Chinese Lantern Macro C&C

Rojo

Ok, I took this last night, and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out and I'm thinking about getting it printed, so I would like to get your opinions on it and maybe how I could improve it?


Be brutal, if you must! :P

B0rG

add a tiny bit of space to camera right and to the bottom
flip horizontally
may consider some fancy frame...

I personally don't like heavy vignetting on the left, but that's just me.

The more I look about it the more I think it needs to be reshoot:
1. correct lighting - nice shadow may add something to it. good lighting will also add texture to the shadow
2. may be change the position somehow... rotate it about 45 degrees from it's current position so it'll point towards the center...
3. I would play around with apperture as well to bring out the texture of the thing itself

Rojo

B0rG wrote:

add a tiny bit of space to camera right and to the bottom
flip horizontally
may consider some fancy frame...

I personally don't like heavy vignetting on the left, but that's just me.

The more I look about it the more I think it needs to be reshoot:
1. correct lighting - nice shadow may add something to it. good lighting will also add texture to the shadow
2. may be change the position somehow... rotate it about 45 degrees from it's current position so it'll point towards the center...
3. I would play around with apperture as well to bring out the texture of the thing itself

Thanks for the comments, I appreciate them. Yeah the light was hard to get right. I was using two desk lamps for that photo when I was setting up the shot and my hand blocked the light from one of them when I was moving the "lantern" and I quite liked the patterns in the shadow cast from being lit by the one lamp, so I just used the one then, so that's why the light is uneven. I couldn't for the life of me get the shadows right with the two lamps...


Ok, I tried flipping it horizontally and I think the actual lantern looks better that way, but I prefer the shadow the other way.. haha, I'm so difficult!

The vignetting... i don't find it too much of a problem, but I decided I'd try to get rid of it and made a complete mess of it.. :S


Here's some other shots:

B0rG

Ha First person who doesn't argue with me about creativity Tis good cause I only argue Fridays.

I think the shot is about form, texture and shadow. You control texture with apperture and shadow with your lamps. I would try softening or reflecting (or both) the light with a piece of paper - it may give you more control over the shadow. Prolly something like this: one lamp creates main hard light and a shadow, and the second one softened with the paper makes the texture of the lamp more pronounced.