[Lunatique]

Taken tonight--my first try at product photography:

With the 50 1.4


With the 50 1.4


With the Tamron 28-70




With the 70-200 IS


With the 50 1.4




With the Tamron 28-75



There are a bunch more at my site, including some lens reviews/tests I did in the last couple of days of the Sigma 12-24 and 70-200 IS: http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/photography/photography.htm

[neewom]

They look beautiful, but from an editing standpoint, the text is wrong. An ellipse consists of three consecutive periods either next to each other or spaced evenly. The . . .. looks weird. On the first one the focus kind of seems a bit off - I'm certainly no pro when it comes to photography, but having the grapes or cherries or whatever in the foreground and really fuzzy makes my eyes feel awkward. I mean, I'm sure you want the chocolate in focus more, but a little more focus towards the other things might help.
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"Keep on beating and sharpening a sword, and the edge cannot be preserved for long." -Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

[gent]

Hi there, nice to hear you really made it with your Mark II...
First off, what did you use for lighting? The lighting doesn't convince me at all... In products_01-08.jpg it's kinda nice, but in the rest of the shots... it's boring. It lacks bite.
But I think detailed crits will do the best

1: Nice composition. But the shot looks too "dirty". The background shifting between white and yellowish is wierd. If you want a white bg, then get a white bg. If you want a yellow one make sure you don't overexpose it. The light on the candy is strange as it is yellow/green on one side and white on the other side. Try to avoid that. The shot needs either less or more DOF. The way it is, it looks like it got unsharp accidentally. It does not support the eye in it's viewing process.
On a sidenote, I wouldn't shoot it in the packaking.

2: Light is kinda nice in this one, but watch out for that burned out spot at the top. I think the image has too much empty space. Macro lense (or a tube or a filter) would have helped to crop the image in a better way. The black is a bit too heavy, a reflector brightening it might have helped.

3: Bad composition in my eyes. Too centered. The strong horizontal doesn't play well with the format. I think a portrait format turned a bit would have helped. Light is somewhat boring, too, doesn't make the form very interesting.

4: The best one in my eyes, even though it's also very centered it'S a very graphic image. Seems better without the blur (better POV), together with the nice a light (that seems harder than in the other shots)... Still the background is burned out at the top and too dark at the downside. I'd also try to get rid of those reflections (even though that can be a pain in the ass to achieve, I know)

5: This shot is really boring to me. Looks very snapshotty, especially as it's twisted. A closer crop and less DOF would have been nice. Nothing much to say, really.

6: Yeah, that shot got something. I think it lacks contrast, though. It's not the most interesting of all shots, but it's nice.

7: Aww, that's twisted again, watch out for a straight horizon line (i know there's no horizon, but I hope you get me, i can't express what I want to say, sorry, I'm not a native speaker). Again, the light is too bright on the left side, and the bg shouldn't gradiate that much. Look for a more even lighting on it.

8: Well... it's a wallet. It's executed okayish, but that shot just doesn't do anything for me.

Considering all your shots I got to say that you might should look out for more intersting backgrounds, be it some scenery or some more white or black backgrounds or something.

Now I know I sound harsh, but that's cause I think they are promising. But crits are the way to improve after all, not asspats...

[Lunatique]

Thanks for the detailed crits! Very much appreciate it! I've never really done any still life/product type stuff before--I've always been a people shooter. I'm definitely no pro either--just learning the stuff slowly, using homemade props (that don't work very well--I need to go on a shopping trip for better supplies to suit better background). Hell, even my lights are crappy. . ..

I was shooting with a consumer P&S camera for 3 years, and only upgraded to a DSLR this week, so this is all a new experience for me. But sharing the images and getting feedback really helps me to learn. Thanks again!