Assignment 5: Still Life

Irving Lin: Comparing Apples and Oranges

Here's a sentimental possession of mine - the knife given to me by my dad.

Modern society tends to have a fearful attitude toward knives and their inherent dangers (metaphorically shown by the oranges in the backdrop). However, I believe the dangers of knives are outweighed by their immense usefulness, beauty, and practicality (depicted by the defiant apple). Here, the apple and oranges were carved with this knife.

Photo taken at: 105mm, f/7.1, 1/5s tripod, ISO 400.

Setup: Black cloth backdrop, overhead lighting (with minor back lighting and reflected/bounced left and right lighting), and maple endgrain cutting board as a surface.

Post-processing: Adjusted tone curve, minor desaturation, added vibrance, modified temp/tint, reduced noise, and increased clarity.

Setup explanation: A black backdrop shifts the focus to the objects at hand and weeds out distractions in the back, the lighting was set up as to minimize distracting shadows, and the cutting board was used to add a more natural feel as I was using fruits as subjects.