Purple C&C

pippatee

Very complicated sounding Lighting helped to acheive this shot .. C&C please?

AnCatDubh

Really nice work here Philip. Lighting is very well controlled.

To be incredibly picky about the whole thing and my comments are more suggestions than well formed constructive critique -

The ratio of flower head to stem might be a little unbalanced probably only because our (my) preconceived notion of a flower is that there will be more flower stem than flower head so when you view it thats what you expectation is. Just a personal opinioin on that aspect.

The angle at which you took the image is very flat / straight. I wonder is there a more interesting/curious view of the subject perhaps 10 / 30 / 45 / 60 degrees up and out. Maybe so (/not) - it depends on what you were specifically after.

The lighting on top of the subject appears a little brighter to my eye than the lower portion - i trust that this was the intention. It does highlight the top and draw your eye towards a focal point of the flower which I'm guessing is what you wanted to highlight.

The background colour is a nice selection / complementary to the subject. I would have been tempted to do the on black thing or on white thing to isolate it entirely but I think what you have done here is probably better given the subject matter such that you are actually photographing the subject as well as capturing the background as a compositional element to the composition.

A tremendous shot though showing great control of lighting. Perhaps (/not) there would be a more interesting angle that it could have been taken at but that may be just an opininon.

Good stuff.

pippatee

AnCatDubh wrote: »

Really nice work here Philip. Lighting is very well controlled.

To be incredibly picky about the whole thing and my comments are more suggestions than well formed constructive critique -

The ratio of flower head to stem might be a little unbalanced probably only because our (my) preconceived notion of a flower is that there will be more flower stem than flower head so when you view it thats what you expectation is. Just a personal opinioin on that aspect.

The angle at which you took the image is very flat / straight. I wonder is there a more interesting/curious view of the subject perhaps 10 / 30 / 45 / 60 degrees up and out. Maybe so (/not) - it depends on what you were specifically after.

The lighting on top of the subject appears a little brighter to my eye than the lower portion - i trust that this was the intention. It does highlight the top and draw your eye towards a focal point of the flower which I'm guessing is what you wanted to highlight.

The background colour is a nice selection / complementary to the subject. I would have been tempted to do the on black thing or on white thing to isolate it entirely but I think what you have done here is probably better given the subject matter such that you are actually photographing the subject as well as capturing the background as a compositional element to the composition.

A tremendous shot though showing great control of lighting. Perhaps (/not) there would be a more interesting angle that it could have been taken at but that may be just an opininon.

Good stuff.

Firstly, my sincerest thanks for the indepth observations...they show a discerning eye and depth of knowledge which I am glad to partake of.

I can see what you mean about the angle, but a mixture of space constraints and my initial hope for the shot restricted me from experimenting too much with angles...I did hope for a straight onto the top shot, focussing on the spiral shape therein, but I couldn't get the angle i wanted without showing extra elements, like the vice I was using to hld the floxer in place....

I did intend to light the upper portion a little more than the lower, because, as you pointed out, the angle is a little flat and I wanted to introduce some modelling/shape...the background is my kitchen wall....the flower was in a vase on the table and that's just how it caught my eye....luckily enough

As for lighting, for anyone who is interested in the like ...

A) 580exii through a shoot-thru brolly camera high left
430ex into some crumpled and flattened tinfoil camera low right

Fired with PocketWizards, Mnin TT1 on camera, Flex TT5 on flashes, added to a Canon STE2 to control the ratio between the flashes (4:1),

Cropped a little and sharpened...

thanks again

Phil

Borderfox

I like it, how are you liking the flex system. I have three of them for Weddings and loving them so far.

pippatee

Borderfox wrote: »

I like it, how are you liking the flex system. I have three of them for Weddings and loving them so far.

They're definitely a powerful tool....although the range isn't what I'd hoped ...

for weddings, it's great to just set them up and control them from the camera rather than having to run around....

The STE2 was my least favourite bit of kit....but the new PW's have now made it my absolute favourite....