Simple Circles

[Mike Buckley]

This is my second photo made from shooting above. Unlike my first one, which had little negative space and was relatively complex, I chose to go the simple route with this one using comparatively lots of negative space.

[Digital]

Mike, this is a nice pic; however I like the first one better. You did a fabulous job on the lighting of this photo.


Bruce

[terrib]

I like the other better but I can't really put my finger on why. Something about the bottom glass in this one bothers me. Maybe the other just had a lot more interesting stuff in it. I don't know. Sorry that's not help!!

[Mike Buckley]

My wife also likes the first one better. I like the simplicity of this one but I like the way the other one seems to draw the viewer into the scene. It's too early for me to know whether I prefer one strongly over the other; that will come with time.

[Bobobird]

Same as above, YOGI for me.....

Purely visual. I could not tell you why that and not this.

[Mike Buckley]

Purely visual. I could not tell you why that and not this.

I hope you don't mind a bit of philosophy: I think that's a great way to go through life. Some people like to go on and on about why they like this or that about something that is visual and I'm usually in that camp. However, I have never believed that knowing why we like something adds to the enjoyment of it other than that it adds to the enjoyment of discussing it.

I completely understand where you're coming from. As an example, when it comes to enjoying wine, I rarely taste any individual flavors that others taste and discuss. I am never able to smell the aromas, which is probably why I also can't taste the individual flavors. However, I always know whether I like the overall taste, body and texture of a particular wine and that's all I need to know to enjoy it. I suspect that if I couldn't sense the body or texture my experience wouldn't be any less enjoyable.

[tomdinning]

Hi Mike.
I didn't see the first one so I'll remain detached.
I'm assuming you had one of those days when its worth experimenting with some ideas. It's a great way to learn what you can do with what you know and make a fool of yourself when no one is looking. I do it all the time. My wife thinks I'm in the back room with a bunch of girls mags. Either way, I'm out of her hair.
Back to the picture.
It's fascinating how light and glass play with each other. Did you take some shots from other angles? Did you shift the light source around? How many positions did you try with the glasses? Did you try different colour glass or different colour light? Did you shift the frame about? what about different shaped frames? You could spend all day fiddling with the settings on the camera as well.
My favourite subject is pears.
I think what I'm getting at here is that we all should do this sort of stuff. Playing around with the abstract really gets our head into a position of understanding how form, light, colour (or the absence of ) and working with the frame can change our perspective on something as simple as three glasses.
You are to be commended on your efforts. Don't be too concerned about people liking it or not. This is exploration, experimentation and curiosity; the secret ingredients to getting more from photography - and everything else you do.
That's what I tell my wife when she asks me why I spend so much time in my shed with the girly mags - I mean cameras.

[Plumcrak]

The lighting is wonderful(as usual, we would expect no less at this point), focus is spot on...but I do not like this one as much as the last one. I think I would like to see complete "Simple Circles" rather than partial ones.

Cheers

[Mike Buckley]

Tom,

It's a great way to...make a fool of yourself when no one is looking.

Perhaps the difference between you and me is that I'm so good at making a fool of myself when everyone is looking.

Seriously, I have been proficient at making reasonably satisfying studio photographs of inanimate objects only for about a year and one of the things that I like about it is that I can keep trying to make a better and better photo of the same subject as long as my patience allows with no other restrictions whatsoever. To answer your other questions, I tried some though not all of the your suggestions with this photo. You might or might not have seen other photos I have been making of glass in which I have tried everything you suggested and more. It's great fun!

[Mike Buckley]

Jon,

I tried compositions in which the entire circles were visible. However, I concluded that they needed to be anchored at least partially to the frame.

One issue about that is that the process I use as explained in Light: Science and Magic is to set up the background light and the camera position so that it exactly captures the size of the background, no more and no less. That has to do with the physics of light as it pertains to the family of angles. The method of making the subjects appear larger or smaller (appear entirely within the frame or not) is to move the subjects farther away from or closer to the camera. That's easy to do when shooting from the side of the subjects. That's completely impractical to do in my makeshift studio when shooting from above.

Having said that, I am going to try adjusting the magnification by moving the camera, which I think might be successful when using a bright field such as in this photograph, though I'm less optimistic about that when using a dark field. The experimentation and learning continues!

[Mito]

.......... when it comes to enjoying wine, I rarely taste any individual flavors that others taste and discuss. I am never able to smell the aromas, which is probably why I also can't taste the individual flavors. However, I always know whether I like the overall taste, body and texture of a particular wine and that's all I need to know to enjoy it. I suspect that if I couldn't sense the body or texture my experience wouldn't be any less enjoyable.

I would have said that that was an excuse to practice more!

[Mike Buckley]

I would have said that that was an excuse to practice more!

Only if an excuse is needed, which in my case is never true.