Welcome Tony,

you have come to the right place. Had a flick through your flickr stream, good crop! Hope to see some of your work here.

Prieni

Tim,

I tried to make a shot of the curvatures rather than the phone, so the keypad is left in the dark and only adumbrated (don't know if that is the right word, I looked it up and liked it so much ).
I tried to use the light from the two flashes not only to emphasize the banana shape of the phone but also to show the curvature perpendicular to the plane of the picture. I also took one shot from the back, where the projection onto the image plane is nearly a rectangle. Then the curvature is only given away by the different tones of light.
Sounds like a good concept and works to some degree but I found it a bit boring...

So yes, it is gloomy.
A little side story: I recently upgraded to Win 7 (in parallel to XP) and a little tool that applied some corrections to the brightness/colours of the screen (from a pseudo calibration) didn't make it on to Win 7. When I printed the phone picture it came out a bit different from what I expected. I then looked at this test image:
[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/3843090.jpg[/IMG]

(Numbers from 1 to 9 in varying tones of gray are in both fields, ideally you ought to see all of them)
In the dark field I couldn't even see the 3. I adjusted the screen and now can see (or imagine to see) the white 1 and the black 2.
That made the shot a bit less gloomy on my screen. But I know that it still is on the dark side...

Prieni

You are right, I didn't remember this one. A dig in the depths of Photobucket revealed another one. The competition theme was advertisements I think:
[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/_RDP4416pu.jpg[/IMG]

Prieni

Stefan,

found it on Photobucket. Would have been one for curves as well:

[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/_RDP5831pu.jpg[/IMG]

I do remember that the doctor suggested to turn it by 180 degrees. It looks better when you do it (this is the original submission).

Prieni

Thanks Aiki, I have to get used to b&w myself. It wasn't that difficult here as the phone is grey(ish) anyway. So it is about the right colour...

It's true, Stefan, I abused that phone before for a competition.

Prieni

Now that I have decided on the entry for the competition I can show the alternative that I shot yesterday:

Straight talk

[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/_PRI7728.jpg[/IMG]

Prieni

Sweeping Through

[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/_PRI7750.jpg[/IMG]

[ EXIF ]
File name: _PRI7750.PEF
File type: Pentax Camera RAW
File size: 13.166,4 KB
Creation date: 05.12.2009 16:04
Last modification: 05.12.2009 16:05
Make: PENTAX
Camera: PENTAX K20D
Lens: smc PENTAX-DA* 16-50mm F2.8 ED AL [IF] SDM
Software: K20D Ver 1.03
Focal length: 16 mm (equiv. 24 mm)
Aperture: F22
Exposure time: 10" (+0.5 EV)
ISO speed rating: 100/21°
Program: Aperture Priority
Metering Mode: Pattern
White Balance: Auto (Shade)
Focus Mode: Manual
Image Stabilizer: not ready
Noise Reduction: On
Flash: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode

Love this shot, great! The eyes are a bit too blue for my taste, I think it would be an even better shot if left in b&w.

A few pixels more crop on the left would get rid of the dark bit on baby cheek. Also it might be worth trying to recover the blown bits of the 'collar'.

But that is all more or less irrelevant. You did well on the lighting as the faces of mother and baby are so well modeled. Certainly none of your stress has been transferred into the picture.

Prieni

I would say the landscape ones on both accounts...
I don't see any advantage in the portrait shots and with the landscape ones the image gets displayed bigger.

Excellent portfolio!

Prieni

Only one thing I can say: You should pick up your camera more often!

I hope you came across some nice curves...

Prieni