The guidelines for this assignment were to compose an image including items that "complement" each other. In other words, compose an image including items that perfect, complete, or go well with each other, for example bacon and eggs, chips and salsa, cheese and crackers, etc. The point of this exercise was to practice your composition skill in arranging "complementary" objects within the frame.
Congratulations to Rick, whose
Cereal and Milk image won the vote for
People's Choice and
Editor's Choice for Artistic and Technical Merit. I loved the way Rick captured the milk flowing into the cereal (and wondered how he managed to capture the image without spilling any milk.
I didn't notice Rick had used flash for the image until I read the EXIF data. That's an indication of a well balanced flash. Rick's choice of 1/200 of a second shutter speed and aperture of f11 were good choices for this image. The aperture of f11 provided the needed depth of field for this image, while avoiding the softening from diffraction that would have occurred at smaller apertures.
Cereal and Milk
I did feel that the image could use a bit more sharpening, and I converted the color space to sRGB for display on the web.
Cereal and Milk (sharpened and converted to sRGB)
I liked the sidelight Rick used for his
Peanut Butter and Jelly image; however, I thought the brightly colored plate stole the viewer's attention away from the primary subject.
Peanut Butter and Jelly
This was my attempt at providing more emphasis for the peanut butter and jelly.
I duplicated the background layer in Photoshop, converted to black and white, and used a layer mask to allow the color from the background layer to show through for the peanut butter and jelly. I also used shadows and highlights to increase the visibility of the jelly. Finally, I converted the image to sRGB for display on the web.
Thank you to everyone that participated in the "Complements" assignment. I loved the creativity exhibited by these images, and I'm sure the process of setting up, photographing and reviewing/editing the images helped the photographers improve their composition and photography skills.
If you are a "lurker" on the forum, I'd like to encourage you to participate in the weekly assignments. Participation is free, and I guarantee the assignments will help you improve your photography.
Keith
