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Canon DSLR Challenge | all galleries >> Challenge 31: Create a Still Life (Hosted by Lonnit Rysher) >> Eligible > Eggs *
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17 Dec 2004 Victor Engel

Eggs *

Here's a minimal version of the previous two.


other sizes: small medium original auto
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Victor Engel22-Dec-2004 16:35
By the way, I've not mentioned this so far, but I had dozens of acorn husks to choose from for this photo. I chose this one for several reasons, all of which related to composition. First, the stem was relatively long. It had a nice curve to it. The two husks were not directly opposite each other as they frequently are, but one is set back a bit from the end, and finally, the orientation of the husks positions the eggs perpendicularly to each other. The lighting is arranged to be roughly orthogonal to both eggs, so this is, in a way, a study on egg shadow. -- Victor
Guest 22-Dec-2004 16:13
Victor - this is my favourite of all your egg photos. I really like the simplicity here, which is enhanced by use of b&w - Tracy!
Victor Engel21-Dec-2004 07:18
All my egg photos, or just the ones in this challenge? For more egg photos, see the opposites challenge. -- Victor
Canon DSLR Challenge20-Dec-2004 23:56
Victor-I like this b&w version the best of all your egg photos. It brought me in and made me think. Dorys
Victor Engel20-Dec-2004 15:23
Olaf, Your picture is pretty good, especially considering what I gave you as source material was small. I suppose that's why you blended with the B&W pictures. I didn't mean to suggest that a color version of the picture wouldn't work. When I looked at the picture, though, it was as if it was asking to be B&W. I'm not sure how else to explain it than that. After seeing your picture, I still prefer the B&W version. -- Victor
Canon DSLR Challenge20-Dec-2004 10:58
I did an experiment : did what I suggested in my previous comment and then used that as layer on top of the black and white version, layer blending mode set to "color". --Olaf
Canon DSLR Challenge20-Dec-2004 10:48
Yup, I like that! Give it the same rotatjion and crop as the black and white one and maybe even increase the saturation slightly to make it even more colorful. Also, lighten up the shadow on the top (after rotation) acorn shell, much like you did in the b/w-version. All IMHO, of course - others may disagree... --Olaf
Victor Engel20-Dec-2004 04:29
FWIW, here is a reduced version of the original.
Canon DSLR Challenge19-Dec-2004 21:45
I am not so convinced about the need for black and white here. It makes it look like something manmade - and maybe looses a bit of the unexpected twist (finding eggs in acorn shells). I thought those thoughts before I saw Shu's comment and I think that corroborates my theory. I think the contrast would have been more striking "au naturel" - in color that is. --Olaf
Canon DSLR Challenge19-Dec-2004 00:20
My first impression of this was that this is an image of holiday lights (bulbs.)Beautifully created! Shu
Canon DSLR Challenge18-Dec-2004 07:06
Thanks. There was a lot more post-processing on this one. First, the picture was exposed rotated 90 degrees from the final product, but I thought this presentation was the one that worked the best. I tried some significant channel mixing and settled on using just the green channel because otherwise the leaf was just too dark. Then I converted to greyscale and did some significant curves adjustments. Finally, I did several USM operations and converted to quadtone. The original quadtone I chose was too green to my eye, so I adjusted the curves to what you see here.

I try B&W every once in a while, but I don't think any picture I've worked on before demanded it as much as this one. -- Victor
ctfchallenge18-Dec-2004 00:50
Wow! Victor, this is great. Really very different than the other two. theFly