Bronze Star

[cranraspberry]

My boyfriend's Bronze Star medal, resting on some Afghanis.
One thing I'm worried about is that I didn't take the time to carefully position the medal on the background, and initially the medal was slightly crooked, but then I rotated and cropped the picture to make the medal more or less straight, but now I have a crooked background.
I would love some feedback on this, and any other critique.


Bronze Star by cranraspberry, on Flickr

Camera Nikon D90
Exposure 1/80
Aperture f/8.0
Focal Length 85 mm
Focal Length 84.8 mm
ISO Speed 200
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash On, Return not detected

[Hill Country Hack]

Many thanks to your boyfriend for his service.

I cannot give much feedback on macro photography. I personally feel if there were equal distance from top and bottom of frame in soft focus due to small DOFto bring out the star part of the medal.

[cranraspberry]

Thanks for your input! It was initially less tightly cropped, but I lost some space when straightening and cropping the picture... I guess I'll just have to retake it, and be more careful with getting everything straight.

[Hill Country Hack]

Originally Posted by cranraspberry

Thanks for your input! It was initially less tightly cropped, but I lost some space when straightening and cropping the picture... I guess I'll just have to retake it, and be more careful with getting everything straight.

Copy That! The great thing about digital is it is cheap to re-shoot.

[Doug Sundseth]

I like the idea behind this photo. I think you can make something interesting if you do a bit of exploring.

But, FWIW, I think you would be better to have the money not be straight. Fan it, or scatter it, or arrange it in some interesting way. Square shots with straight lines are great for making copies. Not so much for making art.

And please pass along my thanks to your boyfriend for his service and sacrifice.

[cranraspberry]

Thanks Doug,

I started out with the bills fanned, but in my opinion the background ended up being too colorful/distracting. So then I switched to using the least colorful bill as the backdrop. Here's the only one that didn't end up in my trashcan, just as an example - without any PP whatsoever.


DSC_2332 by cranraspberry, on Flickr

The more I look at it, the more I realize that the lighting is wrong. It's too flat, which doesn't bring out the actual star as much as I would've liked. But I'm still such a novice when it comes to lighting, so I have no idea how to fix that. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Oh, and to both posters - thank you for your thank you. It means a lot to us.

[Doug Sundseth]

I'd recommend bringing your primary light in from the side rather than from in front or using a pure diffuse light. I'd start with it around 45 degrees above the table and moderately hard, then move it around a bit to see what looks best. The relief in the medal is a bit low, so you might need to go lower to get nice shadows.

If the shadows start to get too deep but you otherwise like the revealed shapes, add a less-bright light from the other side to fill in the shadows a bit.

If you're still having problems getting a good contrast, you might want to pick a bill that has a color that is more complementary to the orange of the medal. Even though the ink on the top bill is green, the bill as a whole reads as beige (light orange) as well, so the low contrast is in part a result of that.

HTH

[cranraspberry]

Thanks Doug!

What a great forum this is, so much helpful, non-snarky advice.

I actually did have two light sources at about 45 degree angles to the subject - the sun coming through the window blocked with some white paper to the right and an off-camera flash to the left. I guess my mistake was that both lighting sources had pretty much the same intensity and I ended up without any shadows at all, and thus a flat image.
Well, to my defense I've only had the speedlight for a week, haha! Hopefully time, patience and a mix of theory and practice will help. Although it does get overwhelming at times.

And thanks for your advice on the colors, that's also very helpful. What I love about the critique section is that you really start paying attention to stuff that you would not have noticed otherwise.

[DanaLane]

Personally, I like the image with the fanned out bills as a background better than the first image. I'd probably pick a bill that wasn't quite so red for the third one down so it didn't compete with the star as much, but I think this is a more dynamic composition.

I'd with with a single light, from one side. The shadow will help bring out the detail and give the medal some depth as well.

Looking forward to seeing how you do this again.

[stephenph]

Perhaps also have something that better indicates that it is Afgan Money, since that is where he got his medal.

And I thank him for his service, That is a tough area to be serving in.