Still Life.

Ran out of time today for a seascape so decided to shoot a still life. I have been experimenting for a couple of days in the studio with some high key images, and still had things set up, which was handy.
With this photo I used 6 bulbs of garlic, a piece of ginger, and a rock and seagull feather that I picked up on one of my beach walks. I didn't want a closed composition so I positioned one of the pieces of garlic so that it travelled out of the picture. I wanted a "top heavy" composition, and I wanted, initially, to create a high key image where some of the edges of the items in the picture would be "lost" against the cloth that they were sitting on. I achieved this but the image lost something so I cranked it back and am happy now with just losing the detail of the cloth but keeping the detail of the garlic etc.
I think that the piece of garlic on the left that is travelling off the picture plane could be positioned better. Probably with just a section of the stalk leaving the picture.
I had a lot of difficulty achieving an even high key tonal range over the cloth that is underneath everything. As it moved toward the camera, its detail became more pronounced and it became darker than the upper 2/3's of the picture. I used the 'dodge' tool in PS to lighten the lower area.
This was a really good exercise and a good learning experience. I was thinking of using a layer mask to achieve that same effect as the dodge tool but was unsure of how to do this technique. Something to learn for another day.
I could add some eggs perhaps to vary the composition even further.
I really like this image. Although it doesn't have the level of 'uummph' that I like.



Bigger version here.