Sunday, November 23, 2008

Day Off? Whats That?

Made a neat little still life setup today. took an expandable pole that goes from floor to ceiling and now i can mount the floodlight any height or angle i want. the tripod with the board mounted on it can be adjusted to any height also. so of course i had to try it out!

heres what i ended up with.

i was balancing this setup with my favorite blue vase and accidently broke it. i caught this red one before it hit the floor. now the red ones my favorite, LOL. im having a ball painting glass here lately. you'll be seeing lots of it coming up.


Red Glass and Orange- 4x4 oil on canvasboard

Available- $29 plus $5 shipping

8 comments:

Alice Thompson said...

Wow! Your so sharp Mike, try not to cut yourself. The only thing you have left to do is adjust the exposure and color match the painting to the monitor. When it looks on the screen the way it looks to your eye in front of you, your done. Bravo!

mike rooney studios said...

alice
what can i do to the exposure? do you think its not contrasty enough or too much? helppppp.
the orange doesnt look as orange in the picture as it does on the painting. i tried tweaking it some with the photo software. at least its not off color-wise AND fuzzy. thanks for everything alice.

Alice Thompson said...

It is too bright at the moment so you painting looks washed out a little or overexposed. So I would adjust that a little first and then make more contrast. When you adjust color for digital photos the only one that I change is the "color temperature" I almost always move that bar to the right.

Less Bright
More Contrast
Color Temperature Right
see what you think.
also photgraphing canvas is much more difficult than a smooth surface like gessobord or masonite.

I'd like you to photograph this same piece in indirect sunlight and adjust the brightness. contrast and color temperature as well in the same directions. Look at them both side by side and compare for yourself which you prefer.

Your doing a great job!

Anonymous said...

You really got the glaze on that ceramic vase so right.

And it sounds like you're getting excellent advice here from Alice.

You might try something that I've found works well to eliminate glare either from the paint or a flash.
I'll shoot outside in northern light around 10 or 11 AM and lay the canvas on the floor. Then I shoot it from directly overhead.
It works well if you're in a hurry and don't want to fuss too much with setup.

My 2 cents.

Frank Gardner said...

How about painting the broken blue vase?

Now, Alice seems like she knows more than me, but I'll throw this out there.
I shoot most of my pieces with the painting flat on the ground looking down on them and in direct sun. I find I get the best color that way. If I shoot in shadow or indirect light it is too cool and I need to adjust too much.
The only thing I usually need to adjust are levels in photoshop to make it just a little darker. Or less brightness. The color is usually right on and I get the texture of the paint strokes better than the shade shots.

Now getting it to look good once you upload a photo to blogger is another story. My stuff that looks right on in photoshop ALWAYS looks dull and washed out once I upload it to blogger, so I need two files. I save the original the way I like it then make the one I'll upload a little darker and more saturated than I think it needs to be. That usually helps. Once I upload I check it in preview. Sometimes I need to do it again because it still stinks.
hey, you stole one of my tags. LOL

Alice Thompson said...

bonnieluria, thank you for your 2 cents! I like the early morning light too... except in the shade ; )

Frank, I don't more than you.
I struggle with taking a good photo, so I understand Mike's plight. All helpful suggestions are appreciated.

Mike, I also lay my artwork flat when I photograph if they are small. Wish I did have a nice camera, tripod and photo easel thingamajig like the pro's... that would be cool.

mike rooney studios said...

bonnieluria
alice and frank-
thanks you guys. all these tips are really helpful and will make my pics better for sure. using the macro feature (didnt even know what it was!) has stopped the fuzzy 4x4 paintings.
i've made photo tents like the pros use, shot inside, outside, sun, shadow, you name it. i guess we've all struggled with the photography side of this biz. but think of this... how many photographers can paint as well as we do? anything to make myself feel better about myself! LOL
thanks to you all again

mike rooney studios said...

frank
the vase was really trashed when it broke. i hate that too because i loved painting that thing. it had twists in it that went diagonally the was the sweetest ultramarine blue you ever saw.
you ever do still lifes? havent seen any ever from you. do you just paint in from your plein air stuff in the studio when its raining or cold?