Gadzooks, I'm perplexed. But I'm sure this group will have some helpful direction.
All comments carefully and happily considered, so let me know what you think.
My medium is a little different: I make snowglobes - yes, the liquid-filled glass balls with mixed-media sculptures inside. Sometimes I'm not sure the jury knows that these are liquid-filled and shakeable. But maybe I'm not giving them credit?
I've done okay with my old images (applied to four shows and got into three this summer), but I decided to "improve" on them and go with the gradient background.
Do you think I should continue with the single snow globe image, or does cheating by showing the same globe still and shaken in one image HELP or HURT me with a jury? (We shot the globe twice and photoshopped the shaken image behind.)
Here are two examples of the same globe:
Single image
dual image
Replies
You might also want to photograph this through a piece of black mat or foam core board by cutting a hole in it the exact size of your lens and hiding behind that. Either that or move away from the camera viewfinder so that your head is not reflecting in the globe. Jurors might be wondering what face goes with that beautiful hair!
It does appear that whatever Larry did to edit the photo also increased the contrast which brings out the interior work behind the glass. I think that helped as well. WOOHOO!
What wonderful work, Camryn. A wonderful updating of what you think of as a snowglobe. Definitely only one image. It is confusing otherwise. This is one of those few situations where you wish you could show your work directly to the jury. Crop closer.
You won't be able to show the snow, so that part of your creativity won't be visible so you'll put the info in your artist statement. Write it well so the jurors don't dismiss the entry as a gimmick.
I'd keep the globe on.
Thanks Connie. We are usually able to catch the sparkly dust (snow) by letting it partly settle before we shoot it and catch at the right moment. Patience and a little luck.
It is moving from solid color backgrounds to the gradient that is changing everything that used to work. This is an old shot, but captured the movement wonderfully.
Forget the picture of the two pieces. For jurying it's too confusing and will waste the juror's time trying to evaluate it.
Here's what I mean about cropping and color correction. The lighting on the background can be better. Neutral gray or black to white graduated is only neutral if the lighting is correct. It's still turning pink at the bottom because you're not lighting evenly.
You might consider photographing them before putting the globe on and call it sculpture. In the artist statement you can say under glass. Adding snow might not be necessary for the public to want to purchase.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100
Larry, I've seen you improve on other people's images, and again I am astounded on how much you can do. That looks totally different, better, improved.
You are amazing. Thank you again.
Back to the drawing board as far as working on the lighting to get it right. Photographing reflective metals, under distorting liquid and shiny/distorting glass has been challenging.
You need to take the color cast out of the background, adjust contrast and crop. Then post the competing pictures. Right now they are very weak as jury images, at least on my ipad.
Larry Berman
412-401-8100
Thanks, I'll try that.
I think I liked my images better with the solid white background, this gradient is making me cross-eyed.
Larry Berman
I am not certain that it matters that these are snow globes. I like the first photo because it shows the interior art better and clearer.The second one seems fuzzy to me. I would rather see your artwork then anything else.
Thanks!