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"Enough is as Good as a Feast"
"Enough is as Good as a Feast"
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Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Clichés and Sayings (Basic Editing III)
Camera: Nikon D2X
Lens: Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 EX DG APO IF for Nikon
Location: UK
Date: May 1, 2006
Aperture: f20
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/250th
Galleries: Still Life, Food and Drink
Date Uploaded: May 1, 2006

 IDEA: 'Half a loaf is better than None', then the idea of a Dutch Master painting came to mind. Researched the images here... //www.rijksmuseum.nl/aria/aria_assets/SK-A-1857?lang=en

Realised after shooting that 'Enough is as Good as a Feast' was a better title.

Post challenge:

Some people asked about how this image was achieved so here goes. Sorry if this is more than you were expecting :-)

This was all about trying to reproduce the style of a Dutch Master still life painting. See above for the reason why I set myself this ‘challenge within a challenge’ (I saw art students in Florence copying the work of Masters as part of their training many years ago and I realised then that imitation was a great way to learn).

SETUP: This involved buying all the food and some blackcurrant juice to use as wine (stronger colour).The two cloths were in our house and looked close to the type used in the paintings. The wall was about to be re-decorated and was bare plaster. I rubbed dark wood dye onto it to give the ‘aged feel’.

Note that the wooden plate is ‘perched’ over the edge of the table, as they are in almost all the paintings I looked at. As soon as I did this I realised why they did it that way back in the 1650’s. The composition was much more dynamic, with the plate breaking the line of the table and casting a pleasing shadow onto the cloth.

I would have loved to have the ‘dangling lemon peel’ seen in many pictures, but it’s really hard to do in real life. One advantage of painting over photography! I thought later that a wire threaded through the peel would have worked, but alas, it was too late :-(

LIGHTING: In the picture of the setup you’ll see a monolight pointed at the wall as a fill light, but in this shot it WAS NOT used. Surprise, surprise the masters were right in using a single light source! In my case a Bowens 500w studio flash with 100x60 soft box. Tape was used to make the reflection appear to be a window rather than a ‘blank’ square.

The light was positioned as in many of the paintings - just behind and to the left of the table. I had to balance the distance to achieve an even light distribution (not too close to the subject) whilst producing a soft, directional ‘window light’ (nice and close to the subject). I’m pretty happy with how the lighting turned out.

SHOOT: Most of the paintings seemed to have a quite compressed perspective, so I shot this on the long end of my Sigma 70-200 at 250th second. Sharpness wasn’t a problem as the flash duration was effectively the ‘shutter speed’ for the shot. Because of the lens I needed to be on a step ladder to get the height for the shot (//www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=332255). Somehow I don’t think this is where the great masters painted from, but it seemed to reproduce the feel most accurately!

PP: Basic Challenge, so obviously no retouching, but a fair amount of ‘levels’ and ‘selective color’ as adjustment layers. I’ve become a big fan of ‘selective color’ when preparing for DPC as it allows more control over which colours are boosted than the Hue/Saturation control. I’m still not sure about how much to sharpen for DPC. The A3 print of this looks great, but USM and conversion the to JPEG is something I’m still not 100% happy with. Blue ribbon winners here seem to have that part of the workflow really nailed (not to mention great shots of course!).

Thanks to those who commented. I’m pleased that many felt it reminded them of the paintings I was using as inspiration. I hoped for a slightly higher score, but that is probably because of the effort expended rather than the actual merits of the shot – and anyway who complains about a 6+ score :-)

One worry I had was that people would think it WAS a shot of a painting and that I was ‘cheating’ (see one of the comments). I had it validated to try and avoid this, but I’ll never know if it made any difference…..

Also a very big thank-you to my better half Louise, for helping to set it all up.

//www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=332269

We had great fun shopping for and building this shot. The food wasn’t wasted afterwards by the way – we had a big feast followed by friut salad!



Statistics
Place: 51 out of 288
Avg (all users): 6.1581
Avg (commenters): 6.6667
Avg (participants): 5.8118
Avg (non-participants): 6.3333
Views since voting: 2747
Views during voting: 337
Votes: 253
Comments: 25
Favorites: 8 (view)

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AuthorThread
 05/10/2006 08:48:25 PM
Lovely shot and thanks for sharing the creative process with us. I learned something.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/10/2006 12:45:40 PM
Fantastic explainantion and fantastic story .. its great to see what else is behind a picture.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/10/2006 10:04:10 AM
This is what DPC is all about, sharing. Thank you for that.
For many Ribbon winners this becomes a secret and that is not what we want to see on DPC.
So again, Thank you so much and keep up on those great photos.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/10/2006 08:12:57 AM
Thanks so much for sharing the details of a great shot. This is indeed very well done and very reminiscent of the "Masters."
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/10/2006 08:11:19 AM
Thanks for the tutorial, now I feel prepared for the Still Life Challenge! Great work on the research, set-up and the detail.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/10/2006 04:56:08 AM
You captured the mood of Dutch master's paintings perfectly. It was my 10. Very undeserved result. Better luck next time.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/10/2006 03:22:50 AM
Thanks to everybody for the comments. I've included more detail on the shot or those who requested it above. Some easy links to the images I mention are:



And



 Comments Made During the Challenge
05/09/2006 06:13:31 PM
A good technical shot. The lighting is good. The background is good. Looks like a painting.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/08/2006 02:19:59 PM
Classic shot! Love the overall tone and composition. Any lighting and PP details would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/08/2006 02:18:53 PM
would have liked the upper corner to be better lit. Great colors.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/07/2006 03:03:38 AM
Very good lighting...good colors
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/06/2006 08:54:34 PM
great work. looks like a painting. could be a little darker, but very nice.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/06/2006 12:39:03 AM
em looks like my kinda feast.. good job
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/05/2006 05:22:45 PM
This looks like a scene from a Peter Greenaway film. All it needs is a dead swan and a Michael Nyman score ;)

Beautifully arranged and lit. The colours are superb, the background is spot on and I really feel that I could lean in and break off a piece of cheese and take a sip of wine. 9 from me.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/05/2006 08:11:45 AM
Cheater!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/05/2006 05:08:30 AM
Very nice food shot, the lighting and setup is top-class!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/04/2006 09:33:38 PM
this looks like a master's painting
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/04/2006 12:48:15 PM
hey, I think that tomato is laughing at me!
 05/04/2006 07:48:12 AM
Well done. A beautiful and very skillful photo. This could easily be mistaken for an old style painting.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/03/2006 07:28:53 PM
Okay - you made me hungry! Beautiful, rich colors. Terrific lighting.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/03/2006 06:06:09 PM
great... looks like a painting
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/03/2006 04:02:18 PM
good setup, looks like a picture that should be sold at an auction.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/03/2006 01:40:32 PM
Like the setup of this foto.. Wonder what it would have been like in Monochrome or sepia--B&W maybe.. Could look like a painting.. Like the idea in this.. 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/03/2006 12:03:29 PM
is that a painting? if not good shot
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/03/2006 11:55:10 AM
Looks like a painting. Nice 7
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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