Close up C&C please - NO JUDGES

Scuzi

Scuzi

Scuzi

Man of Honour
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I'm having a hard time trying to find a shot I'm happy with for the Close up competition. My current shot is this:

closeupentry.jpg



But I just took this today and don't know whether to change the entry. Having stared at both for so long I've completely lost any concept of the initial impact (if any) that each of these have. Can I have your C&C on both please?

shamrock2.jpg



As always, no judge comments please!
Thanks :)
 
I like the first one the most, but maybe a more snazzy watch if possible and a bit closer? So that straight away you dont identify what it is, will make yo think what it is with an impact.

Lovely shots though.
 
The first one is a good shot, but I'm sorry the 2nd one really doesn't do anything for me, at all... There are a lot of shadows in it, no creative DOF used, no creative angles or anything. Also, had there been a precise focal point, or even a 4 leaf clover to set apart from the rest...

Sorry to be harsh, I hope you realise where I'm coming from though so you get an idea of what you could do with a scene like that for next time.
 
Syk3 said:
I like the first one the most, but maybe a more snazzy watch if possible and a bit closer? So that straight away you dont identify what it is, will make yo think what it is with an impact.

Lovely shots though.
Click to expand...
Thanks :)
I don't have any snazzier watches I'm afraid and I couldn't really get any closer as my lens couldn't focus if I got any closer :( It's already cropped down quite a bit. I'll have another go to see what I might be able to come up with


Colin_da_killer said:
The first one is a good shot, but I'm sorry the 2nd one really doesn't do anything for me, at all... There are a lot of shadows in it, no creative DOF used, no creative angles or anything. Also, had there been a precise focal point, or even a 4 leaf clover to set apart from the rest...

Sorry to be harsh, I hope you realise where I'm coming from though so you get an idea of what you could do with a scene like that for next time.
Click to expand...
No need to apologise, that's exactly the sort of thing I want to hear :) I see what you mean, it could be a lot more creative. I'll have to see what I can muster up.

Thanks guys.

Anyone else have any comments?
 
Any tips on how to improve the first one? Bear in mind that I'm limited by my lenses and can't get any closer unless I crop.
 
Scuzi said:
Any tips on how to improve the first one? Bear in mind that I'm limited by my lenses and can't get any closer unless I crop.
Click to expand...
Tried aiming more on one side? So you get the side part on, not just the whole face?
 
wer'e always talking about honesty on here so here i go: :rolleyes:

the 1st one is a good example of a 'close up' shot, it might have benefited from a slightly larger depth of field but other than that its technically proficient and generally leads my eye in a comfortable direction.

the 2nd in my opinion :rolleyes: sucks
we've all taken them before :) - and as you say you can kind of go 'judgment blind' if you look at stuff for too long

- the 1st shows much better technique/eye - the 2nd is bad for all the reasons highlighted by colin + the light seems really weird/false, perhaps from a flash? but above all, to me its just not interesting.

stick with the first - perhaps try going closer in if you can, got a magnifying glass?
if your camera allows it I'd love to see a long exposure of the second hands rotation :)

hope that helps

disclaimer: this is just my opinion, its not necessarily anyone else's
 
The second one does nothing for me. I really like the first though. No chance you could managed a greater DOF? I would like to see a fully black and white version with only the orange of the needles in colour, perhaps even a tiling of the same image multiple times with different coloured needles? That would also give you the ability to further crop the image without a loss in quality

Just a few thoughts :)
 
thumper said:
wer'e always talking about honesty on here so here i go: :rolleyes:

the 1st one is a good example of a 'close up' shot, it might have benefited from a slightly larger depth of field but other than that its technically proficient and generally leads my eye in a comfortable direction.

the 2nd in my opinion :rolleyes: sucks
we've all taken them before :) - and as you say you can kind of go 'judgment blind' if you look at stuff for too long

- the 1st shows much better technique/eye - the 2nd is bad for all the reasons highlighted by colin + the light seems really weird/false, perhaps from a flash? but above all, to me its just not interesting.

stick with the first - perhaps try going closer in if you can, got a magnifying glass?
if your camera allows it I'd love to see a long exposure of the second hands rotation :)

hope that helps

disclaimer: this is just my opinion, its not necessarily anyone else's
Click to expand...

Thanks dude, I never actually thought of a longer exposure to get the movement in the second hand. I'll give that a try now :cool:
 
speaking from a point of view where i do not understand a lot of terms used in this thread (creative depth of field? etc).. i prefer the second image.

the 2nd in my opinion sucks
we've all taken them before - and as you say you can kind of go 'judgment blind' if you look at stuff for too long
Click to expand...

http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=clovers macro&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi

http://images.google.co.uk/images?svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&safe=off&q=watch+macro

quick search, and i can find more photos like the watch one - but not the clovers.
 
Just an observation really, I only noticed it when I was converting it to B&W but it seems that the whole of the watch face isn't in focus. Is there anyway you can get the whole of the face in focus or is that because the lens is at the extent of its lenght and if you were to zoom out anymore you'd loose the 'Macro effect', so to speak?

just a thought
 
GeX said:
speaking from a point of view where i do not understand a lot of terms used in this thread (creative depth of field? etc).. i prefer the second image.



http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=clovers macro&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi

http://images.google.co.uk/images?svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&safe=off&q=watch+macro

quick search, and i can find more photos like the watch one - but not the clovers.
Click to expand...

i think we got our wires crossed here bud
sticking to my guns :) i meant we've all taken pictures that suck not we've all taken pictures of clover...
 
How about this? B&W conversion in Channel Mixer, Gradient map added, play with curves and used the layer mask to bring out the orange in the hands.

fortis.jpg
 
Raymond Lin said:
The light is too harsh, and there is no sense of depth (no DoF).
Click to expand...
Really? I thought there was a good sense of depth. What do you mean when you say the light is too harsh? How would you improve that?
 
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