Green Bottle

[Mike Buckley]

This bottle and the blue bottle embossed with a horseshoe are very sentimental to me because they came from the house of a good friend and because they were displayed on a set of shelves constructed by my father.

Setup
The tabletop is clear glass and the background is translucent vellum. A small continuous-light lamp shining through the background toward the subject and camera is fitted with a salmon gel sandwiched in between two yellow gels. The vignette is created by the lamp being positioned very close to the background, not by post-processing. A second shot was made using a medium continuous-light lamp to light the cork from the right front area, which defined its shape. The two captures were merged.

[JamesScott86]

That is beautiful! Excellent Shot!!!

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[Rebel]

Another good shot Mike, it's made me wonder what was originally in the bottle and how old is it?

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, Matt.

This green bottle and the blue bottle indicate on the bottom that they were made in Taiwan. I have no idea how old they are or whether they were actually made to store anything, as opposed to being made for simple display. Perhaps a bottle expert can let us know more about that.

[DanK]

beautiful use of light.

[bnnrcn]

Very nice image, I like the old look of the bottle

[JBW]

this shot honours your father and friends. The only downside is that this genre has now been perfected.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you, everyone!

[Kaye Leggett]

Another lovely shot. I prefer the Horseshoe bottle as your image there seems to capture the age and history more. This one seems a little too bright and modern in its presentation. Have you attempted a shot of the two together or is that asking too much ?

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, Kaye!

I wasn't attempting to capture the age or history because I have no idea what either would be or would be imitating. If I had to make a guess, it would be that neither bottle was old or had any significant history but they may or may not be imitating something important for all I know (don't know). Lacking any knowledge about all of that, I concentrated only on displaying color, shape and texture.

In the case of the blue bottle, I brought out its embossing partly by providing a plain tabletop and background that seamlessly became one with no horizon line. In the case of the green bottle, I brought out the tiny characteristic imperfections and the strong mostly vertical lines by contrasting all of that with a plain tabletop devoid of imperfections but with a strong horizon line.

I toyed with one particular composition and background using both bottles together but decided the background and treatment favored only the blue bottle. I haven't gone beyond that to make a photo of both of them yet. That's definitely not asking too much but will probably require a more technically demanding setup due to the embossing in the blue bottle that is not present in the green bottle.

So far, I haven't come up with a design in my mind that will enhance both bottles. Considering that the design of a scene is by far my biggest weakness when it comes to tabletop photography, that's no surprise.

[deetheturk]

Stunning image Mike, you have done them both proud!

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you, David!

[Rob Ekins]

Mike,
Lovely image and nice back story with these images, perhaps the BG in this one was influenced by the colour of Kathleen' hair

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, Robbie!