Making Arrangements

dscheff

dscheff

MobiLurver
MobiSupporter
Real Name
Jeffrey
Device
iPhone 13 Pro Max
Onsite
Project Page
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Snapseed

Photographing living flowers is not as easy as it looks. My fiancé put these together in minutes: it took me an hour to photograph them to what I feel does them justice. Critique is sought and welcomed.
 
These are absolutely gorgeous arrangements!! :notworthy: I’m in love with the juxtaposition of the richly elegant bouquet paired with a humble soup can. Just magnificent.

Your portraits are beautiful as well... my only critique might be the lighting (no easy feat I know)... some sort of directed light making more shadows and highlights? Like a face portrait that’s partially in shadows and partially lit? Keeping that rich black background.
 
RoseCat said:
These are absolutely gorgeous arrangements!! :notworthy: I’m in love with the juxtaposition of the richly elegant bouquet paired with a humble soup can. Just magnificent.

Your portraits are beautiful as well... my only critique might be the lighting (no easy feat I know)... some sort of directed light making more shadows and highlights? Like a face portrait that’s partially in shadows and partially lit? Keeping that rich black background.
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You are so lucky to have someone who works with flowers as your significant other - there’ll always be something to photograph! Yes, I agree with Catherine, some directional lighting would make them pop. But you might be able to do this in Mextures if you have it. Some of the Formulas in the app can really add some light to a still life.
 
RoseCat said:
These are absolutely gorgeous arrangements!! :notworthy: I’m in love with the juxtaposition of the richly elegant bouquet paired with a humble soup can. Just magnificent.

Your portraits are beautiful as well... my only critique might be the lighting (no easy feat I know)... some sort of directed light making more shadows and highlights? Like a face portrait that’s partially in shadows and partially lit? Keeping that rich black background.
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JillyG said:
You are so lucky to have someone who works with flowers as your significant other - there’ll always be something to photograph! Yes, I agree with Catherine, some directional lighting would make them pop. But you might be able to do this in Mextures if you have it. Some of the Formulas in the app can really add some light to a still life.
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Thank you both for the comments and suggestions. I am trying to use natural light, well, at least for these four images. It poses a problem with over exposing as some of the leaves, and petals, are lighter than others. I have a three-sided foam board background, that I place on a uHaul blanket on my dining table at an angle, that allows me to adjust one wing to change the amount of light on the scene. Last night I found my reflector so I will be able to manipulate the light a bit better :)
In these images I used the “Selective” tool in Snapseed to shed a little more light on the leaves at the back. That tool is incredibly handy.

I have both Mextures and Formulas. I can see I’m going to have to take a deeper look at both because the doll heads were on shelves in antique malls with very little opportunity to manipulate the lighting; or to even turn the head without wading through a minefield of school benches, clowns, and flatware. I’m going to see what both those apps can do so stay tuned for edits ;):)
 
The arrangements are beautiful, and your overall darker treatment works great with them. I like the use of the blanket instead of something pure black -- it really adds to the look. I think the last image could use more space at the bottom.

The reflector will be a big help, I think, to add some side/edge lighting.

One problem I see is that there are blown highlights in all the images. They're especially noticeable in the first one, not really an issue in the third one. If you meter for the highlights, the rest of the image may be darker than you want, so you'll have to raise the shadows when you edit or maybe use your reflector for fill light. You might try a camera app like PureShot or ProCamera that can indicate when the highlights are clipping.

(I have a very hard time picking out clipped highlights on the iPhone screen. For me, PureShot's zebra system works a bit better than ProCamera's histogram system, but both are a help.)
 
terse said:
The arrangements are beautiful, and your overall darker treatment works great with them. I like the use of the blanket instead of something pure black -- it really adds to the look. I think the last image could use more space at the bottom.

The reflector will be a big help, I think, to add some side/edge lighting.

One problem I see is that there are blown highlights in all the images. They're especially noticeable in the first one, not really an issue in the third one. If you meter for the highlights, the rest of the image may be darker than you want, so you'll have to raise the shadows when you edit or maybe use your reflector for fill light. You might try a camera app like PureShot or ProCamera that can indicate when the highlights are clipping.

(I have a very hard time picking out clipped highlights on the iPhone screen. For me, PureShot's zebra system works a bit better than ProCamera's histogram system, but both are a help.)
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Yes! Thank you Ted. That pesky leaf in the first image kept flipping over. I wanted to cut it off. I also see now the tips of the other two. These arrangements went off to their destination so I'll have to wait for another gig to test out the reflector. You're correct that the crop on that bottom one could do with some tweaking. I have PureShot, and like it so I'll give that a try. Something I forgot to mention before. When I placed the arrangements on the blanket, little motes of dust would fly up. Some of them were captured... This is where Mobitog really shines :thumbs::)
 
dscheff said:
Thank you everyone! I’m incredibly excited about this. I’m thinking I might start a project. How do I do that?
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Depends largely on what your definition of ‘Project’ is Jeffrey... :whistle:

As Cat has suggested, we do have a Projects & On-Going Works Section for all of our longer term photography projects... ;)

Or you could join us in a Mobi365 Project by starting a thread in the appropriate Sub-Section - a 365 does not have to commence at any pre-determined time, you can start whenever you wish... :D

Let us know more about your ‘Project’ and we’ll assist as much as we can... :rog:
 
RoseCat said:
A project here on MobiTog? You could start a new thread in the Projects/Ongoing Work forum: https://www.mobitog.com/forums/projects-ongoing-work.19/
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Venomator said:
Depends largely on what your definition of ‘Project’ is Jeffrey... :whistle:

As Cat has suggested, we do have a Projects & On-Going Works Section for all of our longer term photography projects... ;)

Or you could join us in a Mobi365 Project by starting a thread in the appropriate Sub-Section - a 365 does not have to commence at any pre-determined time, you can start whenever you wish... :D

Let us know more about your ‘Project’ and we’ll assist as much as we can... :rog:
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I have one going Thank you both!
 
dscheff said:
I’m going to try and post an iMage a day. But. Due to the nature of my work I may miss one and have to catch up ;)
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Great stuff Jeffrey, and don’t worry too muchabout the posting catch-up, we all do that from time to time... :whistle:

The important thing is to try and take an iMage-a-Day and worry about posting them when you have time... :thumbs:

Oh, and don’t forget to Date/Number them or you will lose yourself time and again... :rog:

It is also good to keep practicing the MobiWay of telling us a little about each iMage and any processing you may have done... :D
 
Venomator said:
Great stuff Jeffrey, and don’t worry too muchabout the posting catch-up, we all do that from time to time... :whistle:

The important thing is to try and take an iMage-a-Day and worry about posting them when you have time... :thumbs:

Oh, and don’t forget to Date/Number them or you will lose yourself time and again... :rog:

It is also good to keep practicing the MobiWay of telling us a little about each iMage and any processing you may have done... :D
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Thanks Rog! THIS is what MobiTog is all about :D:thumbs:
 
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