C&C Pictures of Onion

5unflower

First time asking for C&C...so I've been asked to create the photograph for a book cover. It's an academic publication, a critical analysis of the German memoir Peeling the Onion - hence the motif ;-) I do not have access to any fancy lighting equipment or anything, so the set-up is pretty basic. I guess what I'm looking for is just your comments on which one of these works best (or not at all...) in terms of the angle, the tones, and the composition. Thanks!

1.


2.


3.


4.


5.

Boardnashea

Enough to bring tears to my eyes... My fav is 4.

.Longshanks.

No. 4 for me - because its a traditional book size crop

sumsar

kev_Longshanks100 wrote: »

No. 4 for me - because its a traditional book size crop

No 4 for me aswell.. Has space at top of image for text aswell which is very important

Mountainsandh

#4

Promac

Out of the selection I'd say 4 as well. But why not try a few different ideas first? The book is about diving into the history and personality of this German guy who always has the tin drum with him - see if you can find one or make something that looks like one and place the onion on top of/in front of/something more creative/etc. Try peeling the onion more - get a red onion to make it more visually interesting. You can get some great shapes and colours from a red onion if you try.

Here's a mediocre example from a google search so don't use it:


As for fancy lighting - try using a computer monitor or large LCD TV just out of frame, they're a great source of light in a darkened room and work great as a soft-box - just have it display a blank white page (or a different colour for effect). An A3 sheet of paper makes a great, cheap background too.

Rainbowsend

Why not try a dark background in a dark room and use a
spotlight directed on the onion (the red onion is a great idea)
just the onion in a pool of light?

5unflower

Thanks for comments and suggestions. Turns out the publisher prefers landscape, so your fav (and my own actually) no. 4 is out. I left the decision to the author and she (as well as the woman in the publishers) has her eye set on no. 3

Thanks for ideas whatelse I could do with the onion. I had originally started out taking pictures of a half-peeled onion, the layers just coming off, but wasn't happy with it. Might play around with a red onion though, just to see what it can do.

smelltheglove

I dont know the book but tell me if this is totally out of context, old hands peeling an onion or a close up of an old face, from the nose down, hands peeling the onion as you would an orange and about to eat..... Just an idea to make it more different rather than an onion alone.....