product shot & 2000th post

[candleman]

my 2000th post.. yippee.
for my 2000th post i thought i'd celebrate by sharing a "how i tok it". its not the greatest of shots.. but i thought it turned out pretty good considering it was my first attempt at product styled lighting.



Exif
Manual exposure, flash on TTL +1 EV via the commander menu (i think)
135mm
1/60th
iso320
f/5.6

So, after seeing the post on the blog abut striplights i decided to try "Getto" my own version, seeing as we had a rainy Friday and Saturday.
I set up my home made reflector like this, in a shoot-through with my off camera sb600.(you can see the strips of light on the glass that have made it through the gap inbetween the placemats)



I put up two place-mats to allow only a strip of light through. (hence the name striplight) and this created the sexy line of light down the sde of the glass.. accentuating the curves. What i found was it was quite harsh, so i aimed the flash up a bit and that softened the light a touch more.
sadly, as you can see by the above picture i opted for the shot that didnt have the strip of light on the glass, (only on the stem).
it just looked better, as the strip was a tad harsh. i learned allot.. so next time i can put that into practice.
i gave up pretty much becase at 11pm the sound of my bed calling was starting to drown out my own thoughts.



The reason i turned the glass upside down was simply because i waned to raise it up off the table to keep the background clean, which also made it easier to remove the background. the top rim of the glass did have to get edited out to make it flat.
(i'll have to experiment next time as to how i can make the dottom and top of glass appera parallel) 'm sure its mostly a focal length thing.. but thats for next time.
This time it was more about the lighting than creating a "factual" documented product as though it was for a client. so long as it looked cool.

after spot healing some undesirable specks of light, i then cut the glass off the background and added a colour gradient.
I then made up a name for the "elegant" new glassware and used some softlight and multiply layers.

viola!
i just turned the cheapest glasses on the shelf into something rather expensive looking.
(well i think so anyway)

thanks for looking!

( i hope the flickr link is correct.. its my first time for my transition from photobucket.. so go easy)

[FGPhotography]

As I've told you already, but I don't think I can repeat myself enough... I love this! Thanks for sharing, I think one night when the kids get back into a regular routine, I'll try something similar Thanks so much for the inspiration

[Nicole]

Happy 2000th Interesting thing putting the glass upside down.

[Glayva]

Congrats. on the 2000th. Brilliant shot. I'll buy the glass!! Thanks for the write up too.

[Saralonde]

Nice write-up and congrats on #2000!

[peeperita]

what a great thought process.....you had a vision of what you wanted and trial and error taught you.....great attention to the highlights....i saw a video some time back on lighting glass and was amazed to see the addition of different highlights and blacks to sculpt the glass.....it looks so tedious.....making it right up my alley to try some sunday morning....

you're so right about that sexy, curvy highlight......i can almost feel the glass in my hand.....

peeper

[candleman]

Originally Posted by FGPhotography

As I've told you already, but I don't think I can repeat myself enough... I love this! Thanks for sharing, I think one night when the kids get back into a regular routine, I'll try something similar Thanks so much for the inspiration

ha, thanks so much FG, you're too kind. i'm glad you like it

Originally Posted by Nicole

Happy 2000th Interesting thing putting the glass upside down.

yeah it was a bit random. must have been the time. exhaustion does crazy things to the mind.. crazy things..

Originally Posted by Glayva

Brilliant shot. I'll buy the glass!! .

great mission accomplished then.

Originally Posted by Saralonde

Nice write-up and congrats on #2000!

thanks Sara. it was fun

Originally Posted by peeperita

what a great thought process.....you had a vision of what you wanted and trial and error taught you.....great attention to the highlights....i saw a video some time back on lighting glass and was amazed to see the addition of different highlights and blacks to sculpt the glass.....it looks so tedious.....
you're so right about that sexy, curvy highlight......i can almost feel the glass in my hand.....

yeah the light and shadow is kindof strange.. all the internal reflections and stuff. quite a mission. i'll try it again sometime tho'

[jphoto]

Nice, thanks for the elaborate how-to!

[renzdurano]

This is so nice....! very interesting....!

[Sabine♥BusyBee]

Nice shot Candleman!
I got stuck reading your post because I had my first attempt at glasses yesterday and was curious. I like you lighting set up, gotta give that a try as well.