Critique Welcomed Still life with tulip and pears

[Rense Haveman]

Yesterday, I started some experimenting with textures, and blending of photos and textures. I received some very valuable comments, for instance from @Pete Askew here, and some others on Pentaxforums.com. Enough to push it a little further, perhaps, and give it another try.

Here a blend of two photos: a still life with tulip and pears against a dull flat grey wall (which, btw, I like, but not in this scene), and a photo of an old paper sheet, yellowed and aged. I blended both in GIMP. Again: feel free to shoot!


Still life with tulip and pears by Rense Haveman, on Flickr

 

[Pete Askew]

Works very well for me and and I like the softness as well as the tones and composition. Subtlety rules!

 

[Beth Carter]

nice blending work, i wouldn't have guessed it wasn't shot against this backdrop.

 

[Rense Haveman]

Thank you both!

Works very well for me and and I like the softness as well as the tones and composition. Subtlety rules!

So, this would be too much for you, I guess?


Still life with tulip and pears by Rense Haveman, on Flickr

 

[Pete Askew]

For me, yes.

 

[Rense Haveman]

For me, yes.

Thank you!

I think it is as you say: "For me..." Asked my wife, and she likes the last one over the first, by far. But I changed more than only the texture, I muted the colours too. So, maybe that has to do with it too. But I think that once one begins with 'changing' photos, taste becomes important.... I don't know how to say it. But the above photos don't have so much to do with photography, more with post-processing...

In other words: you could change the above in a picture of an elephant, and what does it have to do with photography??????

 

[Rense Haveman]

BTW: the backdrop in the last one is the somewhat disgusting backside of an oven-tray....

 

[Pete Askew]

I don't mind the overlaying of strong textures and actually like the effect in some cases. I guess one of things I ask is, "why was it done?. Was it to make an uninteresting image more appealing, saleable etc? Is there a unifying theme? Is there an artistic endeavour at work? In the second example here, the tray creates the effect of an old wall I think and, while I like the texture, in that interpretation it doesn't work for me. It would make a birthday card, but, for me, it is not a compelling image in itself.

It's a really interesting topic overall though and I like what you're doing and the way you are doing it very much.

 

[Rense Haveman]

I don't mind the overlaying of strong textures and actually like the effect in some cases. I guess one of things I ask is, "why was it done?. Was it to make an uninteresting image more appealing, saleable etc? Is there a unifying theme? Is there an artistic endeavour at work? In the second example here, the tray creates the effect of an old wall I think and, while I like the texture, in that interpretation it doesn't work for me. It would make a birthday card, but, for me, it is not a compelling image in itself.

It's a really interesting topic overall though and I like what you're doing and the way you are doing it very much.

Thank you. Great thoughts, helpful!

 

[Dave Farnes]

To me, they both work, but in different ways.

The first one is much warmer. It shows the sofness of the flower and the fruit.
The second is harder, the softness is lost, but the shapes and lines of the objects are shown well.