Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/04/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Bob Adler offered: >>Satturday took me a bit out of my comfort zone photographically; a less planned > approach shooting hand held at f1.4. It was really a treat with the M8! > We had our annual Seder (Passover) dinner on Saturday night. My favorite catch > was this one: > http://raflexions.com/2009Seder/content/L1000706_large.html > It's a lovely evening with family and friends. We had lots to celebrate: happy kids, growing families, new engagements and just catching up. I thought the > table setting was very lovely this year: > http://raflexions.com/2009Seder/content/L1000706_large.html <http://raflexions.com/2009Seder/content/L1000706_large.html%3c%3c%3c> <<< Hi Bob, Over all? A wonderful set of photographs. Sometimes it's interesting to throw "caution to the wind" and shoot wide open just for the heck of it and end up with a picture series you never thought would work as well as these. The beautiful thing about doing this is, we learn that it doesn't always have to be "f. 8.0 and be there!" :-) They are beautiful, however! ;-) A small note about the dining table which is beautifully done, but maybe? A tiny point of cropping for a thought! As we look at the frame right at the bottom try cropping the first place setting off about to the far edge of the booklet on the plate. This still retains the orange coloured edge of the plate about where the sharpness begins to happen. What this tiny bit of cropping does is, it eliminates the very out of focus bottom edge of the photograph and we begin to look at the setting & scene at a sharp point which carries well into the background. The out of focus foreground is actually a "visual block" getting right into the scene. Notice how your eyes fight to go beyond this out of focus area. As soon as they look into the very sharp area? We are sitting at the table and not fighting an attempt to bring the foreground into focus. I bet if you crop it as I've suggested and make a print you'll be very surprised how effective that tiny bit off makes to the impact of the picture. You can do the same thing by holding up a white card to the screen, crop this area off, it isn't much because you do have to keep the far orange edge of the plate setting to see how effective the photo becomes with the crop. It's the far edge of the booklet that's tie crop line, but keeping the plate orange in. Other than this tiny bit, it is a smashing photo. ted