Christmas ornaments

Hi everyone,

I'm practicing with my xsi. This is actually my second attempt. I tried one series and my friend was nice enough to tell what what I was doing wrong. Hopefully these are better. Tell me what you think. Feel free to be brutal, I have tough skin and want to learn.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

Yep, those are ornaments. And? That looks like an ornament, and that's great, but what makes it interesting? The trouble is that it's shot so tight that there is no other context, you're just taking a picture of the ornament itself, and there is probably a tree in the background. You're not drawing interest to the subject, you're just shoving it at us. It's like the difference between showing us an interesting picture and just holding an ornament up to our face and going "look, it's an ornament".

If there were some way to get rid of those naked bulbs, I could get interested, but they keep jarring my retina.

rule of thirds

I'm not sure this came across well in my first response, but I was trying to say aside from the framing, it's too straight on. It's literally like having an ornament held right up at your face.

griptape wrote in post #9250453
I'm not sure this came across well in my first response, but I was trying to say aside from the framing, it's too straight on. It's literally like having an ornament held right up at your face.

Yeah i would back up a little too. its way too close.

This was one of my first attempts with my new Canon R5. I know the focus is a bit off. I'm still learning how to adjust the focus grid.

My thought is to show an ornament close on a simple background, then show them how they would look on the tree. A bit further back from your initial images to see how they look for scale when placed on a branch. The key subject should be easy to visually spot. Bright highlights and lots of details around the subject will draw the eye away.

This is something I did years back for a local crafter for the winter season.