Meet Joe - Local Artist

[theantiquetiger]

I had never heard of him, I just happened to stumble across his studio back in the swamps. I talked with him for over an hour. He says he is about to shoot a pilot for a reality show. Everything is made from scrap iron.

I think he is making me a sculpture of LSU Tiger Stadium. I jokingly said it would be a cool piece, next thing I know, he is taking my name and number and describes what he has in mind.

[theantiquetiger]

here is another (I have more, but I need to process them).

[theantiquetiger]

and a few more. It was midday, so I need to go back in the early morning

[Iguanasan]

What a really cool set. Thanks for introducing us and sharing.

[theantiquetiger]

I really like the picture of him, but all the sculptures were in hard light, so a lot of detail was missed. I want to make him a few copies but I want to make the images pop!!! Any suggestions on how to process some of these to make abstract like, or just make the sculpture jump off the page?

[Iguanasan]

Very challenging lighting conditions to be sure. Ideally, you would separate the artwork from the background with a shallow depth of field but if you are there at mid day then you probably can't get a high enough shutter speed if you are at f2.0. An ND filter would help with that though. Another idea would be to look for better angles. If you had a step ladder then climbing up and shooting down could have provided a simple grassy background which is less busy. I have no idea how you could "fix" them in post.

[theantiquetiger]

OK, here are the three final images I am planning on giving him. PLEASE critique

[Marko]

I'm sorry AT - every image from post 11 on has problems and so do some of the originals.
The main problem is that they are were shot in too hard light without fill flash - so they are underexposed to the point where you can't see the detail.
Given that the dude is an artist, and you are taking pix of his work, the work should imo be full of detail.
Your last colour shot is COMPLETELY off in colour.
Personally....I would reshoot these if possible.

[theantiquetiger]

I'm sorry AT - every image from post 11 on has problems and so do some of the originals.
The main problem is that they are were shot in too hard light without fill flash - so they are underexposed to the point where you can't see the detail.
Given that the dude is an artist, and you are taking pix of his work, the work should imo be full of detail.
Your last colour shot is COMPLETELY off in colour.
Personally....I would reshoot these if possible.

I agree with you on everything except the image in post #11. I was going for some kind of abstract on the indianhead. The only thing I don't like about it was that I missed some of the spaces between the sticks on his head, so they did not get blurred. Joe, the artist, is kind of an abstract sculpture, and I feel he would appreciate some kind of off the wall image of his artwork, not just a snap shot.

I did realize after I posted the portrait of him in post #12, that he is orange and looks like a Ommpa-Lummpa from Willy Wonka!!!