[Irma]

Do you have any comments about this? I always remember StudioJ when I take a picture with red... I think the red in this one is ok, but I am not sure about the light. :|

Thanks in advance

[Don Schaeffer]

This looks so typically apple and so real. It isn't surreal or decoratively unreal but super market real. It's like taking a photo of an average person's face for a glamor magazine. It looks like it can live.

Good work,

Don

[Kombisaurus]

Hi Irma,

I think the photo is very good.
The lighting is great. The exposure is also great. You could maybe tweak the contrast up and give it a bit more warmth in photoshop to make the red more vibrant if you want to "sex it up", but it is fine as it is.

If you are thinking the photo is a little flat, then I think it might be down to the elements in the photo, not the photo itself.

The focus is good, but I think there is room for improvement. You have a very small depth of field (which is obviously intentional, and works very well), but I can't help thinking you could perhaps have got things a bit sharper by focusing a bit further back from the most forward point of the apple. You can see the apple stem is not sharp, indicating the DOF finishes before that point. In contrast, looking at the table in the foreground you can see the DOF extends in front of the apple. By focusing just *behind* the front of the apple but in front of the stem, you could make the whole apple a bit sharper perhaps?

The colour is great in the sense it seems very faithfully represented... but if you were really looking for a deep vibrant red then you might find a better apple to use as a subject (think of the apple in snow white and the seven dwarfs).. and perhaps even polish it with something to give it a deeper shine. Also you could have made the red seem redder by including some other colours in the image to compliment it, such as some green leaves.

The angle of the table and the grain in the wood work really well to give the composition some interest and make it appear informal, but that big black background could use something to break it up a little I feel, even if it were blurred beyond recognition.
Something reflective like a vase might be good, out of focus in the background (especially if it contained something green as stated earlier), as it would echo the reflections seen on the apple. But it might be difficult to keep it from taking the attention off the apple, depending on how much light it had falling on it.
But really, just about anything in the background would work.

But those are just my uneducated opinions. Take them with a grain of salt, as I am certainly no expert. I just imagined myself taking that same shot and then wrote down the things that I would do in preparation for taking the next shot.

For interest's sake, I threw it in photoshop and had a play with the colour. The result might be a bit over-the-top and unrealistic, but it helps give the viewer warm-and-fuzzies[tm] from looking at pretty colours. I should point out that I did this particular edit on a screen that doesn't accurately represent some colours particularly well (especially darker tones) when compared to a decent CRT or LCD screen, so you might not see the same colours as I'm seeing. That is simply because I'm too lazy to walk into the other room where I have a decent monitor.

EDIT: OMG, I just had a look at this apple on a real monitor and realised it already had a background. I knew my projector was rubbish at displaying subtle shadows, but I didn't realise it was THAT bad. I take back what I said about the "black" background, as I can see it isn't anywhere near as dark as I thought it was, and the geometric lines in the background give it all the interest it needs. I still think it could benefit from having the reds warmed up and then throwing in a green or a blue somewhere to contrast it, but I guess that could also upset the balance you have created there with the apple. It certainly looks better on the screen I'm viewing it on now (not that it looked bad on the other screen, just that I missed some subtleties).

Cheers
Adrian

[shuttertalk]

Nice apple Irma! Good focus, framing and composition... what else can I say?

[Irma]

Thanks a lot for your comments! Don and ST

Adrian, Thanks for your advice about focus. I had problems with this exactly, and how to extend, so to say, the focus in macro where I really want. Not in the picture, but in the object itself. I got it now. About the color of the apple, you are right. Well, actually I just grapped the better one from the fruit bowl, next time I will buy a special one to picture. It will make a lot of difference, or as you said, to place something contrasting. Great idea about the background. I will try again with some other fruits and perhaps some leaves in there. Thanks also for your explanations. It's been very kind of you.

Irma.

[Irma]

I am still working with my apple. I haven't bought a new one, I haven't been to the supermarket, so I have to hurry to get it right before this one spoils

My priority here was to get it properly in focus. I will work with background and lights in further pictures. At the moment I think I got it right. I bent a little more to take the apple straight into the view, also I thought it is better because I have the line of the background and the table properly in level with the bottom of the apple .. Also I changed the setting of the saturation in the camera. The light is that is still killing me... What do you think?