Fortnightly Challenge 12th August to midnight 26th August - Rock

[Tugboat]

Originally Posted by Gidders

A while since we've had a three way tie - well dome to Arthur for getting in first.

There's a bit of a story behind my shot. I've challenged myself this year to enter every fortnightly challenge but I was away at a friend's over the bank holiday weekend and realised that this challenge was due to close on Monday. There I was with no camera or equipment of any sort but I was desperate to keep my personal challenge on track.

So I borrowed her compact, a Panasonic DMC TZ8, rigged up a backdrop with a clothes airer & a black scarf, used another black scarf & the glass top off a coffee table to stand the bottle & glasses on, controlled the ambient light as much as possible by drawing all the curtains. Lighting was from an led head torch & a desk lamp with a snoot made from a pizza box. As an aperture of f5.6 gave an shutter speed of 2.5 secs, a chair with a blob of blutac on top became a tripod. Fortunately I had my laptop, but apart from cloning out a couple of unwanted reflections & tweaking the black levels the shot is basically straight out of the camera.

Who needs £'000 of gear

well done Clive, I love making do with things around the house, and this is a great example of showing us how it was done....very interesting to me, thanks.


and well done DigiDiva for getting this thread going.

[Arthur53]

Not sure how true it is but some say as in the West we read from left to right our eyes are more comfortable going that way when looking at a photo.

[Gidders]

Interesting observation - yes I am right handed. That said, I'd always been taught that left to right lead lines were preferable because we read from left to right & lines leading to the right hand edge take the eye out of the image.

Edit: I see Arthur posted as I was typing

[DigiDiva]

Ah so it could be because we read left to right that my flipped image sits more comfortably. Well we live and learn. See, that shows that the comments section is working already. What do any lefthanders think?

[graham harcombe]

Sorry to be so slow in replying, my photography is on the back burner at the moment. It's an interesting idea from DigiDiva and I'm happy to join in.

Being the last on the list, the one down option is not on, so the one up for me is DigiDiva. I liked the simplicity of the shot but I confess I didn't vote for it. The detraction for me was the texture of both the metal and the diamond. I may be wrong, but I suspected that it had been sharpened quite heavily. A perfectly good shot though and it's good to see a little lateral thinking in the subject.

Graham

[DigiDiva]

Graham, your down, if you are last, is the 1st entry, if you still want to comment.

Thanks for the comments, I did sharpen a little but the rock and the treezers were pretty scratched and old..I should have gone for newer ones!

I would have voted for yours if it had just been the rocks and the reflection. The building distracted me from that gorgeous reflection.

[DigiDiva]

Really havre had a good thread here haven't we? Thanks guys.

[graham harcombe]

Ok Digi, I thought I'd got off lightly, but you put me straight !!!

Arthur, I liked your shot. In fact I voted for it, largely because it really represented the topic faithfully and honestly; but if pressed I would comment firstly on the lack of a focal point, it seems a little disassembled somehow. I also have a tendency to stop down more than most, so it's a little light IMHO. Quibbling really as it's a nice shot.

[DigiDiva]

Sorry Graham.....