Photographing Tea

[tenuki]

Here are some of my own pictures for you all to analyze compositionally. They all have problems, some of them obvious and others not so. Have fun!!

[edit - my own criticism added]

Quick statement of purpose:

I am striving in all of these photos to tie the teaware into it's function. I want the viewer to imagine sitting on the couch and reaching for the kyuusu, or fantasize about the pot riding on the bowl creatures back through amber tea clouds. Each of these compositions aim is that, not displaying the teaware ala studio photography. They are very much 'snapshots' in that regard.


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There are too many lines here, the tea service is constrained by the box of line around it so it appears isolated. Not my intent. I think removing pairing down the context would be useful. Also the book should probably be angled, it reinforces the edge of the tea tray too much.


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Maybe a crop with the handle right at the thirds point saying 'grab me'? hmnn. getting there, probably would need to recompose to fix.


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I like this, it invites you to sit on the couch and have some tea. However, the foreground is horrible, all those angles and lines shooting all over the place. A crop may improve, you decide.




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Horrible. The idea is so obvious, the execution so bad. lol. The problems begin with the ball on the top merging with the stones. The stones are supposed you lead you into the pot, but not that directly. lol. Also the four interecting lines on the left side are so distracting and horrible. I do think the light/dark balance is right except for the meaningless splash of red on the left. Here is a quick and dirty photoshop of it to correct those compositional flaws and probably introduce a host of others.




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I actually don't know on this one. It's close to what I had imagined, but not all the way there and I don't know why. Help.

And now back to your regularily schedule programming, sorry for the flood I just get excited about stuff.

[silverneedles]

"This is the best shot of the bunch compositionally IMO. It show lead room, rule of thirds, has an exciting diagnal lead in and the two foci play off each other perfectly. Notice the horizontal line that ties the two focus points together, it's a bridge that leads your eye between them. also the falling left to right diag is accentuated by the wood grain and the edge of the log. "

i'm sure Space will enjoy our criticism when he comes back

IMO i dont like the composition at all. IMHO the finger bug has the best composition & artistique of the posted pics.

flying thing critique (imho, not a photographer by trade):
its blurry
has same color as the big rock/wood which confuses the subject even more
cant make out details = loss of interest
too much contrast +/- overexposed
oversharpened
oversaturated
distorted/distracting bokeh

a shot of the shadow on the rock as a background would have been what popped in my brain...

[tenuki]

i'm sure Space will enjoy our criticism when he comes back

Well, it's rare to find a SpaceSamari photo with compositional problems - you have to shoot the puck when the net is open.

I agree with you on the finger/bug pic, I'm not not anal about detail so I like the chopper/dragon best but all your criticism are valid.

[silverneedles]

i like the last 2 shots

the penultimate can use a simpler background/no pebbles/outoffocus(but u have the p&S) & darker so that you can focus just on the subject which (i suppose) is the kyusu,
i dig the light,
if background was darker/continued with the one under it- you wouldve had just highlights on the kyusu which wouldve been "sexy" (in my minds eye )
(stickers are still on it tho )

(crude photoshopping, blur is not representative of real lens blur, ...going to sleep now)
(didnt mean to edit your pic without permission, please dont sue me, im poor)

last one i like too, v nice colors, (?brightened afterwards-which intensified the color noise?), and moved subject or rotated camera so that the pot is more towards a corner.[/img]

[Salsero]

Here are some thoughts about these pictures compositionally

Tenuki, I swear if you start critiquing my TeaDay photos, I will run into the girls' room in tears and never, ever come out!




I don't even have Space's excuse that the damn things are flying around two inches from the business end of the lens. I have complete control over the elements of my photos, so every compositional flaw is 100% my own, and I just can't leave well enough alone. If I were a girl, I'd be playing with Barbie dolls. My whole family thinks I am bonkers for setting up these little photoshoots starring teaware. "Hello there! I am Mr. Gaiwan. I come from China." There is talk of shipping me off to the Old Folks Home ... or at the very least The Booby Hatch.

Seriously, Trent and a couple others have given me some nice technical feedback (=scarring criticism!!) on some of my own stuff, and I really appreciate it. I'm glad to see you actually explaining some of these issues in the forum, Ten. We do get a little caught up in the cool equipment at the expense of the perfect image sometimes.

But what we are calling point and shoot cameras are nothing like the point and shoots of 20 years ago. My darling Canon A520 is mad sophisticated. When I got it I was flabbergasted at what all it could do. It was light years ahead of my old Canon Rebel film camera, which was light years ahead of my FTb, which was better than my TLb. Color temp control and AUTO color temp, fill flash, manual exposure, flash override. These P & S's are little and they aren't very expensive, but they can do A LOT very well. Not everything, but a lot.

A DSLR, however, is a great (and expensive and time consuming) toy that opens the door for stuff like multiple strobes and RAW files. Oh, and a DSLR controls all that jpeg noise so much better. A tripod, for sure, if you're doing tea photos.

Frankly, for me the picture doesn't happen until I get it into Photoshop. I would never dream of showing someone a photo that I hadn't had my way with first in Photoshop. I have taken maybe 5,000 or 6,000 photos over the last couple years and not a single one has been ready to show without something happening in Photoshop first. Usually, a LOT happens.

[Space Samurai]

I'm learning some interesting stuff here. I know jack about composition. If I ever produced a photo with good composition, it was an accident, I assure you.

Please keep the criticism coming.

Tenuki has uncovered a serious flaw I have. I get a little OCD and start centering all my photos, for example:

[Salsero]

Silver, I really like your Photoshopped version of Ten's pic, but I really miss his signature Go game in the background. That's me all over the place. I just can't leave things OUT. MOAR!

[Salsero]

I'm learning some interesting stuff here. I know jack about composition. If I ever produced a photo with good composition, it was an accident, I assure you.

Sorry, Space, I have been studying composition under you for over a year now, and I'm still just starting to get it. We're not buying your story. You are the Samurai of Composition.

[Space Samurai]

wow, I've never played around with photo shop before, I'm amazed by how much you can do.

[Geekgirl]

Composition is something I've really been studying. I'm no artist, never have been. I've always been more of a techie/gearhead. It freaks me out a little to do crazy stuff like this:



Look at that, off-center AND part of the flower is out of frame. OTOH, check the DOF and the bokeh. yummy! and yet... I think it could have been better, I just don't know what that "better" should look like. (BTW, that is straight out the camera. I don't usually do much editing, except for white balance or exposure problems.)

There's a shooter on Flickr that I LOVE his work. Every photo is cropped square, but his composition is stunning. See here. If I could "get it," even 1/2 of what he is doing, I'd consider myself an artist.

[Salsero]

There's a shooter on Flickr that I LOVE his work. Every photo is cropped square, but his composition is stunning.

It's guys like this that make me embarrassed when the teamoms tell me how nice my pix are. If they only knew! (ssshhhh, don't tell them! I eat it up.)

[Beidao]

Ok, so this might be the silliest question ever, but I wonder which way is the best to get an url for your pictures. I want tea-total copyright! And not to much extra work. Help is appreciated! I can't invade you with my shameful pictures until I get this thing to work

[brandon]

Great stuff as usual, Space. I have also been impressed by the consistent quality of pics from GeekGirl.

I would also start with tenuki's third pic, but before I starting making the bokeh more intense (I would do this from the original, but probably much less than the edit), I would increase the light on the subject only by trying to aim a flash with a snoot at it, while leaving the rest of the room dark and moody. Maybe some cool fall off onto the go board.

As far as gear goes, I am pretty surprised to see the DOF and speed coming from Space's kit lens. The Rebel XT kit lens in my possession is hardly up to this task - for speed and DOF I have a 50mm fixed f/1.8 lens that is worth having for macro/portraits and can be had for well under $100.

[LavenderPekoe]

I only have one thing to say about "your camera doesn't matter" I am not a photographer, and I have a crappy something or other, I can't even remember right now. Anyway, I can't get a picture of my cat to save my life because she keeps moving and the camera is too darn slow. In that case, it does matter. I need something faster.

[tenuki]

I would also start with tenuki's third pic, but before I starting making the bokeh more intense (I would do this from the original, but probably much less than the edit), I would increase the light on the subject only by trying to aim a flash with a snoot at it, while leaving the rest of the room dark and moody. Maybe some cool fall off onto the go board.

Why? What compositional problem are you trying to solve?