... on learning. Always learning.

I've been taking lots of photos lately. I've made some more wall hangings out of my cast plaster seedpods, and I set one up to take some pics. It was mid-morning. There was strong but diffused light flooding in from one side of the house.

Using Photoshop, I get the seedpods themselves to look good, but even after adjusting the levels and contrast for an age, I can't get the background to become anything but mid grey without blowing out either the seedpods or the cables. I tell you, these white mobiles are a challenge to photograph. Every time I do I seem to come up against a different issue! I write up an Etsy listing for the wall hanging but these photos look way too heavy on the page.

Mid afternoon. I notice that the sun, now beaming in from the other side of the room, has lightened that white wall considerably. Pulling the white under-curtain over the glass doors acts as a big ol' diffuser and the wall is looking very promising indeed. I set to... again.

This time I'm able to get a much brighter result without anything blowing out, and it certainly makes the Etsy listing look more appealing... I think. I'm torn. I almost prefer the look of the first set, as those white seedpods really look lovely against that mid-grey. The second set is cleaner, somehow, but almost... less interesting?
I can't tell! What do you think?