Wine photographed in a rare style -- PROBLEM SOLVED!

[Mike Buckley]

Anyhow, the wine with the black background looks real to me.

Your comment reminds me that I should clarify an earlier comment I made. That comment is that I agree with several people that the wine displayed on its own (with no glass) on the white background looks more like wine than the same image displayed on the black background. However, the first image in this thread, which is the third image of my series of white wine displayed in a glass on a black background, still is my favorite of the three images and definitely looks to me like white wine. That's so true that it is the only one of the three images that I added to the gallery titled "All Things Wine" displayed at my web site.

[Mike Buckley]

I suppose this means that I'm going to have to indulge in a glass of white wine in the dark to check it out in real life.

If you want to accurately replicate the conditions of my makeshift studio, you will need to indulge in that glass of wine in in temperatures ranging from 40 to 60 degrees F (5 to 15 degrees C), mostly in the colder end of that range, and wearing clothing that is suitable for those temperatures.

[Brownbear]

So I have to head out in the wee hours of the morning, dressed in black from head to toe, with my glass of vino? If you don't hear from me again it means I was very likely arrested.

If you want to accurately replicate the conditions of my makeshift studio, you will need to indulge in that glass of wine in in temperatures ranging from 40 to 60 degrees F (5 to 15 degrees C), mostly in the colder end of that range, and wearing clothing that is suitable for those temperatures.

[Loose Canon]

Cool! A Rorschach test! And multiple choice at that! I hope I’m not too late and I promise I haven’t looked at the answers!

Neither of these ink spots look like wine to me. (Is that the right answer?)

But why? I thought I would never ask! Here are my thoughts for what little they are worth!

1. They are completely out of context so the comparison isn’t realistic. Neither of these wine spots were shot against the BG they are presented against.

2. White wine is translucent. So the reason the white BG could possibly (meaning maybe) be construed as more realistic is because we would expect to see light off the white BG through the wine. Though nothing approaching white is coming through the wine in the white BG wine spot (and in the context in which it was taken, meaning the posted complete shot, there is no white either) its closer to white coming through than anything approaching dark is coming through the black BG wine spot which should be dark. There ain’t anything even in the same zip code as dark (0,0,0 or even close) coming through with the the black BG wine spot and we would expect to see some dark coming through with a translucent liquid shot on a black BG.

3. This is the reason the wine spots appear opaque, which we know white wine isn’t, which is why the spots don’t look like white wine. There is no visual cue indicating otherwise.

In the final original shot from whence the spots were cut, the wine looks more realistic because comparatively, close to the same light (luminosity value if you want) is coming through the liquid as has the BG. This is the visual cue of translucency finally rearing its head!

So it would be my opinion (since I asked myself what the heck was I thinking to take this test in the first place!) that if it is an optical illusion (and I don’t believe it is), it is one caused by lighting of the wine that is not conducive to illustrating translucency. No big mystery.

Since this thread began I’ve also done a search for white wine on a black BG. I’m finding quite a number of shots done this way. And all of the better ones (if not all of them period) have one thing in common: they all have the visual cue of translucency, meaning the full tonal range, from extremely dark to extremely light and in between, exhibited somewhere in the wine itself. Which is what would be expected shot on black, and what is missing here.

But? I’m also of the mind that there are definitely BG’s that suit a particular subject better than others. I can certainly understand the journey here. It’s a tricky one. This is why I drink vodka! And I can tell its been way too long since I have had any!

So when will I know if I passed or failed and get my psychological evaluation?

[Mike Buckley]

if it is an optical illusion (and I don’t believe it is)

The optical illusion I mentioned has to do with people thinking the extracted images of wine shown with no wine glass against the white and black backgrounds appeared to be different when in fact they were the same.

I agree that the only way to make white wine displayed against a black background to appear as wine to everyone or at least almost everyone is to display at least part of the wine as true black or something close to it. I, personally, don't have that requirement for the image to convey to me that it is white wine but I understand why others would.

[Mike Buckley]

Dave: I tried your idea of placing the light source underneath the glass. That didn't seem to help.

Grahame: I also tried your idea of using candlelight. Despite that I used it to directly light the wine and alternatively used a reflector to bounce the light toward the wine, the characteristics are the same as when using other light sources except of course the color temperature is different. By the way, my wife wasn't at all happy that I risked burning down the storage room where my makeshift studio is located. I blamed you.