Hot Piece O' Glass II

[Loose Canon]

Just a couple more from the Glass Maker's shoot!

Please let all comments fly! I’m always open to suggestion!

Tomorrow may be another session with them. I’ll take a way more liberal approach, I think, if I get a chance!

Well, that is if my Honey-Do Check-Off sheet gets signed!

f/5.0 1/50 ISO2000



f5.0 1/80 (getting some additional light from the furnace!) ISO2000



And this one because I just think it's cool!
f5.0 1/2500 (no time to adjust ISO! Shot in Av and this is the shutter that was allowed. Strike while the iron [glass] is hot!) ISO2000

[Mike Buckley]

Of all the photos that you have shared in these first two threads, the second one in this thread is a cut above the rest by a very wide margin. Dramatically darken or eliminate the bright lights in the background except the blue tones, which add drama, and the photo will become even stronger.

[Loose Canon]

Of all the photos that you have shared in these first two threads, the second one in this thread is a cut above the rest by a very wide margin.

Hi Mike!

Thank you for saying.

Could I coax you into saying why?

[Donald]

Dramatically darken or eliminate the bright lights in the background

The other thing I wondered about was experimenting with depth-of-field. What's the widest you can shoot at? I see that those above were at f5.0. If you were able to open up a bit and therefore narrow the DoF, that could make for interesting stuff as well.

[Mike Buckley]

Could I coax you into saying why?

The second photo in this thread does such a much better job of telling the story in my mind for many reasons that I'll explain.

Though I agree with Donald that the image would have been better if you had used a larger aperture to prevent the background from getting in the way of the rest of the photo, at least in this case the background benefits from being mostly dark. Though you blurred the background nicely in the photo in the first thread, the background lights are so bright and angular that they still get in the way.

There is such an interesting relationship between the glass blower and the glass in this one that doesn't exist in your other photos, perhaps enhanced by the tilt in the blower's head, perhaps enhanced by the perspective and the long rod connecting the glass and the man.

Whereas the moment in time that you captured in the other photos has to do with what the glass blower is doing, this one captures not only that but also makes one know that something is coming next; is he going to move the glass closer to the furnace, perhaps inside the furnace, or farther away from the furnace?

This photo has just a hint of motion in the technique that the blower is using to rotate the rod and glass. That, along with the technique of balancing the rod on his left hand, are very interesting.

Last, though I usually don't like tilted photos, the tilt in this one complements everything else in the photo. I imagine that if had been level, the rod would have helped the photo appear static. Your decision to use the tilt makes this a very dynamic photo.

The very last photo is more like an abstract. (If you hadn't explained it or if I hadn't seen the other photo of the furnace, I might have thought it was intentionally an abstract.) So, considering that it's sort of a different genre from the others, I'm intentionally omitting any comparisons of it with the others.

[Loose Canon]

Hi Donald!

I can shoot up to 2.8. And did. But I’m pretty close up. I’m finding that the DoF allowed for that aperture on a full frame is not necessarily getting everything I wanted in close focus. I’m not so sure that the folks I am shooting for here exactly see DoF the same as you or I do. I want to blur the BG, but am trying to get most of the action in close focus and let the motion cause the blur.

Hi Mike!

Alright then! Thank you for taking the time to explain, and a very eloquent explanation at that.

The reason I asked is because I will probably do some more shooting with these folks and I’ll take all the insights I can get! I want you to know I appreciate yours, sir.