Broken Water Glass

[Mike Buckley]

My wife and I have had this set of glasses for years and had never broken any of them. That was until the day I merely put this glass in the dish washer when two pieces fell out of the top.

Setup
A very simple yet effective setup using just one light source. The tabletop is clear glass and the background is textured blue art paper. A small continuous-light lamp lights the background from below. A black card placed on the right side of the glass improved the black-line effect on that side of the glass.

I wanted a cool blue mood to complement the idea of the cold ice cubes. However, the glass tabletop is thick enough by design to hold anything you would put on a dining room table. So, it displays a slight green tint when the camera is positioned to "look" through enough thickness of the glass. That's what happened with this scene. My solution was to eliminate its green cast during post-processing.

[Shadowman]

The composition and lines work for me and I suppose the sharply focused foreground glass follows the tenet of "make sure something in the composition is sharp and the viewer will fill in the missing pieces". As presented, it is definitely an unsettling composition.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks for noticing, John, but I'm confused:

it is definitely an unsettling composition.

Is that a positive or negative characteristic in your mind?

[Shadowman]

Thanks for noticing, John, but I'm confused:



Is that a positive or negative characteristic in your mind?

Mike,

Unsettling in the sense that it looks dangerous, I think the ice cubes add to that feeling; as someone might not notice the breakage and drink from the glass.

[Mike Buckley]

Ahhhhh. I wish I could say that I had hoped for that effect but I actually never thought of it. Thanks for clarifying!

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Mike,

In my runaway imagination, it looks like someone with large fangs took a bite out of it - which leads me in turn to suggest that a suitable shadow cast on the background might raise the scariness quotient somewhat

[Mike Buckley]

It's clear, Dave, that you took Halloween way too seriously this year.

[FootLoose]

Fangs? I thought of the 'Bat Device'.

I like the colours and the set-up, Mike, but I would prefer the glass to be sharper.

[mugge]

I love this shot. It is very difficult to shot glassware. The light just below the base bothers me. Can that be fixed?
Cheers Ole

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to Greg and Ole!

Greg: The choice of making the water glass sharp or out of focus and how out of focus is just a personal one. The current look is exactly how I imagined the image before I even began the setup, so I'm happy with it.

Ole: The stuff that you're seeing immediately below the water glass is its faint reflection in the tabletop. (A clear glass tabletop produces a fainter reflection than most other reflective tabletop materials.) I like it because it adds depth to the scene for me. I could have eliminated it using a non-reflective tabletop, such as one made of a different material or by modifying the glass tabletop to produce less or perhaps even no reflection. I also could have minimized that reflection in this scene by lighting that area of the background brighter. However, I wanted the brightest area to be where the two shards are located to attract the eye to them. Notice that there is no detectable reflection of the two shards because the bright light eliminated their reflection that would have otherwise been displayed.

[Donald]

Sublime. The lighting is, I think, perfect. Sets a wonderful mood. The emphasis on the broken shards of glass contributes enormously to a sense of mystery about the story. How did it happen? Who was there when it happened? Were they meant to be together (the people who were there)? Did they have to leave in a hurry? Oh, I think you could write a novel based on that picture.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks for noticing, Donald. Your line of thinking is very similar to mine. One of the reasons I included the ice cubes in the scene is to bring on the question of whether the glass was broken by placing the cubes in it and, if not, how was the glass broken? The little bit of water in the bottom of the glass brings on the question of whether the glass had been filled with water and had been drunk before the glass was broken. Or is that bit of water nothing more than melt from the ice cubes. You mentioned the mystery and, for me, the out of focus water glass and ice contributes to the feeling of mystery for me.

[Donald]

The opening of the novel is:
"He placed the broken pieces of glass neatly on the table beside the remainder, which still had the ice cubes in it. The drink would have to wait. There was no time for that now. She had told him they could meet again soon. ..."

Question - Am I pursuing the wrong pathway in life? Was I really meant to be a writer?

[Wavelength]

Very nice.... i was also thinking about a still low point of view fading away the glass to a more OOF stance and bringing the sharp ends of the broken glass pieces closer to and thus threatening the viewer....

[mknittle]

It is a very nice image Mike. It is also interesting to see how it invokes peoples imaginations.

[Mike Buckley]

"He placed the broken pieces of glass neatly on the table beside the remainder, which still had the ice cubes in it. The drink would have to wait. There was no time for that now. She had told him they could meet again soon. ..."

Wonderful!

[bnnrcn]

Interesting image Mike. For some reason the glass seems to me as if it is hanging in the air Is it because it hasn't got a shadow on the tabletop ?

PS. I can see some faint reflections on the tabletop but no shadows.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to Nandakumar, Mark and Binnur!

Nandakumar: Thanks for the idea of making the sharp tips of broken glass appear as if they endanger the viewer. I'll keep that in mind in the future.

Binnur: For me, the reflection of the water glass is "grounded" by its reflection in the tabletop. That reflection and the strong horizon line gives me the impression that the two chards of glass are also resting on the tabletop; without the reflection and horizon line, they would appear to me as if they were "floating."

You are correct that there are no shadows of the subjects in the scene. It's not possible that I know of to produce a shadow on a clear glass surface that has not been modified, which is what the tabletop in the photo is made of. However, I could have produced a shadow on the background if I had wanted to do so.

[Mike Buckley]

A completely different image featuring the water glass and shards is also displayed here.