Push Pins

neeat.

Can I get some comments on the lighting and the DOF on this one

please. I think the subject is neat, what about the execution of

the shot.

Tacky

Wow. They look like candlesticks...

It's a semi-attractive image but in the end is simply push pins on a table. Where's the imagination and originality in that? Everyday objects can be used successfully in photography but I feel they've got to be used in a more interesting way, otherwise it's just a simple shot of something found on your desk. I know what it's like to play around with my Coolpix 995 using macro on anything found around the house or in the garden and occasionally something fun or neat shows up on the LCD---but it's really not much more. Unfortunately this site is filling up fast with people doing such things with their digicams and showing us close ups of their paperweights, pencils, glasses of soda, keyrings, etc. and it's getting kind of ho-hum. I'm not trying to be mean or flippant, just honest with where this image, and others like it, hit me.

At first, on the thumbnail, I thought they were candlesticks!!

 

Good composition, but if you could place the second light behind the right pin (as in the left pin) and get rid of the one in the middle - end up with two brilliant pins - it would be great!!

 

Just an idea, as I don´t find anything specially attractive on this shot (as Richard mentioned). Use everyday stuff, but try new approaches to them, make them different. To shoot everyday objects is easy, but to make them interesting, that´s another matter. That´s what I liked about the lighting on the left pin - makes it look different than what I see everyday.

This is very original and perfectly executed. Only thing I would have liked to see disappear, is that tiny tag of plastic hanging on the edge of the pin on the left.

There's nothing new that people are posting uninteresting shots. There's nothing new either that these shots get inflated ratings. What is new is that this, has become a mass phenomenon on photo.net lately, and I have no idea what can be done about it.

Damn. Sure appeared to be candlesticks in the thumbnail. I like it and the lighting. I just wish the pin in the foreground was a bit less overpowering

It seems that the real value in a shot like this has been missed so far in the commentary. This is a necessary piece to have in any professional portfolio and this is a good one at that. Every art director/buyer you show your book to wants to see what you can do with the raw materials of photography. Subject matter is secondary, and they realize that. The 'artist' and pure photographers who have made their comments known I assume are not aware of the realities of working photographers, or the necessities of a portfolio showing good photography. So the subject is not important, as you say - it is the execution that counts. This is a very understated reality when someone is considering hiring you - maybe their product is push pins and they are painfully aware of the difficulty in marketing that. At the site of your creativity, elevating their product to the status of cadelabras or whatever; you'll have the job. So you've served your purpose.

 

About the shot now....

 

Three is the right number, the lighting is excellent, everything well executed. But I don't get the feeling that this was your 5th arrangement and that you've really pushed for the most graphically striking arrangement that you can. Go back to the art textbooks and try illustrating concepts like 'perspective space', 'negative space', or 'rule of thirds'. Using these principles I would arrange the front pin closer on the dark area in front (to the right in the falloff of that beam) to catch the light for greater contrast against the black surface, and more blur. I would arrange the point to be toward the pin of the left. Then I would play with the pin on the back right to arrange it somewhere in the middle ground. Here is where you can create a little more effect by using some superglue or something to stage it in a gravity defying or other suspensful manner which would give you the final touch for arrangement. Finally, move your focal plane to make sure that only your centre of interest is critically sharp and you would have perfect photo. For the sharpness, I find the details of the refractions in the pin bodies to be of great interest also very interesting.

 

So that would be my thinking as I 'play' through the image. At some point, become satisfied and drop it in your portfolio proudly. Another consideration is to keep the 'in camera' creativity and add photoshop creativity to further showcase your skills.

bright idea