Still Life: Inspired by some great still life's lately, I decided to attempt to shoot one I could hang in my kitchen. My wife bakes bread all the time and just made some cinnamon bread...

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

Inspired by some great still life's lately, I decided to attempt to shoot one I could hang in my kitchen. My wife bakes bread all the time and just made some cinnamon bread and some Italian bread.
I rarely compose shots, tend to just shoot stuff. I thought this would be pretty easy... not so much.

I used some black foam board I got at the dollar store. I took a bunch of pics not useable because I set them up incredibly bad. These are two I liked most... so far.

I can't decide if I like these or not, at least not enough to hang. Art was never one of my strong suits.

C&C welcomed good or bad.

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Hal81 Loc: Bucks County, Pa.

Love to have a slice of that cinnamon bread. I think a softer light might improve the photo. Your setup is very good.

Heirloom Tomato Loc: Oregon

I like what you did, and your wife is obviously a great baker! Still life arranging is difficult. You either have a knack for it or you don't. I have to really work at it and then still... mediocre results. I have the best results when I find something I like and shoot it just the way it is.

Accelerator

BigDaddy wrote:

Inspired by some great still life's lately, I deci... (show quote)

I actually like them both quite well. I want the bread. That said there were two things. Retouch the seam in the black board in #1 so it goes away. In #2 my friend looked and she said you were as bad as me because you left the sticker on the apple. I always seem to overlook or not notice things like stickers or a broom in the far corner. They don't seem to bother me. And I still want the bread.

jwt Loc: Texas Hill Country

Very nice Big Daddy, I like # 1 the best, but both are very well done. :) :thumbup:

rlaugh Loc: Michigan & Florida

Really good work on these..I like em!!

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

Hal81 wrote:

Love to have a slice of that cinnamon bread. I think a softer light might improve the photo. Your setup is very good.

Thanks Hal. The light was all daylight from the kitchen window to the right and behind me. I went back and looked at Emm5's recent still life, one of the one's that inspired me, and that's the look I should have been shooting for.

On an aside, you wouldn't be the Hal that teaches Hal's aiming system in Pool?

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

Heirloom Tomato wrote:

I like what you did, and your wife is obviously a great baker! Still life arranging is difficult. You either have a knack for it or you don't. I have to really work at it and then still... mediocre results. I have the best results when I find something I like and shoot it just the way it is.

Yeah, we're on the same page. I had a ton of arrangements, they all sucked. I finally took everything away and ended up with the second picture. A bit later my wife called me to the kitchen and said take a picture of this. That's the first picture. It took her about a minute to set up. I really liked hers, but not sure about the candle.

I might try this again if I get the urge.

geolaval Loc: Laval, Quebec

I like both of these and prefer the first. It looks as if a lot of thought went into the setup rather than just a minute. The candle looks ok to me.

In the second photo and in my non expert opinion, I would like to see the 2 items closer to each other. I still find this a very nice setup with very good lighting.

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

Accelerator wrote:

I actually like them both quite well. I want the bread. That said there were two things. Retouch the seam in the black board in #1 so it goes away. In #2 my friend looked and she said you were as bad as me because you left the sticker on the apple. I always seem to overlook or not notice things like stickers or a broom in the far corner. They don't seem to bother me. And I still want the bread.

Good eye Accelerator. The seam was really noticeable in some of my pics, particularly with the flash on. I hadn't noticed on this one until you mentioned it. The sticker I noticed after I was done. I can easily remove it I think in the editor. I had done a few touch ups in post, but missed both of these. I always manage to miss stuff like this.

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

jwt wrote:

Very nice Big Daddy, I like # 1 the best, but both are very well done. :) :thumbup:

Thanks JW. The first one my wife composed. Art to me is taking a picture of one of my cats, preferably yawning, but none of them will cooperate:-)
I need a cat that will yawn on demand...

tbohon Loc: Olympia, WA USA

Hey BigDaddy ... next time you post pictures of delicious looking items how about some actual samples, huh????? :)

Great shots IMO ... the seam and sticker as mentioned but those are minor fixes.

GrayPlayer Loc: Granby, Ct.

Replace candle with glass of light wine. Just a thought.

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

geolaval wrote:

I like both of these and prefer the first. It looks as if a lot of thought went into the setup rather than just a minute. The candle looks ok to me.

In the second photo and in my non expert opinion, I would like to see the 2 items closer to each other. I still find this a very nice setup with very good lighting.

Thanks a lot for this. About a minute did go into both of them. One was my minute, one was my wife's minute.
I originally had some bread, and 2 really red tomatoes on a vine. I fooled with it a lot, and came up ugly. The red looked good though, but I couldn't get a nice arrangement. Much harder than I'd thought.

Anyhow, I moved them closer together in elements. I think you are right, it does look better.

I also took out the sticker on the apple.

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tbohon Loc: Olympia, WA USA

BigDaddy wrote:

I moved them closer together in elements. I think you are right, it does look better.

I also took out the sticker on the apple.

That nails it!