Tunnel Vision

[JeffSmith]

Tunnel Vision by JEF 96, on Flickr


Here's how I took it:

I started by putting drinking glasses together and looking at them in different ways to get a creative perspective I've not seen before - these simple champagne flutes worked better for me than the fancy cut glass variety because there's no distracting patterns.

To create the shot, I put 2 pieces of brilliant white A3 paper together to make a background and used sellotape to stick it to a box placed on the top of a pile of books on my kitchen table.

I then placed the four glasses in a row on top of the white paper and mounted the camera on a tripod to get in close for the right composition.

Once set up, I turned the kitchen lights off and illuminated the white paper background with two LED torches to get the correct Quality of Light with the gradient of light and shade I wanted.

My wife held one torch in place to the left of the scene (she got bored within 5 seconds) and I held the other on the right taking care to eliminate any unwanted shadows. Once I had the torches shining in the right place, I used a wireless shutter release to take the shot and voilá.

I experimented with different aperture settings to get the right DoF and as it happens, maximum DoF at f/32 produced the best results.

Very little post processing... I cropped the image just a little to get the composition exactly as I wanted it and added a small amount of cooling filter (just 10%) to give it a little bit of colour and the appropriate mood.

Just in case you're wondering, here's a pic of the set up scene so you can see the simplicity. (Not to be judged of course) Please ignore the other rubbish on the kitchen table or my wife will beat me up!



I value any comments you are kind enough to make.

[Jasmeet]

Like always, a very nice tutorial. I'll try this one.

[Stryker]

My only comment: Freakin' Awesome!

I like the simplicity of the setup and the minimal post processing. Excellent job, as usual, Jeff. Keep them coming.

[RobbieG]

Great shot Jeff. I really admire your work. A simple idea with a great result.
BTW. I like how you do your watermark. Is that you signature as an image or what font do you use? It is very appealing.

[JeffSmith]

Thanks guys, you've made my day :0

As for the signature Robbie, here's how I do it:

I signed a piece of paper and scanned it.
Loaded the image into photoshop and made a brush from the image
I can then use the brush in any colour and any size to suit the image
Simple

[RobbieG]

Thanks Jeff,
I'll look up how to make a brush from an image. It adds a nice personal touch to your images.
I only have photoshop elements but I'm sure I should be able to work out how to do it.

Regards
Robbie

[JeffSmith]

My pleasure Robbie, it's the same process for Elements, so you'll be OK

[jamesrdroy]

Just awesome, Jeff! I just had to try it immediately. I fell 1 torch short so the light is unbalanced. Also for some reason my glasses are tilted. After taking the pic i checked and rechecked them, and they were straight in real life!! Also, i have to conquer the line between the two white sheets ( I placed the glasses on my sons school Drawing Copy)... Much more work needs to be done by me, but I had fun trying this out. Thank you for such a lucid writeup! This is what I managed:

[JeffSmith]

I used a focal length of 100mm so I could create some distance between thecamera and subject. Looks like you have wide angle lens and you're too close to the subject causing the distortion.

[NgaiHill]

Thanks for the tutorial Jeff, love your perspective on these glasses. I would have never thought of doing something like this but may now have to give it a go.
Table - what rubbish??? Hope this saves you from a beating
Cheers
Lisa