Wine bottle wearing a Stelvin cap (for Binnur)

[Mike Buckley]

When I displayed this photo in another thread, Binnur wished I had not used the color background. I explained that if I had done as she wished, my concern was that many people would have assumed the image was made using selective color during post-processing. So, I made the photo shown below, which is in full color (no desaturating or converting to monochrome). The screw cap makes up such a larger portion of the image that perhaps fewer people will inaccurately assume the image was post-processed to use selective color.

If your viewing screen is large enough, you'll see that the cap is made by Stelvin. Who knew? It's amazing what you learn about fashion when you make close-up images.

Please click the image to view it at a larger size.

Setup
The background is translucent white acrylic positioned to fill the frame, no more and no less. A medium continuous-light lamp was shining from behind the background toward the subject and the camera. A small continuous-light lamp fitted with a custom snoot made of black matte aluminum foil to prevent reflections of the lamp from appearing on the wine bottle was lighting the cap from the front right. A reflector on the left brightened that side of the cap and added a reflection to that side of the bottle. Made with just one capture, not two as in the other image discussed above.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done, I was more intrigued by the sense of shape of the cap made by the tonal ranges.

[Manfred M]

Nice "portrait" Mike. Both the group shot and the solo are great images, but I think I might prefer this one by a hair.

[bnnrcn]

I don't know how you managed it Mike, but it doesn't look like selective coloring at all. Great depth and tonality. Thanks for showing us such a beauty

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to John, Manfred and Binnur!

I was more intrigued by the sense of shape of the cap made by the tonal ranges.

Me too! I can only imagine the surprises I would have come across if I had made a macro image instead of just a close-up image. The subject is at the largest possible magnification that is also in focus allowed by the lens I used; my method of achieving that was to place the focusing ring at the largest magnification, to position the subject so close to the lens that it was not possible to focus on it and to slowly move the subject farther away until it was in focus.

I don't know how you managed it Mike, but it doesn't look like selective coloring at all.

I knew it wouldn't look like selective coloring to you because we established not too long ago that you and I see pretty much the same thing on our calibrated monitors. I also knew that you would look past all the grey tones to appreciate the yellow tones and perhaps other tones. I'm reasonably confident the tones that are beyond the shades of white, grey and black are the result of glass that is not perfectly clear. I'm positive those tones don't have anything to do with anything special I did; I just let the camera record them at the typical saturation I use.

[Mike Buckley]

By the way, I photographed 8 caps, each made in a different color. I wasn't surprised that I settled on the red cap. That isn't because I used the red cap in the other "group" photo or because of the attractiveness of the color red by itself; it was because of how nicely the red tones complement the grey tones that are present throughout so much of the image.

[Wavelength]

Very lovely; looks like a military man...

[bnnrcn]

When I looked at the image this morning I was going to ask you about the yellowish tones because I couldn't see any particular method in your set up to create those tones, but I had to log off to go out. So, you answered my question before I ask

Thank you to John, Manfred and Binnur!



Me too! I can only imagine the surprises I would have come across if I had made a macro image instead of just a close-up image. The subject is at the largest possible magnification that is also in focus allowed by the lens I used; my method of achieving that was to place the focusing ring at the largest magnification, to position the subject so close to the lens that it was not possible to focus on it and to slowly move the subject farther away until it was in focus.



I knew it wouldn't look like selective coloring to you because we established not too long ago that you and I see pretty much the same thing on our calibrated monitors. I also knew that you would look past all the grey tones to appreciate the yellow tones and perhaps other tones. I'm reasonably confident the tones that are beyond the shades of white, grey and black are the result of glass that is not perfectly clear. I'm positive those tones don't have anything to do with anything special I did; I just let the camera record them at the typical saturation I use.