DSLR Photography Forum

One of my galleries in my web site shows my attempts to product photography. I have the pictures as they are but I was thinking I could show them with some words, and along the way of doing these pictures I could learn a bit more about fonts and images.

Here are my first tries....

The label.
I took this picture with the idea of turning it into a label. I wrote Spanish here because the fist word was longest one, and fit better into the frame. (Something to consider next time... ) I also took this one with very flat light so I don't have shadows and tried to make it look like an illustration. I think also this idea would work fine for a Christmas card .



Fruits...

I find very difficult to find a proper font for food. I guess we all have different relation with food and fonts. I see them in the markets, supermarkets, syrups and ice creams and all have different font. At the end I thought to show my pictures in this way, but as always I am open to suggestions...







Also I would like to say that if you know of a site that can give information about this topic, and you want to share it. I would be very happy.

Thanks ...

I think these are lovely, really...are the whites fully white here Irma?
The label works for the best, as the use of wide space adds a certain delicate quality to the overall feel. This delicacy is added to further by the graceful font and the almost 19th-century look to the images: almost like botanical drawings.
And something else: as a native English speaker, "foreign" words convey many more suggested images to my culture than perhaps to their native speaker. For instance, the combination of font, images AND the Spanish language conveys for an English person an added air of refinement, romance, quailty and vivacity. This would be quite absent in the English language(which is why we borrow Romance-language expressions to raise ourselves above our Anglo-Saxonness!): "summer-fruit jam", wouldn't have quite the same sense on the ear as "mermelada etc;" !

I used white as a background color only in the label frame and the background in Berries. The white in the last picture is not mentioned in the histogram as white or blown out.

Yes, Zig. I am very happy that you mention botanical drawings, because that has been one of my goals in my photos to take pictures as if they were botanical drawings. I worked very much with my flashes to get this effect and I got it with natural light in my dinning table. Have you seen how the colors are so beautiful, so real? I am very happy trying this series with natural light.

Thanks so much for your kind comment on the label...

I like #1 the best - it feels light and airy.

The text box in #2 feels like it crowds the image and dominates the scene. It feels "too much" for this image.

#3 works better - although the juxtaposition of the dark of the text box and the light of the rest of the image don't quite flange up. Maybe a lighter color or smaller text box?

1 - I like this one a lot, and think that the typeface is a good match for the subject and composition. I think that they could be repositioned for better balance, with "Mermelada de" moved closer to overlapping with "Cerezas". I would probably start with the 'de' directly over the 'C', and adjust it from there to get the lines positioned pleasingly. This means that the spacing of the text block within the image would need to be a rebalanced, but it's very close as is.

2 - Vertical writing is always a problem. It's difficult to read and the shapes just don't work right; the letter 'i' is a problem here. I'm also not finding much of a match between the type and the photo - the high contrast (difference between fat and think strokes) and strong horizontals don't compliment the lush roundness of the berries. And, from far out of the wingnut perspective, this typeface style is from the early 1800's but the glass bowl has a space-age modern connotation. I'm probably the only person who would be disconcerted by this, but I'd be tempted to try a typeface with some subtle 1950's deco influence. (…and it might fail spectacularly.)

3 - I find the all-uppercase "FRESH" to be a little too commanding. The font looks like one of the Garamond family, which are well crafted, but seem very formal. I'd be tempted to go in an opposite direction, with all-lowercase and friendlier italics. Again, I can't say that it would be better, or that anyone else will share my point of view, and it also depends on the effect that you're going for.

In no particular order, here are some of the websites that I like, although not all of them are 'creative':
http://www.typographyforlawyers.com/
http://fontfeed.com/archives/category/fonts-in-use/
http://typographica.org/

Some books that I like:
Thinking With Type, by Ellen Lupton
The Elements of Typographic Style, by Robert Bringhurst

Actually, pretty much anything by Ellen Lupton is quite good, but her 'Thinking With Type' is where I'd start for just about anything related to design and typography. Bringhurst's book is much more of a Text than a manual, and while it's excellent, it requires more of an investment in time and energy.

Hi Toad,
When I read your comment and the word airy, I understood well your comment in #2 and you are right. This framing doesn't match the idea of the series... and the idea was light and airy as you say.

My first try with #3 was without the dark borders and shadows. I was influenced by a label I saw in a magazine time ago, I took the idea from there but I didn't considered that the idea might be good but as a series in this picture might not match. Borders and shadows are difficult to get them well, to be discreet and give also a nice feeling. About the size of the font. I really didn't consider to make it match is size with anything. I will try with the size of the smallest berry. I think there I could find the relation in text size.

Thanks for your comment, Toad...

Hi Matthew,

About #1 I was with the layer text of "de" wandering around where do I put it? Clever suggestion and I will composed my text like this when I have prepositions. I got also the idea of drawing a box and after balance my box within the image write my text.

#2 I had to have a vertical text here to see the reaction. I have seen a lot of paintings and wall art that have vertical words and I really want to learn. I am very surprised about all I didn't consider when I choose the font for this picture.

#3 The font looks formal, indeed, and all in uppercase makes it even more. I don't normally work italics because I think that it is like manipulate the font from its original form. Maybe I am missing a lot by not using it.

I know a bit about Bringhurst's book as there is a site that talks about it but applied to the web. It is actually one of my favorite sites about this topic when I work with my web pages.

http://www.webtypography.net/

Thanks Matthew for your interesting and detail comment, I appreciate it very much ...

Matthew,

I followed your advice and I bought the book "Thinking With Type, by Ellen Lupton" and I love it!

Thanks for your recommendation...

I'm really glad to hear that you like the book. It's one that has a permanent place on my reference desk.

These are wonderful works dear Irma, and to be honest I don't have any idea about fonts, etc. But thanks all other comments too, especially the book advice of dear Matthew! I noted too,

Thank you dear Irma,
with my love,
nia