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Posted on 26/12/11 05:34:06 AM |
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Anita Chowdry
* Posts: 2 Reply  |
A cinnabar bowl containing mercury
Dear Mr. Caplin, Thankyou for your fantastic publications, and your great generosity in imparting clear information. I have been working through 100per cent Photoshop since February, and have learned a great deal from it. Here is a picture I have just done to illustrate a post on my blog about cinnabar. I wanted to get a feeling of the intense colour of the mineral. The stuff in the bowl is meant to be liquid mercury - which I found challenging (I used curves). Could there be an improvement? My best wishes, Anita  |
Posted on 26/12/11 09:00:01 AM |
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ahmedalij
Atmosphysician Posts: 262 Reply  |
Re: A cinnabar bowl containing mercury
wonderful.....................   |
Posted on 26/12/11 09:08:13 AM |
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Nick Curtain
Model Master Posts: 1768 Reply  |
Re: A cinnabar bowl containing mercury
Hi Anita and welcome. The lighting and texture on the bowl is excellent in my opinion. I'm not sure about the background though in terms of perspective and am wondering whether a wooden surface like a table top would make the bowl stand out more. The spilt mercury may also look better on a flatter surface. Given the directional lighting, I think the stick would cast a shadow over the bowl and onto the background, in the same way that the bowl does over the background. This is a cracking piece of work and I hope my comments help. Nick |
Posted on 27/12/11 05:08:35 AM |
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Anita Chowdry
* Posts: 2 Reply |
Re: A cinnabar bowl containing mercury
Hi Nick and Ahmedalij, Thankyou for the welcome and for responding to my post! I appreciate the feedback and advice Nick, - I totally forgot about the stick casting a shadow. I am not brilliant with lighting, so your comments are great. I shall try a wooden surface - I guess its also good to blur the back portion of any surface so it looks slightly out of focus (like a narrow-depth of field photo) Wishing you both a happy new year, Anita |
Posted on 02/01/12 2:57:22 PM |
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munchonu
Horror Master Posts: 277 Reply  |
Re: A cinnabar bowl containing mercury
Love the tones in this! Nick seems to have said it all. A mile better than I could do, well done! |
Posted on 03/01/12 08:11:31 AM |
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Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 6987 Reply  |
Re: A cinnabar bowl containing mercury
Anita, A very appealing image, with good textures. But there are a few issues with it: 1. As Nick points out, the background needs perspective. You can keep the same texture, if you like, but it needs to be smaller at the back than in the front. Easy enough to do using a perspective transformation. 2. We're looking directly at the bowl, in the middle of the shot, but the mercury is off centre. It should be perfectly lined up, since the bowl is symmetrical. 3. In order to look like mercury, the stuff inside the bowl should be reflecting the interior of the bowl opening, and then whatever few you want beyond that - and, of course, it should reflect the stick. 4. The mercury spilt outside is too spherical: it needs to look flatter than this. If you've used a bevel/emboss to give it depth, then reduce the bevel amount considerably. Hope this helps - and welcome to the forum! Steve |