Bakery - C&C please

[Blu-by-u]

Thank you for viewing. Where did I go wrong? The photograph lack depth and it's plain DULL.

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[grebeman]

Perhaps a bit more information would help those people who might offer opinions, for example, camera, lens, f stop data?
Initially I would say the composition could be better, the faces are rather obscured by the labeling, not your fault, just the situation you were presented with.

Barrie

 

[kevinparis]

with all due respect grebeman - the technical details of the photograph are pretty irrelevant it seems well enough focussed and exposed.

I do agree that the composition is weak - i just dont see why the picture was taken or what blu was trying to bring out.

I like the strong diagonal, but it leads nowhere... you have two interesting contrasting faces there, and a notice that says 'Hot from the oven' which may or may not have made an interesting juxtaposition with the women.

If the basket of doughnuts had been fuller or even if there had just been one then a closer perspective on that may have been more interesting

just my thoughts

K

 

[LisaO]

Things I see....The label card in front of their faces, more abundance of baked goods would have helped as well, seems a bit too warm. The odd shadow lower left and cut off letters reading one oven.

 

[bilzmale]

I agree with ^^^ comments - to me there are too many similar tones (yellows/golds) that make it a bit bland. I downloaded it and the histogram shows a good range of values so I think it's just one of those shots that doesn't quite work.

Just tried Auto white balance (in LR) and it does make a difference - may be worth a try.

 

[Ulfric M Douglas]

... The photograph lack depth and it's plain DULL....

I don't see that as the problem.
Did you just take one pic or a burst?
The labels infront of the two faces is a bad mistake that shouldn't be. You could have a few shots and picked one where we can see the faces properly...
I'm guessing you were standing up or crouched over a bit.
Down lower with a big aperture might've been nice. No faces at all in that situation.
Or ask the ladies to "show you their buns" and you could've presented a print later for their shop.

Go do it again! :smile: No ... really. :smile:

 

[Blu-by-u]

Thanks for the comments. I will go there and shoot it again in the near future.

Uncle Barrie, any suggestion on the angle or better composition?

Kevin, That OVEN did not seem to work. Was trying to get the lines to point to the oven with the food/ buns as the indicator.

Sis LisaO, I just noticed a pair of hands from a chopped off body. My bad.

bilzmale, WB..Care to load what you have done? It would be interesting to learn.

Ulfric M Douglas, It was a single shot. I was wondering the strange twist on a straight table looked a bit funny. Could be lens distortion

BTW, Camera, E-PL1, Lens, mZD 14-42 at 14mm. f5.0 1/6s, ISO 200. Handheld and no flash.

Question If I shoot at an even lower angle would it make any difference? Opening the f to the max f3.5, targeting the AF to the words Stone Oven blurring out the foreground or shot it be the other way round?

But the biggest question..I seem lost. What am I thinking of as a main subject??

 

[grebeman]

I think you have asked yourself the main question, "what am I thinking of as the main subject?". To put it another way what is the point behind the photograph, is it to emphasis the bakery products or is it to set the people in the picture because they are important to it, if the people are important then perhaps they should be more prominent, there faces should be fully visible. Perhaps someone actually being served with either the product or money changing hands would give the picture more focus, a reason for it being taken. These factors would determine your viewpoint and framing.

Barrie

 

[BBW]

Blu, I'll tell you one thing for sure - you have a good sense of humor.

Everyone has made good points and most importantly so have you, as Barrie says. What did you think you were aiming at? There had to be some impulse behind your pushing that shutter button. Once you answer that, I think the follow up shot will be much better. It looks as though it is a very attractive bakery, and perhaps you were hungry, ordering something and figured - why not take a picture while waiting?

Definitely want to fix the white balance up for next time. Promise to post back here, OK?

 

[Blu-by-u]

Life cannot be serious all the time and to me Photography is a kind of relaxation. So being a little bit mad is fun.

The bakery is beautiful. I have a few more pictures taken there. I posted that when I saw the table slightly twisted and of course the lack of subject. The food was what I was aiming for.

Hope I have not offended anyone.

 

[bilzmale]

Blu-by-u here is the WB altered shot. I do miss some of that golden glow though.

View attachment 149657
4941163632_84286379be_z-2 by bilzmale, on Flickr

 

[deirdre]

What I do with white balance adjustments: duplicate the original photo (I use photoshop) into a new layer, adjust the white balance on the top layer, then fuss with the opacity of that layer until I get a mix I like.

Personally, I'd try take this from a lower angle, without faces obscured, at a lower f stop, starting closer to the people so that the corner of the table isn't in view. I'd also see how it looked making the diagonal more diagonal.

 

[grebeman]

Life cannot be serious all the time and to me Photography is a kind of relaxation. So being a little bit mad is fun.

The bakery is beautiful. I have a few more pictures taken there. I posted that when I saw the table slightly twisted and of course the lack of subject. The food was what I was aiming for.

Hope I have not offended anyone.

You haven't offended anyone, we are the one's who might offend which is why I'm always reluctant to offer criticism, but hopefully any criticisms are constructive and taken as such.

Barrie

 

[Blu-by-u]

You haven't offended anyone, we are the one's who might offend which is why I'm always reluctant to offer criticism, but hopefully any criticisms are constructive and taken as such.

Barrie

Uncle Barrie, no worries..please throw them at me. I have been taking casual pictures for a long time. With the internet and forums, I only recently started to learn the finer points.

I have been taking fire and brim stones from some other forums that I have join and basically, I am learning. I appreciate criticism.

Only in the last few years I learn the rule of the thirds. Then the use of DOF and the Speed. Some very basic stuff like what's EV and how to use it.

I have yet to go into Photoshop layers. Tried it but then it was a disaster. Sorry deirdre, I am so bad in Photo Shop that some of my friends gave up on teaching me.

Thankfully Olympus out of camera JPG are very usable with minimal editing. The editing program that I use are basically Faststone for croping and tilting. A slight bit of gamma and contrast adjustment.

Arcsoft Panorama Maker for panorama stitching and recently discovered GigaPano which does a better job but more complicated.

RAW conversion is left to Olympus Master and Viewer 2. Yes, I still shoot RAW from time to time.

This BTW is the front view of the bakery. It's a 3 picture pano and stitched with the Giga Pano software.

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Click image for a bigger view.

 

[Blu-by-u]

Blu-by-u here is the WB altered shot. I do miss some of that golden glow though.

I think I like that warmer tone. The correction seems to make the humans in the back look like ghost. I think I got that shot in RAW..let me try some adjustments.

 

[Blu-by-u]

....Personally, I'd try take this from a lower angle, without faces obscured, at a lower f stop, starting closer to the people so that the corner of the table isn't in view. I'd also see how it looked making the diagonal more diagonal.

Something like this??
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or this?

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[Ulfric M Douglas]

There is a lot of love for this bun shop!
Keep 'em coming.

 

[grebeman]

I hope you're buying your bread here or do you just keep popping in to take more photographs

Barrie

 

[deirdre]

Something like this??
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or this?

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More like the angle of the second but with the people. I don't know if the room layout would permit that, but it seemed possible.

 

[Blu-by-u]

Went back there last weekend and here are some shots.
Some of these pictures were taken with the ZD11-22 and some with the Lumix 20/1.7

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Hit me hard with any constructive C&C. :smile: