weekly GarethB's 52 challenge for 2019 - Week 51 & 52 - CHRISTMASSY & OUTTAKES - FINISHED!

[GarethB]

Excellent shot Gareth nice to see someone put some effort into getting the shot they want, top work as always

Thank you Allan for the exceedingly kind comments!

 

[mdpF2]

Thank you most kindly Dave!



Many thanks indeed Dave, I certainly appreciate the positive comment!



Thank you Mark, very kind of you to say!
It was a pretty straightforward setup really.
Here is a pic I quickly put together....

The green gel flash was below the level of the tile and pointing upwards, fairly close to the diffuser.
I tried placing it behind the diffuser at first, but couldn't seem to get a nice gradient, so I went in front and took a chance that no splashes would fall onto it!

Once this was dialled in, it was just a matter of fiddling with the flash settings to get the right balance....and of course chucking many cupfuls of water at the bottle!
It took about 30 or so throws to get a good result.

Many thanks for the explanation, appreciated.

 

[Nostromo]

Drink
Lovely shot, that background is superb, it makes the image work for me (that's not too say the bottle and water aren't great too).

 

[GarethB]

Drink
Lovely shot, that background is superb, it makes the image work for me (that's not too say the bottle and water aren't great too).

Many thanks Dominic, for the kind, positive comments!

 

[Turbo-G]

Very nice shot for ‘drink’, lovely vibrant colours too - I think I’m going to have to copy your setup at some point and give it a try!

 

[FlyPhot]

Drink: what a stunning image, really well done. Another top drawer entry in the bag!

 

[GarethB]

Very nice shot for ‘drink’, lovely vibrant colours too - I think I’m going to have to copy your setup at some point and give it a try!

Thank you Kindly Grant!

...I think I’m going to have to copy your setup...

I'll see you in court!

I'm kidding of course!!
Please do copy away....I'm sure I wasn't the first to come up with the idea....in fact I seem to remember seeing a Heineken ad that looked similar, perhaps I subconsciously copied that!

Drink: what a stunning image, really well done. Another top drawer entry in the bag!

Thanks Jim, for the positive comment, very kind of you to say!

 

[seaodyssey]

Hi Gareth

Yet another excellent Image, Love the green colour, all pin sharp. All I can say is your house must be very wet with all that water being spashed around.

Pete

 

[GarethB]

Hi Gareth

Yet another excellent Image, Love the green colour, all pin sharp. All I can say is your house must be very wet with all that water being spashed around.

Pete

Thank you so much Pete, I certainly appreciate the positive comment!
You make a good point regarding a splashy house....however, I neglected to say that I shot the image outside!
Also I had to wait and shoot between breezes, since the diffuser I was using acted more like a big sail and kept wobbling about annoyingly!

 

[michael23]

That'sa great picture Gareth, lighting looks spot on, well composed and love the colour.

 

[GarethB]

That'sa great picture Gareth, lighting looks spot on, well composed and love the colour.

Thank you most kindly Michael!
I certainly appreciate your looking and commenting.

 

[BobBCN]

FULL and DRINK are brilliant shots, Gareth. You are setting a very high standard throughout this challenge.
I, on the other hand, am falling behind miserably!!

 

[GarethB]

FULL and DRINK are brilliant shots, Gareth. You are setting a very high standard throughout this challenge.
I, on the other hand, am falling behind miserably!!

Thank you very much Bob, for the positive comments!
And don't be so hard on yourself....I've been enjoying looking at your images immensely throughout the entire 52 so far, you have created some amazing and interesting images!
I'm certain that I'm not alone in looking forward to seeing many more from you.

 

[karate-ka]

Great shot Gareth.

 

[Daniel_Paul]

Great shots for Full and Drink Gareth, really well set up, love the lighting in drink and the DoF in Full, great stuff!

 

[GarethB]

Great shot Gareth.

Many thanks for looking and commenting Ian.

Great shots for Full and Drink Gareth, really well set up, love the lighting in drink and the DoF in Full, great stuff!

Thank you kindly Daniel, I certainly appreciate the time taken to look and comment.

 

[GarethB]

Week 27 - Dirty

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Had a bit of a nightmare trying to think of something to fit this weeks theme!
I'm sure my image isn't an original idea, but I am reasonably happy with it nonetheless.
It's my first attempt at a 'proper' mono processed image, and I would welcome and be very grateful for any feedback.
With that said, may I present 'Dirty Hands'

**Edit**
I seem to be having issues with my monitor calibration (brightness) - you shouldn't be able to see my trousers behind my hands (not visible on my main monitor), yet on a tablet they are clearly visible.
I would be very grateful if those who look at this image, could please say whether the trousers are visible....it seems to be only one of my devices that appears too bright, but maybe it's fine and my other screens are too dark.
If it's the latter, I'll have to recalibrate my monitors, since I was aiming for a very contrasty, low key look for this image.


dirty hands 4 by Gareth Bellamy, on Flickr

...as always, thanks for looking folks.

 

[Allan.H]

It’s a nice image well thought out as for what I can see behind the hands not much vaguely aware of something bottom right quarter (on an iPad) but it looks fine to me.

 

[GarethB]

It’s a nice image well thought out as for what I can see behind the hands not much vaguely aware of something bottom right quarter (on an iPad) but it looks fine to me.

Thanks Allan, I very much appreciate you looking and reporting how it looks on a different device.
I think my main monitor is too dark then, since I cannot see any background detail at all....it's all solid black.
Looks like I'll be recalibrating my monitor and tweaking some curves later!

 

[Scots_quine]

Great image Gareth. Love the grainy texture. I can see a ghost to the bottom right of the hands but it just looks like a very inkling of a reflection of the hands.
You definitely seem to be enjoying this challenge and have come up with some cracking images.

 

[Leebert]

Hi Gareth,

Apologies for not dropping by for a while.

Time - A beautiful shot of a beautiful time piece. That blue face is really something else. Excellent as always
Full - Another cracking image. Perfect depth and focal point and a creative hit for the theme.
Drink - WOW!! Simply blown away by that. Stunning
Dirty - Perfect shot for the theme. The skin looks maybe a touch compressed tonally for my but that is only my opinion of course. It certainly portrays dirty very well.

 

[FlyPhot]

Dirty: I really like this image, looks great in mono and conjours lots of thoughts. great job

 

[karate-ka]

Really suits the theme and I can see something behind the hands but I think it adds to the overall effect.

 

[-Oy-]

Nice mucky hands Gareth

 

[michael23]

Hi Gareth, that is a great b+w conversion! Suits it very well indeed. Well composed.

I can see the trousers on the rhs.

 

[GarethB]

Great image Gareth. Love the grainy texture. I can see a ghost to the bottom right of the hands but it just looks like a very inkling of a reflection of the hands.
You definitely seem to be enjoying this challenge and have come up with some cracking images.

Thank you very much Joan, indeed I am definitely enjoying the challenge!
I appreciate the feedback on the darkness of the background too.
Since I couldn't see it on my main monitor, it looks like it needs to be brightened, and then I will probably tweak the image too.

Hi Gareth,

Apologies for not dropping by for a while.

Time - A beautiful shot of a beautiful time piece. That blue face is really something else. Excellent as always
Full - Another cracking image. Perfect depth and focal point and a creative hit for the theme.
Drink - WOW!! Simply blown away by that. Stunning
Dirty - Perfect shot for the theme. The skin looks maybe a touch compressed tonally for my but that is only my opinion of course. It certainly portrays dirty very well.

Thank you most kindly Lee, no need to apologise mate, perfectly understandable.
I wonder if you could clarify what you mean by tonally compressed though. I'm a complete beginner with mono processing, so any help I can get I would greatly appreciate.

Dirty: I really like this image, looks great in mono and conjours lots of thoughts. great job

Thank you very much Jim for looking, I appreciate your positive comment

Really suits the theme and I can see something behind the hands but I think it adds to the overall effect.

Many thanks indeed Ian, very kind of you to say!

Nice mucky hands Gareth

Thank you kindly Dave!
Succinct and to the point as always, most appreciated!

Hi Gareth, that is a great b+w conversion! Suits it very well indeed. Well composed.

I can see the trousers on the rhs.

Thank you very much Michael, I appreciate the feedback and the positive comment.
I wanted the background to be completely, solid black, so having you and other members giving me some feedback will help tremendously, especially with calibrating my monitor a little better - I now know my monitor is too dark, which has resulted in a brighter image.

 

[Fuji Dave]

Dirty is a great shot and well on theme Gareth, goes great as a gritty b&w image and if you have to look then you can just see your trousers but still a great shot.

 

[seaodyssey]

Hi Gareth

Dirty - Nice Image, fits the theme and the B&W processing works well, reminds me of the Images or worker from the 50's where they really used to work and get dirty.
The Trousers are only just visible on my monitor, but I have turned the brightness down so not to burn my retina's out.

Pete

 

[Leebert]

Thank you most kindly Lee, no need to apologise mate, perfectly understandable.
I wonder if you could clarify what you mean by tonally compressed though. I'm a complete beginner with mono processing, so any help I can get I would greatly appreciate.

Hi Gareth,
It means that the whole range of tones from black through to white may not be being fully used. For instance, in Photoshop, black is 0 and white is 255. On my monitor, I feel that the blacks are around 20 and could darken and bit and the white end might be 220 and could be a bit lighter maybe (stretching the image). It is of course my eyes and my monitor (and not my image) so feel free to ignore me I hope that helps

 

[GarethB]

Dirty is a great shot and well on theme Gareth, goes great as a gritty b&w image and if you have to look then you can just see your trousers but still a great shot.

Thank you kindly Dave, for looking and commenting, and also for the valuable feedback on image brightness....I'll be calibrating my monitor this evening....not sure how it happened, but it must be too dark, and I've ended up processing it too light....or something!

Hi Gareth

Dirty - Nice Image, fits the theme and the B&W processing works well, reminds me of the Images or worker from the 50's where they really used to work and get dirty.
The Trousers are only just visible on my monitor, but I have turned the brightness down so not to burn my retina's out.

Pete

Many thanks Pete, for the positive comment.
Thanks too for giving me some much needed feedback (and the link in the other thread) on my monitor.
I think perhaps I might have set mine darker long ago for the same reason as you....right now though, it seems fine, but it's clearly too dark, and has affected how I've processed this image....and others too I suppose!

Hi Gareth,
It means that the whole range of tones from black through to white may not be being fully used. For instance, in Photoshop, black is 0 and white is 255. On my monitor, I feel that the blacks are around 20 and could darken and bit and the white end might be 220 and could be a bit lighter maybe (stretching the image). It is of course my eyes and my monitor (and not my image) so feel free to ignore me I hope that helps

Thanks Lee, that is nice and clear...and very helpful.
I don't know why I've left it so long to delve into the world of b&w!
I really am starting from scratch, but I think I might have been a little zealous with curves.
I also think that my maladjusted monitor hasn't helped....but I hope to fix that tonight.
Thanks again Lee for the guidance.

 

[Leebert]

No problem Gareth. There are plenty of test images on the web to try on your monitor.
Grayscale steps chart

 

[GarethB]

No problem Gareth. There are plenty of test images on the web to try on your monitor.
Grayscale steps chart

Thanks again Lee, that was very useful.

I've carried out a calibration as best I can, and I think I'm reasonably happy with the results.
I still can't get my monitors to be colour matched perfectly, but at least they are both displaying the correct brightness, contrast and gamma etc.
I have also tweaked the image so that it appears as I had first imagined, ie. nothing visible behind my hands.

I'll leave my original image here (above and in the main thread), I thought it best to not change it....felt a bit misleading and cheaty!!


TP-52-2019 wk-27 - Dirty Hands 6 by Gareth Bellamy, on Flickr

I'm much happier with this adjusted image, it's a bit more contrastier and is more or less what I had in mind when I first thought of it.

Thanks again everyone who has kindly given me monitor advice and feedback.

 

[Daniel_Paul]

Fantastic image for Dirty Gareth, really like this one (even with the trousers!!)

 

[GarethB]

Fantastic image for Dirty Gareth, really like this one (even with the trousers!!)

Thanks very much Daniel, both my trousers and myself are very appreciative of the positive comment!

 

[GarethB]

Week 28 - Wide

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Here is my entry for the wide theme.
I've had a bit of a struggle this week, so this is a bit of a 'tick-in-a-box' image this week....and maybe a tiny bit of a shoehorn!
I thought I'd test out some new macro gear I bought however - macro tubes and some flash bracket thingies.
I need some more practise clearly, but it's not too bad so far.

Anyway, without further ado....may I present: 'Not Very Wide At All'.
It is a close-up of a micrometer's width markings, it is a precision instrument for accurately measuring how wide something small is.
You'll see that it is set at the number 5 - that is 5 hundredths of a millimetre - which is not very wide at all!


TP-52-2019 wk 28 - Wide by Gareth Bellamy, on Flickr

...as always, thanks for looking folks.

 

[Fuji Dave]

Shoehorn or not I think it`s a pretty cool shot Gareth, a good macro shot and it ticks the theme box.

 

[michael23]

I wondered what it was! That is a good macro shot Gareth with some nice detail.

 

[GarethB]

Shoehorn or not I think it`s a pretty cool shot Gareth, a good macro shot and it ticks the theme box.

Thank you kindly Dave! I do like to tick those boxes!

I wondered what it was! That is a good macro shot Gareth with some nice detail.

Many thanks Michael, now if someone shoves a micrometer right in your face you'll recognise it straight away!!

 

[Daniel_Paul]

Nice shot for wide Gareth, great take on the theme!!

 

[rpn]

Ignoring the theme, it's an excellent shot as is. Sharp and spot-on focus.