british columbia Fruits and Veggies

Just wondering what people thought about the lighting and composition.

Thanks up front for your comments.

First the positives:

- Nice soft (probably natural) lighting to reveal detail

- Well placed on a white surface to reflect some light on the underside of the objects

- Suitable odd number of objects that allows you to position the objects in a dynamic triangluar shape (on the group contour)

Now the negatives:

- There is some tension in the composition created by the red pepper and the lemon wedge pointing upwards right but the tension is not resolved when the eye follows the direction. How about putting a knife there, sort of a horror scene for fruits and vegetables?

- Some details do not really add to the subject, like the superrmaket label on the lemon half

- the DOF is not sufficient, especially when you start examining the top of the orange pepper. There is no exif on the photo but I would suggest reshooting with f8.

- Last but not least, purists in commercial photography would mention that your "subjects" are not pefect, show some blemishes and do not appear as super-fresh.

Possible enhancements:

- Some dropplets of water would add a few catch lights.

Hope this helps,

Alex

Hi Paul,

I look toward the details as to what was used and what settings were used for the capture.

You have none.

I can not provide you any professional technical assistance without the facts.

Best Regards,  Mike

Sorry about the lack of exif, Alex and Mike.  Here it is:

ISO 200     100mm focal length (Canon 100 macro USM used)

F16     1/30 second exposure

I agree that the label serves no purpose, and that there are certain things I could improve on in the composition.  This is my first still life image, so I have lots to learn.  I consider this an exercise in lighting more than the composition.  I appreciate your feedback, though. 

Mike, if you could provide some feedback, given the exif is here now, I would be very grateful.  I thank the two of you for taking the time to critique this one so I can learn more about still life imagery.

Paul

I wanted to post a slightly different composition.  Is this better?

http://gallery.photo.net/photo/15004972-lg.jpg

Paul,
 
The green lines make the triangle that is at the basis of your composition (as my eyes see it, of course). On top of that triangle, that is a closed shape and keeps my eyes within, I see the two blue lines overimposed by the red pepper's long axis and the lemon wedge.
 
In your first composition the lines point to the right upper corner but when my eyes follow these lines, there is no element of interest. I placed the blue dot, relatively small compared to the other elements. that compensates the overall weight quite well and brings a resolution to the tension here.
 
In your second composition the blue lines point to the top right part of the orange, and again the blue dot placed there kind of ties things up.
 
Now imagine something else instead of the blue dot, like for example a lady bug, and suddenly you have a lot of action!
 
Mind you, this is how I see your composition and its for sure not the only way you could decode it..
 
Best regards,
 
Alex.

Thanks for following this new version up, Alex.  I like the way you explained what you were thinking in terms of composition.  So, if I tried to replicate this composition, I could turn the lemon wedge just enough to get the two blue lines to intersect in the orange.  This is making more and more sense!  Thanks so much for the enlightenment.  Take care.