful. |
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