Tea's Ready!

[JoeU]

Not sure if this should go here or in the Processed Photos forum. This is processed (converted to B&W and grain added) but everything in the Processed Photos forum seems to be HDR so I put it here in Other.



I decided to attempt a 365 project this year, and this is my photo for January 19th. Most of my shots so far seem to be of ordinary, otherwise uninteresting household objects, and I'm surprised to find that those are by far my favorites of the project. I really like this one, but it was my first real attempt at B&W so I'd like to hear what someone else thinks of it. I don't think I got the contrast quite right. Fire away!

Camera: Nikon D3000
Aperture: f/6.3
Shutter Speed: 5 seconds
ISO: 100
Focal length: 30mm
Matrix Metering
Flash: Rear-curtain sync
Exposure mode: Manual

[chicagojohn]

Originally Posted by JoeU

Camera: Nikon D3000, Aperture: f/6.3, Shutter Speed: 5 seconds, ISO: 100, Focal length: 30mm, Matrix Metering, Flash: Rear-curtain sync, Exposure mode: Manual

First, I really like your concept; it conveys the essence of a rapidly boiling tea kettle with the billowing steam and the water droplet forming on the bottom of the spout. To my eye, the composition is energetic and attention grabbing.

I looked at the histogram in PSE, and as expected, it is pretty much a J curve jammed up against the left side. But I think the dynamic range is key to the image's power. On the right, there do appear to be some blown out highlights in the steam but so what.

If I were post-processing this image, though, I think I would remove the out of focus top of the tea kettle and the "orb" in the upper right, which could be a lens artifact, and the highlights of what might be another cooking implement that show up just below the steam. Those three areas tend to distract from the subject, I think, and would be easy to eliminate.

I am curious as to the intensity of the speed light you used. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that you used the strobe to capture the steam and the long, six-second exposure to capture ambient light such as the specular window highlights on the sides of the kettle?

I think B&W is ideal for this subject in the way you did it.

Thanks for sharing it.