Apples and oranges

Comparing apples and oranges by simple.joy, on Flickr

This was created for the theme "idioms" for a weekly themed group on flickr. The idiom displayed is of course "comparing apples and oranges".

Do you think it works well enough? Sometimes I'm very convinced an idea is effective and I even manage to get the shot to a place where I'm okay with it and then - after some time - I start to doubt its validity. As far as lighting is concerned I mainly tried to go for the colors, rather than the shapes, because of the idea with the switched background-colors. It's not optimized for detail but I think it's reasonable sharp. I really like the (old manual) lens I used for it, which is a Kodak "Micro-File-Ektar 63 mm f/8" which was made for a completely different task originally and it's a manually focus stacked shot.

Thanks a lot for your feedback.

I really like the way the color of the apple glows.

Just an opinion:
- Not bad idiomatically
- I find the leaf distracting
- I didn’t expect to see a single apple & orange, since both are plural in the idiomatic language
- Perhaps an image with multiple apples & oranges would be an improvement. Single feels a bit static here with minimal places for my eye to move.

Hey! … you asked! Hope it helps at least a little.
Cheers!
Jerry

Thanks a lot!

Thank you so much for the detailed feedback. I'm sure you're right - multiple apples & oranges might really look more interesting and generate lots of opportunities to play with perspective and sizes. I only had these two at hand though and I was shooting late at night, so that just wouldn't have been possible. But it's good to keep in mind.

I like the leaf though - it's quite intentional in its placement, particularly as a reminder that this is an actual setup and not a composite. Not too happy about its color, as it was quite dry already...

What I like best is the juxtaposition of the color palettes (red on orange/orange on red). I don't know that lens but you got a nice sharp result with it and did well with the stack. I also like the intrusion of the leaf into the other half of the frame. What feels visually a bit uncomfortable is the scale. Oranges are not typically that much larger than apples. But perhaps that's a really big orange and a really small apple and that's the point of the story? At any rate, it is a well captured entry that you put thought into and were able to carry out properly, so congrats.

Ok, I'll let you keep the leaf if you really need it! :) ... but think about this:

I kinda like how the two stems are facing each other... almost implying confrontation (in a good way)! ... and the leaf obscures that thought a bit (at least for me). I agree with you on the leaf color - it almost looks more "real" than the rest of the image, and so, distracts (at least for me). I do like how you've ping-ponged the colors.

Have a play with multiples and re-post. Would love to see what you come up with.
Cheers!
Jerry

I like the leaf and in fact consider it to be one of the best features of this image. It crosses from the orange into the world of the apple and helps unify the image.

I like the idea and the leaf. The shadow of the apple falling into the red area feels a little unsatisfactory to me. Perhaps it's to do with the edge of the apple's shadow not being very distinct?

David

I like the creative idea but perhaps setting the larger orange further away from the camera while photographing from a lower point of view balances things out somewhat.

Thanks everyone for the valuable feedback and interesting suggestions. I really appreciate it!

Yes, I think you're right. It was intentional to not limit the shadows to the 'apple side', but it does look flawed and the lack of clear lines of the shadow might be the reason for that. Thanks a lot for making me aware of that, I wouldn't have been able to pin that down.

Thank you - that's an excellent point. The orange might really be oversized here and it while I didn't have a bigger apple at that moment, it surely would have helped balancing things out to get a bigger one.

A couple of points that I don’t have been raised so far. The break between the orange and red backgrounds looks much sharper at the bottom than the top. I’ve also spent some time wondering about the apple colour. There is a very distinct change along what I can only describe as a line of longitude, about 20 east if the meridian were towards the viewer. It may well be real, but it leaves the viewer wondering if it is a lighting artefact.

These though are being picky - the overall creativity and execution are good.

Many thanks! Very interesting and valid points. The background is two sheets of paper therefore the difference in sharpness is pretty much unavoidable, unless I get everything in focus (which I usually don't like and makes the paper texture in the background visible) but I'm sure the angle could be improved in order to get more of the bottom out of focus. Another alternative would be to use tilt (after all I'm using a tilt/shift bellows all the time anyway...) but not all lenses handle that well, so it would have to be limited.

The color of the apple with the distinct line is all natural. I've even noticed it beforehand but decided to keep it that way. It would be easy to fix in post though.