Shall i pour?

[allenlennon]

Hi guys, i was bored and thought to try this...

What you think?


scotch1 by AllenLennon, on Flickr


scotch2 by AllenLennon, on Flickr


scotch3 by AllenLennon, on Flickr

Would love your thoughts??

[terrib]

The second one seems to have the sharpest focus, especially around the stopper. But I like the third one best because there is less glare.

[JPS]

Hi Allen,
I like your thinking here.
I often play with trying to 'light' reflective items like glass / metal etc; normally without much success.

I think like Terri the one with the least 'glare' is the best out of the three.
I had a little play with this picture, hope you don't mind. Just another option to consider.

Yes mate, you can pour. I would be happy to share a glass with you; good health.
Well done.

[Mike Buckley]

I agree with Terri and like John's treatment. I especially like the low angle.

A couple quick things to consider...

Notice the uneven lighting in the background. Select the background during post-processing and raise the black point to a level that would be ridiculously high except when you want to ensure total black throughout the entire area.

Choose a tabletop that enhances the subject. In this case, you have paired an elegant subject with a marred tabletop, which is an inconsistent pairing that doesn't work for me. Also consider whether you want round or linear edges in the table top, in this case to either contrast or be similar to the lines in the subject. Last, consider the amount of reflection that you want in the tabletop. This particular subject reflects nicely in this tabletop, but if you wanted a more precise reflection, you could use a mirror or glossy black acrylic as a tabletop.

[allenlennon]

Thank you guys. John, i would like to know what/how you done what you done because i like it.

Mike, thank you for your advice. Unfortunately i dont have too many reflected surfaces around the place that is nice and clean to a certain extant. What i have is either an old mirror with mold/rust looking spots on it and cant come out, i do have a black tinted window pain but that has way too many scratches and increadably hard to clean, right now its on a small antique cabnit that i have my coffee machine on.

I also point out i was using a torch(flash light as you amaricans call them) to paint light the subject. I wanted a challange and that was a challenge, took over 100 photos trrial and error with different patterns and ways to light it. Next time i'll try again with the torch, and another with my two flashes, to see how i go. Only if i had a sutable reflective surface.

[JPS]

Hi Allen,
In fact I didn't to much at all; you did all the hard work.
Here's what I did if it's of any help.

1 Adjusted the WB; as best I could
2 Removed any noise, Luminace 15% / Chrominance 75%
3 Straighten the bottle slightly using the 'distort' tool in PSE
4 Removed a few odd mark from the table, using the 'heaing' tool in PSE
5 Used the 'burn' tool set at 20% to darken the light reflecting directly on the glass
6 Added selected colour saturation to the 'drink area' of the bottle
7 Used the unsharp mask tool 130% @ 0.3 to give the picture a slightly more crisp look
8 Added the border

That was about it.
Thanks for sharing, I've enjoy looking at you work and look forward to more of your lighting projects

[Mike Buckley]

Darn, Allen! I intentionally didn't ask how you lit the bottle because I was wondering if I could figure it out on my own. No problem, as I would never have guessed correctly. You did a very nice job of it. Great, warm colors!

[allenlennon]

thanks john, here is a quick attempt at what you did, with some exceptions, like not extanding the table and the frame, how did i go?

[JPS]

Allen,
It looks good to me.

By the way I never made any comment; sorry, but I liked your 'Self-Portrait' thread.
Cheers
John

[allenlennon]

LOL, sorry mike, i was going to ask if anyone can figure out how i did it to, haha. But if you look closely at the last one at the top of the bottle before it angles to the bottome of the stopper, you can see the flashlight light reflected on the glass, haha

[allenlennon]

john, thank you, love playing with light, and self portraits

[Mike Buckley]

Allen,

Notice the stopper in your last version and in John's version. In his version, the stopper is mostly "clear," and I think that's because he found a better white balance. The result is that the whites are white.

Also notice the orange tones in the far right side of your version and less so on the left side just above the tabletop. I think you'll like it better if you take that background area to pure black.

[Steve S]

Looks good framed and matted...............................I'll have one .






Great shot allen, i like it. You did the hard part, all i did was some extra editing. Well done, should make a nice print.

[Polar01]

Allen:
Good name, what I would like to know is did you get a parental release form filled out if it was under 18 yrs of age.

Cheers:

Allan

[Loose Canon]

If you don’t mind Allen, I’ll have one of those with you guys!

And I’ll raise my glass to you and your photo!

Very nice work!

[allenlennon]

Thank you mike, hows this? I turned the background into pitch black, i adjusted the white balance to. Only thing i didnt do, because i forgot is to even out the colour in the scotch.

[Mike Buckley]

It looks great now, Allen. Very nice!

You only need to attend to the tilt. Get the bright red "line" at the top of the Scoth perfectly horizontal and you'll be moving on to your next Scotch, ummm, photo.

[allenlennon]

Steve, i do like your frame. Thank you

Allan, yes we have a very good name dont we? hahaha, its 16 years old, was 12 years old when i got it, goes down smooth. HAHA.

And Terry, please dont drink all of it, hahah

[allenlennon]

Thank you mike, now to work on a frame. Steve, may i ask how you did that frame???

[Mike Buckley]

Allen,

Check out my previous post, as I might have edited it after you read it.