Searcher Loc: Kent, England

Could not get out much so anything standing still I considered fair game.

I know DoF could have been better, but what about the rest of the picture?

A bowl of cherries

Photo One Loc: Clearwater Florida

Could you make a pie out of those, and send it to me?
Looks good,

Kenny

jonsommer Loc: Usually, somewhere on the U.S. west coast.

Shots like this are a real challenge because there is no obvious center of interest, so my eye hunts for one. And, unfortunately, what it lands on is the one cherry center left that has an out of focus stem in front of it, and because of DOF issues it looks, at first glance, like this cherry is starting to go bad and has a piece of mold on it. I then look around at the other cherries and I see the dents and other imperfections and my appetite is gone. So here's my suggestion, spend some time to rotate the cherries so only the 'perfect' ones show, maybe add one that has been cut or bitten half as your center of interest and back up a little to eliminate the DOF problem. Hope that helps.

Searcher Loc: Kent, England

Kenny - I did make a pie, sorry I ate it!!

Jonsommer, I was going to reshoot to be rid of the DoF problems but unfortunately it was my day for baking.

I do take on board your suggestions for striving for "perfection" with the subject, and I suppose that is rather more important for food photography than with many other subjects - I simply hadn't looked at it in that way.
Cherries are out of season now, so maybe I'll buy some grapes and try again.

Bmac Loc: Long Island, NY

Hi Searcher,

I like your image with that red, red color. It could possibly be improved by removing some of those hot spots (flash?) in post processing or by using natural light next time.

By the way, love that avatar of yours. :thumbup:

Searcher Loc: Kent, England

Yes, hot spots = flash - no diffuser on at time.

Next time it will be better quality cherries, all carefully looked at and turned/rejected as necessary and daylight.

I shot the image as a background for a greetings card I was designing for someone, the company went for apples and oranges instead and I was very careful to get that one right.

Thanks for looking.

Armadillo Loc: Ventura, CA

Searcher,

You might have been able to improve the composition a bit by positioning some of the Cherries to support the overall composition. The Cherry in the center has a nice stem, but the stem does not create an eye pleasing composition. Adjusting that Cherry so the stem is more in the bottom left corner might help, but not dividing the corner in half.

Adjusting the other Cherries so their stems are not distracting the eye would help, and looking for physical defects to correct would help remove visual distractions.

For blown highlights, diffuse the light source so the highlights are soft blurs with good exposure. The highlights add shape to the round Cherries, as will soft shadows at the edges of each cherry.

Your DOF can be corrected by using more intense (soft) light, increasing the Aperture from f/4.2 to f/8.0. If that is not possible try using "Focus Stacking" with several exposures to capture the different focus points and merge them into one sharply focused image.

Good luck and happy experimenting.

Michael G