The Nature, Wildlife and Pet Photography Forum - Fine Art Landscape Photography

Mall fall set up, opinions?

Posted By: Jim Poor

Mall fall set up, opinions? - 09/06/08 05:58 PM

Well, some of you know I was out and about looking for hay and other things for a fall set. This is what I've come up with so far. What do you think?

I wasn't real careful on cloning in extra leaves because I plan on just buying more to fill the area for real.

I need to lower the tall scare crow a bit to make cropping to landscape a bit easier.

When I shoot this "for real" the background will be farther behind the hay so it will be more out of focus than it is here.

What else?







There are about 4 more examples of the same setup here:
http://www.pbase.com/jimpoor/my_dogs

Thanks in advance,
Jim
Posted By: Julie

Re: Mall fall set up, opinions? - 09/06/08 06:34 PM

I am going to be honest with you Jim, I think there is just too much going on. I would bring the props down to the dogs height vs above them.
Posted By: Jim Poor

Re: Mall fall set up, opinions? - 09/06/08 06:41 PM

Thanks Julie.

I'll definitely be bringing Mr. Scarecrow down to the ground. I'm not sure about the pumpkin going on the ground, but maybe I can raise the dogs up a little.

This will be even more important for the first event which is a Bichon Bash so they are tiny compared to my gang.
Posted By: wallyspop

Re: Mall fall set up, opinions? - 09/06/08 06:49 PM

I agree with Julie Jim. Although the scarecrows are cute, I think they are too distracting and take your eye away from the dogs. I would actually try a few with just the hat and pumpkin. I like the rest of the set and the colors are great, particularly the leaves.
Posted By: Peggy Sue

Re: Mall fall set up, opinions? - 09/06/08 07:06 PM

Jim, you are working hard to get the fall thing underway. I would suggest you look at still life paintings and see how groupings work well. By lining items in a row it looks more like a fence. Let some of the pieces overlap with one another.

Just make sure the dog is the dominate and the real focus. There are rules in design. Learn some and then learn where you can break them. Designing in odd numbers usually works best. Try to work for the golden triangle. There are a bunch of suggestions but for now you might experiment with the set up alone and then know that works.

Your color use is nice. Makes me want to get out the leaves but I am not really ready to give up summer yet!
Posted By: Peggy Sue

Re: Mall fall set up, opinions? - 09/06/08 07:37 PM

I hope it is okay that I played with one of your images. I thought it might be easier to see what I was trying to say in the above reply.


Posted By: Jim Poor

Re: Mall fall set up, opinions? - 09/06/08 10:42 PM

Thanks everyone! And thanks so much for the rework Peggysue! I actually prefer "reposting" reworked images as a way to critique and provide suggestions. We do that a lot on another nature site I hang out on.

The scarecrow is just thin material, so I can definitely let him "sit" on the ground. We just got back from getting more leaves, so I wont have to fill in the foreground with the clone stamp.

I also got a smaller pumpkin that I could use with the little scarecrow for the smaller dogs. Bichons this week, Beagles next week and then Greyhounds followed by a mixed bag of who knows what.

Bob,
I actually got a basket and some fruit that could replace the scarecrow too.

This "set" will be in the back half of my tent, and I'll have a standard backdrop that I can put up quickly at the mid point of the tent for two options.
Posted By: barry t s

Re: Mall fall set up, opinions? - 09/07/08 09:38 PM

Quote:

Thanks everyone! And thanks so much for the rework Peggysue! I actually prefer "reposting" reworked images as a way to critique and provide suggestions.



"A sketch is worth a thousand words" as they say in England (& maybe in the USA?).
I like Peggy Sue's re-work, i must confess.

Leaves are already beginning to brown on some tree's over here, its done nothing but rain all Summer in the UK, Autumn/Fall is all but here. How was Summer in the US?
Posted By: Peggy Sue

Re: Mall fall set up, opinions? - 09/07/08 10:08 PM

Soon, in the northern part of the midwest, the leaves will be changing. The natural pile of leaves should be fun to play in. Fine to photograph as long as it does not rain. I do keep a bunch of those silk things but the colors really are bright! Thank goodness for photoshop!

Jim, hope your weekend went well with the fall background. I went to our large flea market this weekend to look for props. There was a large amount of fall decorations for people but nothing I had to have.
Posted By: Jim Poor

Re: Mall fall set up, opinions? - 09/07/08 10:56 PM

Thanks again folks.

At first glance, today was a pretty good day. We did 25 portrait sessions with on-site proofing (after an initial review by me) for all but 5 of them. The largest print purchased was a 20x24. Not counting set-up and tear down, we worked just a hair over 5 hours.

Things got a little hectic here and there when we seemed to get rushed by several folks at once.

There were three sessions that had three Bichons at once that came out better than most seemed to expect they would.

As a nice little surprise the president of the Bichon Rescue gave us a wooden box with a glass top that she fashioned after Sam, our Corgi, as a thanks for helping them out.

Only one family opted for the "traditional" portrait with the rest going for the fall set up. Once I get everything uploaded, backed up, and sorted I'll post some shots of what the set ended up looking like for the most part.

It did change a couple times based on the number of dogs and whether or not their humans chose to be in the shot.

Thanks so much for all the advice and tips.

Now I need to figure out how to streamline the process on site.
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