Photographer’s Notes
Okay, I confess. This a Macro w/o Bugs or Flowers out-take. Since the Calendar challenge is essentially a free study I entered it here. Oh, and for the record, October IS a Grain Growers Association, and they do publish a calendar. And they sponsor a competition for photos for each month. Check it out:
(//www.graingrowers.com.au/gga_news_and_events/annual_calendar_competition)
Oh, October is also National Popcorn Poppin' Month, but I digress.
The real reason I submitted is that I’ve been trying to learn High Key photography. This is the first thing that I was reasonably happy with that I consider legitimately high key. And the challenge is a quick way to get a lot of feedback quickly.
Post Processing
Levels – Push towards white and align spikes
Cloned out some specks
Reduce Noise – Neat Image
Cloned out some more specks
Hue/Saturation – Selective reduction in saturation
Select non-kernal
Gaussian Blur
Cloned out some more specks (Damn Specks!)
Crop
Resize
Cloned out some more specks (Out You Damn
Specks, out!)
Unsharp Mask
Save for Web
Camera Data
Nikon D70
2004/11/04 19:55:02.1
JPEG (8-bit) Fine
Image Size: Large (3008 x 2000)
Lens: 105mm F/2.8 D
Focal Length: 105mm
Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority
Metering Mode: Center-Weighted
6 sec - F/38
Exposure Comp.: +2.0 EV
Sensitivity: ISO 200
Optimize Image: Vivid
White Balance: Preset
AF Mode: AF-S
Flash Sync Mode: Not Attached
Color Mode: Mode IIIa (sRGB)
Tone Comp: Auto
Hue Adjustment: 0°
Saturation: Normal
Sharpening: Auto
Image Comment:
Noise Reduction: Fixed Pattern
Statistics
Place: 181 out of 190 Avg (all users): 4.3153 Avg (commenters): 4.2500 Avg (participants): 4.2736 Avg (non-participants): 4.3608 Views since voting: 931 Views during voting: 278 Votes: 203 Comments: 8 Favorites: 0
Very little here to keep this out of the 1s I'm afraid.
It's poorly lit, blurred and you've got a very confusing and uninteresting subject. This is harsh I know but I'm saying what many people will be thinking. I would have chosen a less flat lighting arrangement, used a tripod and presented an unusual viewpoint that enthusiasts for your subject may not be familiar with.
Perhaps a macro shot of a portion of the popcorn, or a shot of the popcorn with a hand buried in it. Maybe even an action shot of some popping.
... Or you could have shot a miniature cinema with a popcorn on each seat, each with a box of miniature people waiting to be eaten!
Mmmm - yummy. I had to go make some of my own after seeing this! Perhaps if you had used a different background (or different lighting) the popcorn would have stood out more and you would have been even more pleased with the result. Clever title.
Nice shot of popcorn. I wonder if a different background would have brought it out more. Of course, maybe you were going for a high key look and in that case, I find the shadows to be a distraction.
I love the idea of this. I would have put it on an orange or black background because the shadows take away from the interesting edges and outline of the popcorn.
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