school assignment, product photo

[donniecs]

I'm taking a digital photography class at school, basically an introduction to Adobe Photoshop for all skill levels of photographers. Our first assignment was to do either a fashion or product style shot. I had some experience with photography a long time ago and am just trying to get back into it.

I tired to shoot one of my Nalgene water bottles after unpacking from a climbing trip. I thought it would be an interesting subject because of the bright color. I also thought that outdoor gear would make a good background and tie everything together since it all has an outdoors theme. I tried to achieve a narrow depth of field the best as I could to try and emphasize the water bottle. After I submitted the photograph the purple chalk bag on the left started to bug me, being the same distance away as the main subject it also reminded in focus and was the second largest object in the shoot. I wish that I would of handled that different or seen it before hand. This is my first photograph posted on this site.



camera: Canon 7D
lens: Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM
focal length: 50.0mm
aperture: f/4.0
shutter speed: 1/4 second
ISO: 200
exposure: -1
flash: none
subject distance: 0.9 meters

[windrider86]

It migt have more of an impact if the bottle were more at an angle. As it is its presence is only on the one side of the image. I see the bag is next to it but the bottle is so bright that it draws your eye straight to it.
Use the rule of thirds to do your cropping. Too much space at the top and too little on the sides.
Dof is very good, I like the blur in the background

[suprspi]

I like the DOF, but you're right, the purple bag is somewhat distracting. It does lend credence and place and context though, so it's not really a bad thing - If it was a product shot though, it would lead to viewer confusion. If I re-shot it I would position the bag forward or back from the bottle to reduce focus on it, but leave it essentially where it is, I like how it balances the frame.

The highlights on the water bottle seem a little bright to me, also on the backpack directly above the bottle. I find it hard to look directly at the writing on the bottle and that distracts from the main point. If that area could be selectively underexposed about 1 - 1.5 stops I think that the glare would balance out and highlight instead of distracting - it does lay right over the main subject and draw attention.

I like the subject and the thought behind it. It certainly works, I've seen quite a few shots very similar to it in my rock climbing magazines.

I think the space up top may be important, if one were going to use this as an advertisement layout, for space to put text w/o covering up the main subject.

Don't take this as a negative critique - I think it's actually quite a good shot, especially for someone just getting back into photography.

[donniecs]

If I had to do it over again I defiantly wouldn't have cropped as much out so that more of the surrounding scene would have been left in the image. I would have relocated the purple bag a bit further back and tried the bottle (main subject) in a few different positions. I probably should have experimented with some exposure adjustments in certain areas during the post production also. Thanks for the input!