The Oneby
jperez1690Comment by jperez1690: Thank you all for your thoughtful comments.
As I've gone through all the images in the contest, I keep coming back to the fact that the ring doesn't look as smooth and shiny as I would like it to. I think a lot of that has to do with the cluttered background it is reflecting. I spent so much time worrying about light sources and backdrop, that I forgot about what was behind the camera. Lessons learned.
If anyone is interested, I've got a couple photographs of the setup (with my film camera in place of the digital camera, and a glove in place of my hand for the shadow).
Labeled setup
Lighting setup
I realized that the 'catch' of the image probably wouldn't make sense to anyone not familiar with Tolkien's books. And that's okay with me. I really had fun coming up with the idea, and executing it. (By the way, the ring belongs to my wife--she won it in a local radio contest 3 years ago during the LOTR frenzy.) There are definitely some technical aspects that could have used some polishing.
sche2964: Thank you for your specific input. It's well taken. I had considered a brighter chain, but in the end, I wanted it to appear dark and heavy, the way a ring-bearer might perceive it...still, visually, it probably would have been more striking.
LadeeM: You're absolutely right about the focus. The 15 sec. exposure with kids running up and down the hall, and cluttered background reflections really hurt me there. It's definitely given me some food for thought in how to overcome that in the future.
Digital Quixote: That's an interesting point about the thumbnail. I vote on the images randomly as the server feeds them my way, so I hadn't considered that point. What to do? ;)
Sonda: Thanks for the comment on the background. I was sort of going for a rocky cave wall (since the ring repeatedly traveled through caverened regions), with the ring exposed for the taking. I must concede that it was usually around Bilbo's or Frodo's necks and would never have been dangled around like that. :)
Snackwells and BradP: Thanks for the suggestion about desaturating the colored catchlights on the chain. I think I didn't mind it at first, because I felt it gave some reason for drawing the red into another portion of the image besides the ring. But those catchlights are so harsh, that the color does seem distracting.
BradP and glad2badad: Oy. Yeah, I'm not happy with the red border either :-/ I know that running out of time is a crummy excuse...so uh...let's pretend I didn't just try to use that as an excuse ;) I think just leaving it black would have been a better call.
DustDevil: I would loved to have seen your concept. If you ever do that, send me a PM and a link!
srbrubaker: I agree with you about the background color. During post-processing, I tried to change the background color to something that worked better with the colors in the ring, but everything failed miserably. I needed to control that while making the shot.
Isabeau: That's the kind of nerdiness I was shooting for :) Thanks for the comment on the shade of red. I think your right, giving it more of a yellow component would give it a more fiery appearance.
auburnfan0930: Thanks. I like your observation of "I can't decide if it is clawing in passion or stealing it."
graphicfunk: Are you referring to the pinkishness of the red? I agree that it could use a warmer shade. Although I couldn't get rid of the red and still capture the allusion to the Lord of the Rings imagery. Thank you for the comment!
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