In my house there is a beautiful watercolor painting of eggs in a colander. I have been trying to recreate it as a photograph. This is my second attempt. Although, I think it is better it is still not quite right. Your comments and suggestion are greatly appreciated.
I too agree with avoiding grain from the egg and with the impossible need to transform a shot in a painting. Having said that, however I must add also that colors here are at least needed and no b/w. Also useful may be adding a lateral light to increase perspective in the colander.
This is just my personal opinion, but I think you should lose the grain in the eggs. Unless you're going for a severe Impressionism, I find there's nothing "painterly" about that grain. Of course, there are a lot of PhotoShop filters you can use to turn a photo into something resembling a painting, but if you want to do this the "natural" way, then I think one way of getting a closer approximation to the painting is to brighten your background and/or flood it with more light. The photo is more shadowy and moody than the painting. :-)
Nice idea indeed, I like the grain effect and the way you framed the objects, but the photo needs more contrast in my opinion, there are only greys, no black and no white and the image appears a bit flat, increasing the contrast you give more depth and a great visual impact, showing up lights and shadows. Of course this is only my personal taste :) Bye Max
I think you're on the right track, especially with the selective application of filters. But you're tackling a tough subject. I would recommend replacing the metal colander with a ceramic bowl. Because of it's polished, reflective surface, stainless steel is a difficult subject to photograph.
Reshoot, rescan (or better yet, if you can, borrow a friend's digital camera). Then proceed pretty much along the same lines. Try appying grain to the eggs and pehaps one of the Artistic filters such as watercolor or palette knife to the bowl. Experiment with all the different settings. Once you get a "look" you like, apply the filter and then experiment will all the different "Fade Filter" settings. Don't overlook the blend modes such as overlay and hard light -- and look at the blend modes at different opacity settings -- some of them produce startlingly different results depending on the degree of opacity.
Good luck, have fun, and thanks for your touching comment. I was very moved. --Jim
This is much better than your first egg photo, which incidentally actually looks more like the painting than this one does. The painting owes some of its appeal to the very fact that it is painted - that someone has actually hand-made the entire image. Even if the painter had taken an exact photo of the actual scene at the time, it would not be as pleasing to view as the painting itself. It's like the brain sub-consciously awards points for effort!
(As a caveat, analysing a scan of a neg - particularly B&W, is inexact). While this is a technically competent photo on many levels, unlike the painting it doesn't have quite the emotional appeal to make one want to put it up on the wall (mine anyway). It's like a pleasing photo from a good cookbook, but perhaps still a bit clinical for displayed artwork, where one wants to see more "interpretation" or a different perspective - especially if the subject is from everyday life.
The first thing I would change is the contrast which seems quite flat, even a quick levels check made a world of difference. The way the scanner uses its hardware channels with B&W can affect this quite a bit, so you often have to compensate, particularly balancing against green luminance. Perhaps blend in a deliberate toning as well, I mixed in a very slight blue (12%) and it added some interest. I think the definition of some of the reflections of the lights should be softened as it looks like you can almost make out their shape. (diffuser). Maybe try it with window light, sitting on a white tablecloth rather than a hard surface. Also have a play with some other perspectives, maybe a bit lower, closer. The handle detail near the right hand edge of frame is a bit distracting.
I do like the isolated grain effect on the eggs (while retaining the clarity of the metal surface; and again, adding interest), even though the eye eventually picks up on the fact this differential is a little unreal. Anyway I think this is a good photo, but if your intent is to recreate the "feel" of a painted scene, I think there is a little too much stark realism here that needs to be softened.
Hi Lexie. I'm not sure wht you were really going for... I think a snapshot of the painting you are trying to re-create might help us a little... Looking at this I would say that you might want to look at the painting and try to guess where the artist had lights... Also, the scan here looks a little flat. I suspect this is just the scanner though, and not the actual shot.
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{K:-53658} 9/30/2003
