# New shot from tonight



## SMG (Jan 28, 2007)

Playing around in Photoshop and this is what I came up with. The ding in the cap was healed, but when I erased the background it came back. 

I think the cap could stand to be sharpened more, but let me know what you think. I know that the case is cropped out, but to me it seemed to flow better with the image as is. If I left the whole pen case in there was too much black in the lower left corner. 







Cheers, 
SG


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## WTF? (Jan 28, 2007)

looks pretty nice to me, i probably would have placed the pen differently but still, great shot!


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## fmw (Jan 29, 2007)

Two comments. First, the subject is not sharp. If you are going to have the dent in the cap in focus, you need to have the end of the barrel in focus as well. It might be an issue of dof or it might just be out of focus a little. The second issue is black on black. It's pretty hard to separate a black subject from a black background. The pen barrel looks like it is melding with the background.

You can comment on my version. You will see here that the pen is all sharp and that the black background is lighter than yours with reduced contrast. it is still hard to separate a black subject from a black background but mine separates them at least a little better.


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## fmw (Jan 29, 2007)

Or, if you want the moody dark look instead of definition between subject and background, here's mine but with the pen still sharp from top to bottom.


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## shingfan (Jan 29, 2007)

Fred....just out of curiousity...where do you get all these items?...it seems to me that you have a lot of products handy to manipulate other's shots....so cool...i wish i have a gadget library like yours


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## SMG (Jan 29, 2007)

Fred, thanks for the examples. I was going for the defocused case with a sharp pen. I was also going for the moody dark version, but I used a too dark version of the pen for the shot. 

I used a couple of layers in Photoshop, first time I have ever tried this, and gaussian blurred the background. I then erased it from the whole pen, but there was not enough contrast to discern the pen very well. 

I will probably try this with a higher key version of the pen on the same background and see how it turns out. I will probably have to use a softer brush or less transparency when I erase the soft focus overlay. 

I do like your second version better, almost exactly what I was going for, but with a defocused case to highlight the pen more. 

I do need to build up my cache of props though. I also need to get a black acrylic and white acrylic for nice shiny backgrounds that I can harden or soften with lighting. 

Cheers, 
SG


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## fmw (Jan 29, 2007)

shingfan said:


> Fred....just out of curiousity...where do you get all these items?...it seems to me that you have a lot of products handy to manipulate other's shots....so cool...i wish i have a gadget library like yours


 
I have a collection of fountain pens.


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## fmw (Jan 29, 2007)

SMG said:


> Fred, thanks for the examples. I was going for the defocused case with a sharp pen. I was also going for the moody dark version, but I used a too dark version of the pen for the shot.
> 
> I used a couple of layers in Photoshop, first time I have ever tried this, and gaussian blurred the background. I then erased it from the whole pen, but there was not enough contrast to discern the pen very well.
> 
> ...


 
Maybe I'm just an old school sort. I've spent my life trying to avoid blur and make sharp images. I have never intentionally blurred anything with Photoshop. I guess these are matters of preference. Seeing a product shot with part of it out of focus because of shallow dof rattles my sensibilities. If it is the current style, then I will stick with the old fashioned style.

There are two effective ways to make a sharp pen and out-of-focus case. One would be to make a double exposure or do the equivalent selecting, cutting and pasting in PS from separate images. Or you may be able to put an out of focus image and a sharp one in separate layers, mask the sharp one and use the brush to overwrite the sharp case with the soft one.  

The other way would be to raise the pen away from the case. Doing the latter would require very shadowless lighting, however, otherwise the pen would look like it is floating above the case as it would be.

If I can find some time,  I'll try to do one for you.


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## SMG (Jan 29, 2007)

Fred, I totally get what you are saying. I was trying to emulate some photos that I saw from a fellow named Bill Reipel. 

he does some great images of pens that have a really nice soft lighting and defocused backgrounds which leads my eye to the product. 

I will try to post some iterations of the above shot later tonight that are fully in focus. 

Cheers, 
SG


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## fmw (Jan 30, 2007)

It took some time to learn how to do this and some help from Digital Matt.  I wouldn't show it to an art director but here's an example of the dark and moody shot with sharp, focused pen and a soft out-of focus case and background.


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## THORHAMMER (Feb 20, 2007)

wow !! 

I am amazed at the sharpness and detail !!!


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## tahmail (Mar 14, 2007)

That black on black does look lost again..can you change to a soft grey or reddish color?


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