Glasswork - Frozen Action Wine

[Marie Hass]

Today's work with my mentor was to open another bottle of my good wine stash and work with the flash and freezing the action of the poured wine. This was my first attempt at high speed sync.

Needless to say, again, I get to drink another bottle of wine (I'm getting to love these lessons)!

Please c&c

Marie

[KimC]

Just gorgeous Marie -- looks like an ad for some spectacular wine! For me, the movement and transparency makes it special.

What makes the glass appear more gold in this shot than the last one you posted?

[Marie Hass]

Dear Kim,

Thank you for your comment!

There is a difference in PP. I really loved the richness of color the wine imparted all the way down the glass in this one.

While it may not be a commercial standard, it is a personal favorite.

Marie

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured.

[KimC]

Thanks for your response Marie. I love the color as well...IMO it gives it more of an artist flare.

Dear Kim,

Thank you for your comment!

There is a difference in PP. I really loved the richness of color the wine imparted all the way down the glass in this one.

While it may not be a commercial standard, it is a personal favorite.

Marie

[Loose Canon]

Hey Marie!

Your pour shots are looking great. But since you are mentioning freezing the action?

I looked at the EXIF and it is telling me 1/256th shutter (though I’m not sure how that happened!). You are using HSS.

Is this anywhere near accurate?

The reason I ask is because I’m not sure why one would use HSS at that shutter (I’m guessing it was actually 1/250th) instead of just syncing and using the flash instead of the shutter to stop the action. Of course, if it was your first foray with HSS I could see the reason for shooting it that way to play with the HSS. It would be my guess that that is the fastest shutter with the HSS to get the exposure happening?

If that is an accurate shutter it isn’t fast enough to stop the action. It looks great, but not quite “stopped” to me.

Any chance you might describe the set-up?

[NorthernFocus]

Nicely done, Marie. But I am a bit confused about the mentor business. Is he/she helping with the photography or with "disposing of" the wine

[Marie Hass]

Dear Terry,

I am not sure how that happened! When shooting tethered, my shutter speed was set at 1/500. This was to be my first foray into HSS. I do see now on my exif that it says 1/250 (how did you come up with 1/256????). Knowing that the recommended sync speed of my camera shutter is 1/200, camera and flash in manual mode, I do not know why the camera did not record 1/500!

At the recommended shutter sync speed, the wine action was not frozen. so the shutter speed was shortened to 1/500. Upon examination of the image again, I do not notice any blur...If you do, please show me where?

Marie

[Marie Hass]

Dear Dan,

LOLS!!! Disposing of my decanted wine is all my pleasure! My mentor, however, is in the wine country of Austria and must open his own bottle if we want to drink to my lesson's success.

Marie

[Loose Canon]

Miss Marie?

I have no idea what is going on! I just popped the shot into the EXIF viewer because you didn’t offer anything. I never liked these happy EXIF viewers anyway!

I have mentioned this before and I stand by it. If the EXIF is not offered, and with a studio shot the lighting set is not mentioned, and better still a bts shot of the positioning of the lights or the power settings and all things relevant, there is really no way to offer or open any kind of meaningful discussion.

I’m sorry, but I saw nothing in the bowl of the glass that offers any detail. It still looks cool. But it is not “frozen” at all or you would have that detail in the liquid pour. You didn’t have the speed to freeze the pour. That is not an opinion sadly! It is the fact of freezing movement (especially liquid and close up) in the studio (or anywhere else for that matter)!

Here is a shot of fast moving liquid. Not my best overall shot ever but the liquid is what I was going for and I stopped it regardless of the fact that the rest of the shot sucks!



Here is 100% crop of the ton of liquid blowing out the bottle neck. It was a garden hose at full blast epoxied into a hole cut into the bottom of the bottle! About 80 PSI. This eruption is extremely fast moving water! I flooded the studio in a heartbeat! Notice detail and separation at 100%. There is no blur here.

Does it look any better than your pour? No. That is subjective. But it is important to see it and know the difference. That is objective and I think very important for studio work.

[just me]

Beautiful done !!!!!!!

Griddi........

[IzzieK]

I am afraid I agree with Terry's explanation here about the freezing of the wine though I see in my EXIF viewer that your SS is 1/250 not 256. Nice shot though...I like the warmth of the colour of the wine in the glass. I still like the first shot compared to this one.

[Rebel]

This is a great shot, love the colour of the wine.

[Marie Hass]

My exif: 120mm, F9, 1/256, ISO 250.

Dear Terry, thanks for showing me your image! I looked at your exif as well. I wonder if the difference in aperture may be a factor in fooling the eye? You chose F22, which would ensure adequate DoF through and through. I chose F9 thinking that would to help create depth. I am baffled.

As far as my setup. I have a square softbox with my flash in it directly behind my glass. I have lots of flags to help direct the light forward rather than allowing it to spill all over the place.

Marie

[Mike Buckley]

You sure are good at pouring into the side of the glass without missing the bowl!

I don't think I can determine with absolute certainty whether the action is stopped without seeing a portion of the image at 100%.

There are two colors of direct reflections in the glass -- white and the color of the wine. This wouldn't bother me if I didn't photograph glass. However, because I do photograph glass, it looks odd to me and catches me off guard. I don't know how that can happen using just one light source. Even using two light sources, I don't know how to create two colors of direct reflection on the same side of the stem. That's because a direct reflection is a mirror image of the light source and, thus, will be the color of the light source. If the two tones of direct reflections were intentionally introduced during post-processing, let me know and I won't mention it again.

There are warm areas the color of the wine in the background around the entire glass. It appears odd to me because there is no reason I'm aware of that, as an example, the area above the top of glass would be the same color as the area formed by the curve of the wine where it transitions from the pour to the splash. Similarly, I can't think of why the area above the glass should be a different color than the rest of the background that is black. As above, if this was intentionally introduced during post-processing, let me know so I know not to mention it again.

[Mike Buckley]

My exif: ... 1/256, ISO 250.

I have found on rare occasions that EXIF is not reported accurately. Either your data or my data is wrong. (Perhaps both are wrong.) My EXIF reader indicates 1/250 and ISO 200.

You mentioned that you used f/9 to help create depth. I don't know whether you meant that as an explanation for not using a larger aperture or not using a smaller aperture. At the small image size displayed here, the front and rear parts of the rim appear in focus. Those two areas are almost the nearest and farthest parts of the glass, so it could be that the entire glass and, thus, everything inside it is within the depth of field. Are the front and rear parts of the rim sharp at 100%?

I’m not sure why one would use HSS at that shutter (I’m guessing it was actually 1/250th) instead of just syncing and using the flash instead of the shutter to stop the action.

I agree and am eager to learn why HSS was used. In other words, what is the advantage in this situation of using HSS instead of syncing and using the short duration of the flash to stop the action? I've never used HSS, so I'm eager to learn why you would use it in this situation.

[Marie Hass]

Dear Mike and Terry,

There are several things I do not understand yet, and one is to explain how HSS works. This lesson was to have been my first foray into this process, so asking me to go into detail would be premature. I have not grasped the concept in full yet myself as this was new to me in this lesson. Maybe we can revisit this discussion in 6 months? LOLS.

Mike, as you have explained yourself, when you have flags and diffusers everywhere, some different colors/lights may take different directions. I am just now learning how all of them work individually and together. Maybe when I come home to visit my kids in Baltimore in July I can come to visit you and see your studio? If your wife permits, we could even share some wine. I will pour for you, if you like! I will have mastered that, at least, by then.

Here is a portion of my shot for you to view. Everything seems to be frozen - just maybe not sharp because of F9 was seleted as an artistic decision.

Marie

[Loose Canon]

Cool Marie!

No worries!

Truth be told? There is one hellova lot of stuff I am trying to come to terms with too!

Be glad to let you know how it turns out! Well, if it turns out!

[Mike Buckley]

Truth be told? There is one hellova lot of stuff I am trying to come to terms with too!

Same here!

Be glad to let you know how it turns out! Well, if it turns out!

All of my stuff turns out. However, only a very small part of it turns out well. An even smaller part turns out as I expected or hoped.

[Mike Buckley]

Marie,

Thanks for adding the 100% view to your previous post. The action appears stopped to me, though I don't have a lot of experience with determining that. There are some small areas that seem to be out of focus. Those areas appear to be on the far side of the glass but I don't how how I could determine that some or all of them aren't on the near side.

The idea just now occurred to me that perhaps the easiest way to determine whether everything in the scene is included in the depth of field is to set up a card at the front and rear of the glass when focusing.