First Post! Memento Mori style still lives

[michaelelliottphotog]

Hi there,

So I just joined today as I hadn't found this site til now. Briefly I'm a film photographer based in London, passionate amateur. Trying to get some critique on an area that I'm not really well versed in which is stage lit still life photography.

I created the following images in the Memento Mori style:

I was wondering if I could get a bit of constructive criticism.

To go in more depth on the setup:
- Black felt pinned on the wall
- Wooden dining table
- 2x 14000lm (at 30cm) LED light panels
-- placed right front in the first image, left front and right centre in the second and right front in the third image
- shot using Kiev 60 with Zeiss Bm 120:2.8 at roughly f:4-5.6, 1/30s - 1/60s shutter
- film was Agfapan APX 25 at EI 25
- developed in Jay DeFehr's Master's Metol formula, 1:50 + 1:100 + 20g NaCl for 8.5 minutes, 15s initial agitation then stand.
- scanned on Epson v850 with Silverfast Ai Studio 9

I know on the first image the jaw is slightly gammy. And I could do with taming the highlights a bit as they bring out the fact the skull is not actually real (probably a bit of my wife's foundation to matte the surface a bit would help).

Are there any other ideas to improve these? Again - this is something that is entirely new to me and I'm really enjoying the process of thinking about the setup of the objects, the lighting, the camera positioning and so on.

Hopefully a good enough first post you can see more on my website: michael-elliott.photography

Cheers, Mike

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Welcome to Photrio!

 

[michaelelliottphotog]

Welcome to Photrio!

Thank you Andrew! Looking forward to being able to contribute to the forum more!

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Welcome to the group! I like your work generally. My suggestion would first be to pay attention to contrast - you're losing some highlight and shadow detail to contrast. This is of course a subject matter that lends itself to dark tones, so the shadows don't bother me so much, but on the skull in several of the shots you do have blown-out highlights. Hard to say without seeing your prints as to whether this is from the process of scanning and then JPEG compression to post online or if you do have blown highlights. If the latter, that's a simple matter to fix with a bit of judicious burning and/or lowering the overall contrast a touch to bring the highlights down and then going back in with a grade 5 filter to punch the shadows back up.

I'd also like to see the wine glass separated from the background a little more. And lighten up the left side of the first image a bit- you're losing everything to the shadows. Strong shadows are fine, but you've just got too much of them.

 

[faberryman]

You might want to read up on the symbolism of objects in a still life to make sure they work together to express the statement you intend to make with your photograph.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Welcome to APUG Photrio!!​

 

[Rolleiflexible]

I think of still life as the dressage of photography. Every deviation from perfection is a strike against you. Here, consider how you might improve your lighting. In addition to the contrast issues you already note, you should try to avoid the reflections and catchlights in the glass and bottle (diffusion is your friend) and think about the overall distribution of light in the frame.

 

[warden]

Hi there,

So I just joined today as I hadn't found this site til now. Briefly I'm a film photographer based in London, passionate amateur. Trying to get some critique on an area that I'm not really well versed in which is stage lit still life photography.

I created the following images in the Memento Mori style:

View attachment 340241

View attachment 340242

View attachment 340243

I was wondering if I could get a bit of constructive criticism.

To go in more depth on the setup:
- Black felt pinned on the wall
- Wooden dining table
- 2x 14000lm (at 30cm) LED light panels
-- placed right front in the first image, left front and right centre in the second and right front in the third image
- shot using Kiev 60 with Zeiss Bm 120:2.8 at roughly f:4-5.6, 1/30s - 1/60s shutter
- film was Agfapan APX 25 at EI 25
- developed in Jay DeFehr's Master's Metol formula, 1:50 + 1:100 + 20g NaCl for 8.5 minutes, 15s initial agitation then stand.
- scanned on Epson v850 with Silverfast Ai Studio 9

I know on the first image the jaw is slightly gammy. And I could do with taming the highlights a bit as they bring out the fact the skull is not actually real (probably a bit of my wife's foundation to matte the surface a bit would help).

Are there any other ideas to improve these? Again - this is something that is entirely new to me and I'm really enjoying the process of thinking about the setup of the objects, the lighting, the camera positioning and so on.

Hopefully a good enough first post you can see more on my website: michael-elliott.photography

Cheers, Mike

Welcome! Glad to have you here.

 

[michaelelliottphotog]

Thank you all for the warm welcome and the comments so far! Definitely have a way to go to improve but these tips are all helping!