Week 3: Glassware Lesson

Today's lesson was fantastic. Here is a sum up;

`shutter speed doesn't matter
`light meter is only useful for spotting the background

Method

After you set up;


1. Take a spot reading of the background
2. For example, if it is f/45.

Thus f/45 = ZONE 5


+ 3 stops


f/22 = ZONE 8


Remember:

Zone 8 = White background. Don't go beyond this for DSLR's, causes flare.
Zone 7 = Bright but not completely white

Types of Lighting

1. Black Backround
`use large softbox
`black cardboard (small - just enough to cover frame) placed in front of softbox
`can use white reflectors on either side and on top give a white outline



2. White Background
`use black reflectors either side and one on top to give black outline

Class Exercise

1. White Background

Settings:

Spot reading of b.ground: f/45

Zone 8 = f/22

Camera Setting: f/25 @ 125th

ISO: 200

Focal Lengh: 135mm (max)

EF 28-135mm IS USM on 5D

Lighting:

White square softbox,

Black reflectors on left and right, as well as top

Em and I had fun with this image!

Next Time:

`Use more food dye to give deeper saturated water

`The three colours (blue, purple and green on the glass) are a bit much. But since there was only blue food dye not much we could do to compliment these colours. Definately go shopping for some cool glassware and food dyes:)

Like the black edges around the water as well at the top - and the way the water is poured and an angle and just slightly jumping out of the glass. Go team:)

Haha Em missing the glass... go em!!!

Actually looks pretty cool - my dad liked this one the best lol

I like this close up, but the horizon is a bit distracting. Also not quite parallel

2. Black Background

Settings:

same as above,

Focal Length: 100mm

Lighting:

white softbox (same),

black small rectangular card just filling the frame as the background

snoot at front right pointing at label, also illuminating glass and part of background

Problems

This is the slightly edited version (used eye dropper to determine real white in label and black in backround)

The original (which i will put up) was slightly underexposed (So we needed to change the aperture to f/16 which would have been one stop brighter) or possibly to f/11.

Also the mirror was reflecting some of the light of the snoot, causing a line in the middle of the label, making the bottom half twice as bright as the top. We can over come this by having a bigger mirror which will throw the same amount of light on the whole label, or narrowing the snoot with a black piece of card and smaller cut out hole.

The top of the bottle needs more of an outline so we needed a white reflector on top.

Apart from that I think the image works really well.

Overall I think everyone did really well with this exercise! I really enjoyed the class

Week 1: Glassware Research

Lighting Glassware

After our first lesson Emily and I researched some lighting techniques and tried to find photographs of glassware.

This tutorial was really helpful in showing us the two techniques typically used when lighting glassware:

Episode 1 , studio photography lighting tabletop glassware

Examples

I am particuarly interested in photographing glassware with water and dyes - i love the interetsting effects and movement that water introduces.

The elements i want to include in my shots are: - use of deep colours using food dye - the use of water creating movement - perhaps breaking glass (cross my fingers!) found some examples of this too


These are the examples that stood out to me for reasons listed:

Absolutely awesome.
Love the smoothness of the way they poured the wine (or coloured food dye lol)
Probably wouldn't tilt it so much
Maroon dye or this colour in general looks fantastic - very eye catching
Possibly a little more outline on the left hand side of the glass needed

What an amazing effect - don't know if OH&S will allow me to do this lol but I would definately love to do some kind of shot encorporating broken glass.... safely of course:)

Love the repetition and that the last one is smashed.... Could this be done in a fish tank? If it were my shot I'd remove the bottom right glass -it's a bit distracting Otherwise an awesome idea

Maybe something was thrown through this one and it was captured when it just made it out of the frame?
Or photoshopped,
these days you never know,

would straighten the horizon to make it parallel,
and use a different surface with a 'cleaner' look rather than one that is purple and looks painted on

What I like about this one is the definitive highlights around the edges - maybeslighttly overdone but it shows you how effective lighting can be with a simple black background, reflective surface (either mirror or black material with glass on it) can be.

Not sure what is on the bottom right edge of the frame, bit distracting

A few odd reflections

Otherwise an awesome shot

LOVE THIS IMAGE!!!! DEFINATELY WANT TO TRY THIS,

I'm guessing the wine was thrown to land like that in a 'J' but I still don't know how possible it is....


The vingette is a bit fake and overdone but the spotlight effect (a little more subtle) will look amazing

Red and black work well together, as well as the black reflectors outlining the glass


Genious

Amazing. What a cool idea - might try this with something else. If you can't get ridd of it in the shot, include it!! lol

What happens when you don't outline glassware properly....

details lost in the stem of the glass - completely blown out.

What I liked about this shot was the actual subject matter - the patterns on the glass are interesting











I don't know how artificial this lighting is (i.e. whether it was edited, or completely done on the computer!) but what stands out is the opposing balance;

The top of the glass is gradiated upwards, and the background is gradiated the opposite way. No idea how they would have gotten the glass like that...

Geoff - is this possible completely in the studio? To me it looks like a lot of post processing










Like the idea of the 'source' being included in the image (the top of the beer bottle)

Simple but effective

I really like red as a background.

Don't really like that the wine looks so small compared to the wine glass, or the colour of the wine and not to mention that the banding or interpolation,

The lighting could be better too.

So basically i just like the red lol








Possibly an already broken glass, just the wine poured in drastically?























Swirl effect - awesome. Will definately try

























Simple but effective - make glass glued/stuck to table top, tilt it, position camera parrallel to stem of glass.

Colours and lighting very effective.

Is this jelly?

Might try pouring wine down jelly into glass - that will look interesting.