DPChallenge: A Digital Photography Contest You are not logged in. (log in or register) 
 
Challenge Entries
Portfolio Images
This image is not part of a public portfolio.
A-peeling Apples
2nd PlaceA-peeling Apples
lwkimages


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Low Tech (Advanced Editing II*)
Camera: Canon EOS-10D
Location: Tonawanda, NY
Date: Nov 24, 2004
Aperture: f/11.0
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/125
Galleries: Still Life, Food and Drink
Date Uploaded: Nov 24, 2004

 This is an old-fashioned apple peeler, that my wife's relatives had in the family for generations. This one goes back at least to 1900.

I photographed this in a studio setting, with two Alien Bee monolights and a makeshift wall I built this summer for a background. The wooden surface is the cutting board I pulled from our kitchen cupboards and set on a stool.

The apple peeler is clamped onto the cutting board. I had to work fairly quickly, since apples tend to turn yellow/brown quite soon. In fact I ended up using PS to clone out a couple of distracting brown spots, as well as two bright highlights on the background apples.

As for lighting: I aimed my B800 almost overhead, about 4 feet away, at between 1/8 and 1/4 power. The B400 was used as fill, from about 3 feet away, at the camera position, - with the same power setting as the B800. The lens used was the Canon 50mm f/1.8

USM, selective desat via a selection layer, and curves and levels were applied.

Thanks for looking, commenting and/or voting.

Statistics
Place: 2 out of 177
Avg (all users): 6.5230
Avg (commenters): 6.9375
Avg (participants): 6.5050
Avg (non-participants): 6.5479
Views since voting: 5156
Views during voting: 256
Votes: 174
Comments: 33
Favorites: 7 (view)

Please log in or register to add your comments!

AuthorThread
 12/08/2004 04:07:41 PM
Congratulations this was one of my favorites!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/08/2004 07:25:19 AM
Congrats!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/07/2004 04:36:06 PM
Hey Len, congrats on your ribbon! Well deserved for a great photo.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/07/2004 04:28:30 PM
Congrats on your first (of many, I'm sure) ribbons! I was quite surprised that you qualified for this challenge, given the quality of your work!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/07/2004 12:13:58 PM
A well deserved ribbon in any challenge! Beautifully done! Congratulations!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/07/2004 11:55:06 AM
Hey Len: my warm congratulations on your red with this wonderful presentation. Very good work in general.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/07/2004 08:29:03 AM
brushing the apple 'meat' with lemon juice keeps it from turning brown. Or soaking them in the juice...one or the other.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/07/2004 04:45:18 AM
Thanks to all who commented during and after the challenge. I sincerely appreciate it. I was beginning to think that I would very likely never win a ribbon. Then, when the admins excluded from this challenge the likes of heida, kiwiness, jmsetzler, bradp, and others too numerous to list, I thought "Wow, at last... Maybe now I have a chance!"

Anyway, I didn't see an asterisk on my ribbon... ;-)

Thanks again!!

-len
 12/07/2004 04:09:42 AM
Congrats on that first ribbon.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/07/2004 02:42:10 AM
Congratulations Len

A great photo of a perfect subject.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/07/2004 02:36:08 AM
Well deserved, congratulations!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/07/2004 12:33:52 AM
A well deserved ribbon with this very effective and appealing shot (no pun intended!). Congratulations.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/06/2004 09:28:39 PM
Well done Len, that long overdue ribbon is yours at last :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/06/2004 08:43:01 PM
Finally, you got one! Congratulations!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/06/2004 08:22:22 PM
Congrats on your first ribbon Len. Many more to come I'm sure...

Beautiful shot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/06/2004 07:10:45 PM
Yeah! Congratulations!!!!!!!

Deannda
Excellent shot!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/06/2004 07:05:02 PM
Congratulations on your first ribbon. This was my top pick.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
12/05/2004 04:31:58 PM
Nice, very nice. Although... I haven't seen Ronco come up with a device that does what this does!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2004 09:57:57 AM
Well framed nice color and an obviously low tech answer to food processing. The angle adds a lot to the interest level as does the handle position and the plaster wall's stark bleach color. Only obvious thing I see that could improve this might be the punch of a contrast boost from the unsharp mask (%:20, rad: 50-100, levels:0). Perhaps too the back apple is not red enough for the rest of the shot. Great image.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2004 07:39:59 AM
Great subject, excellent composition, good use of color and lighting. Overall, a very strong shot that I hope does well. I especially like the fact that you presented your subject actually in use - the long peel with all the curlicues adds tons of visual interest!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/04/2004 06:45:43 PM
The bright background is a distraction. The peeled apple looks very good in the lighting provided, though, and I like the placement of the other apples in the scene. The cutting marks on the wood in the foreground sort of cheapen the effort you went through to set this up. A 75% crop beginning in the left center of the image and just getting the tool handle would have improved this. It's still a nice effort. 6.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/03/2004 10:07:55 PM
good work, nice piece
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/02/2004 05:51:27 PM
I really like this shot, good depth of field, it fits the theme well, but I wish the background wasn't so light, it seems to fade to almost solid white at the left side, losing all texture
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/01/2004 01:56:51 PM
Great shot. Nice composition and color, and fits challenge perfectly. 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/01/2004 04:19:44 AM
this captures the challenge very well. 7
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/30/2004 03:08:38 PM
Beautiful composition and perfect detail. I ilke the texture showing on the wall; kind of refreshing after so many clean, stark, perfectly white backgrounds.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/30/2004 02:42:59 PM
I really like this. Nice color, I like the old peeler.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/30/2004 09:43:45 AM
nice color
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/30/2004 07:43:05 AM
You don't see many of them! I think a tighter crop with acute lighting on the cogs could have improved this.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/30/2004 07:25:41 AM
Nice still. Like the colors, detail of the peeler, and composition. Good luck...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/30/2004 02:15:25 AM
lovely crips shot, I adore the low tech equipment nice!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/29/2004 09:10:53 PM
Although the lighting is great, I just don't think it fits the image. I would have preffered to see a dramatic lighting technique with this subject, such as painting with light...and a black background would be better, but thats just my taste :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/29/2004 09:06:42 PM
Excellent phothis is the type of image that is definitely low tech. The apples and the peel are great.
  Photographer found comment helpful.


Home - Challenges - Community - League - Photos - Cameras - Lenses - Learn - Help - Terms of Use - Privacy - Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2025 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 04/06/2025 01:58:28 AM EDT.