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Immune Booster

© Christie R. Bielss

Immune Booster

Uploaded: February 25, 2011

Description

Exif: F Number: 9, Exposure Bias Value: 0.00, ExposureTime: 1/60 seconds, Flash: fired, auto mode, return light detected, ISO: 100, White balance: Auto white balance, FocalLength: 50.00 mm, Model: NIKON D80

Comments

Christie R. Bielss February 25, 2011

This is the 1st "posed" photo I've taken in quite a while. It was fun, until I got to editing and I couldn't think of a thing to do other than this with it. #1356240

Rita K. Connell level-classic February 25, 2011

this is wonderful Christie the color and tones of all the fruit is wonderful. I love the black back ground it makes for nice contrast. personally I wouldn't change anything but print it and hang it in your kitchen. #9262345

Dale Hardin February 26, 2011

Very nice Christie. I have never had any luck trying this. Love the black background and the choice of subjects and color.

As far as editing goes, it looks good but if you want to play a bit you could try something simple like this. Duplicate the layer and blend using around 35% to 50% screen blend. (it will be too bright but don't worry)

Now apply shadows/highlights tool to the result and reduce the highlights by about 25. Set shadows to zero. Finally apply about 1.0 high pass filtering using the overlay blend. The result should be an overall crisper brighter image and the apples especially, should shine. You should also see more texture in the oranges and the bananas. #9262955

Michael Kelly level-deluxe February 26, 2011

Love the color combination and the black BG to make it all stand out so nicely. A good shot as presented but I see a bit of DOF problem in that the bananas are a bit soft focus wise for this type shot. This is not a requirement and Dale's suggestions will help.

To fully correct this would mean a re-shoot with more DOF. Remember that the longer the lens, the closer the subject and the more open the f stop the narrower the DOF so any change to any of these in the opposite direction will increase the DOF. #9263046

Aimee C. Eisaman February 26, 2011

Like the bright colors against the black! Very nice composition with the three different groupings! I must agree with Mike that I think everything being in sharp focus would benefit this image.

What did you use to light this? :~) #9263406

Stephen Shoff February 27, 2011

Remove an orange, and you could enter this in this month's numbers racket.

I say that somewhat facetiously, Christie, but it does seem to me that there is some opportunity to add an element of motion to this still life.

Depending on your cropping you might also be able to incorporate a diagonal. #9263860

Christie R. Bielss February 27, 2011

Thanks y'all! Will be attempting Dale's suggestions in a little bit and will post. We'll see how very out of practice I am at following directions. LOL Stephen. I am grossly out of practice and my imagination has somewhat disappeared, so give me an idea as to how I would add an element of motion. Only thing I can think of right now is bowling with oranges....and that might be fun too! #9264495

Stephen Shoff February 27, 2011

I was suggesting a numeric progression, Christie.

Leading lines (a diagonal in my cropping suggestion) also add motion by encouraging your eyes and attention to move through an image.

In your posted image, the nice, repeating curves of the bananas leads you right to the apples.

#9264500

Christie R. Bielss February 27, 2011

OOOhhhhhh! Like 3 oranges, 4 bananas, and 5 apples. Am I on the right track? #9264511

Stephen Shoff February 27, 2011

Sort of like that, yes.

Bowling with oranges doesn't require imagination for me, Christie. I still remember kids doing that in my freshman English classes in High School. #9264786

Christie R. Bielss February 28, 2011

Here are the edits with Dale's suggestions.
Stephen, we never bowled with oranges in high school.....we jumped on mustard packets to see how far they'd squirt though.....now that would have a lot of motion to it too! ;) #9266133

Debbie E. Payne February 28, 2011

Hey Christie, it is good to see you posting again. I love the intense colors and the black background but agree with Mike that your fruit shoot should be redone for more DOF. Did you use a tripod?? #9266669

Carla Capra Anderson February 28, 2011

Hi Christie;
I enjoy the way the fruit looks against the black background. The oranges and apples have nice details while the bananas are a bit soft. I think the suggestion to re-shoot this is a good one. I've been the recipient of this suggestion on a few of my images and I've always been pleased after the re-shoot.
My high school art teacher would agree with Stephen and enthusiastically suggest creative arrangement. You can always elevate, say, the bananas by placing them on coffee cup. Adding a basket to give the impression these fruits are spilling out. Just suggestions. With your creativity you will come up with a great arrangement.

;) CC #9266855

Susan M. Reynolds level-addict February 28, 2011

I do like the contrast of colors and what Dale's suggestions added to the photo. If you do a re-shoot and add a basket to make it look as if the fruit is spilling over, perhaps a bunch of green grapes would help achieve the effect and add another contrasting color. #9266985

Aimee C. Eisaman March 01, 2011

I do like the added pop Dales suggestions gave this, but feel a reshoot is where this is going! Also you didn't answer my question as to how you lit this. :~) #9267498

Christie R. Bielss March 01, 2011

Ok Aimee, I have the brain of a gnat since both kids have been sick and they shared their germs with me. Not that my brain is much better on a good day! ;)
I started out shooting this with window light on an overcast day. That didn't go so well, so I plopped out the reflector. That helped but not enough. So then I went and dug out my SB-900 and spent 30 minutes looking for the owner's manual to rememeber how to turn the flash down. After not being able to locate the manual, I remembered that gee, it came with a diffuser! Put that on and took a couple of shots. Didn't like them. So went outside to scream in frustration for a minute, then after having my red-headed moment, I discovered a little break in the clouds, which was giving me more light in a different spot. So I moved everything over 2 feet and got everything re-arranged just in time for the light to go back behind the clouds. Had another red-headed moment. It then came to me that one of the cool things about the flash is that you can bounce it off stuff. So, I tried bouncing the flash off the reflector. And hence, the photo you see. Now, I will say that my camera settings were f9; 1/60th; 100 ISO; with a makeshift tripod (i.e. a stack of books) and my remote shutter release. I just discovered part of the problem for the image softness, which has been plaguing me since I switched to PSE9. Apparently the noise reduction works REALLY well in PSE9 and does not require the high settings like in PSE6. So, I'll try re-editing this image. The re-shoot ideas sound intriguing, however, my fruit has been consumed - so must go to the store this morning to get new subjects. Will see what interesting subjects I can find..... #9267626

Aimee C. Eisaman March 01, 2011

LOL....been there Chrisite....but I have blonde moments instead of red-headed ones! I think the bouncing of light is a great way to do it if you can't get great window light! :~) #9267637

Beth Spencer March 02, 2011

I like the edits done. I think the background does highlight the fruit. I would have probably been so frustrated doing everything you were doing, that I would have stopped and decided to eat the fruit instead. #9269912

Rita K. Connell level-classic March 02, 2011

personally I like the original best. and I am with beth I would have started eating the fruit. #9270603

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