Glass bottles and stoppers

[Mike Buckley]

These are old bottles I bought at a neighbor's yard sale last summer. I finally got around to photographing them today. The pairing of textured, frosted, clear stoppers with smooth green bottles is interesting for me.

Setup
The background is translucent white glossy acrylic and the tabletop is opaque black glossy acrylic. A medium continuous-light lamp is behind the background shining through it toward the subjects and camera.

[Marie Hass]

Like it, Mike.

I like your use of negative space. I enjoyed that your POF is the lovely stopper, and that it, justifiably so, shines so brightly.

Low key works so nicely with this glass.

Merry Christmas.

Marie

[Donald]

That is beautiful, Mike.

Very large - on the wall.

For me, the whole thing just works wonderfully well - composition; lighting.

[Shadowman]

Nice composition and capture.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to Marie, Donald and John!

Low key works so nicely with this glass.

You might be surprised about the tone distribution displayed below.

[bnnrcn]

Great tones Mike I love the image but to tell you the truth my eyes couldn't get used to the half bottle first.

[Brownbear]

An especially beautiful image... I adore the 1/2 bottle but I'm still pondering the negative space.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to Binnur and Christina!

People are fairly strongly divided at least so far about the use of the negative space. It's rare that I can't articulate why I like or dislike a particular characteristic of an image but that's the case now; I like the negative space a lot but can't say why. The most helpful information I can provide is that the negative space feels just right to me, and I realize that's not very helpful.

[Wavelength]

I liked it; i equally feel for a vertical crop too...i am not sure about the vignette here. I feel an over all lack of sharpness, especially towards the free stopper behind....were that intentional? what was your aperture value, please ?

[Rob Ekins]

I like the negative space Mike.

The stopper in the bottle seems a little off level, I am not sure if I like that or not, it seems perfectly natural which I like but my brain unfortunately goes right for the ruler tool

I have been shooting some light globes lately and found myself preferring to leave negative space. I think subconsciously I was thinking of the images as product shots and leaving room for text... or I just liked it that way

Nandakumar,
Seeing as it is Midnight where Mike is I can answer your question.
The EXIF shows.
Nikon D7000
f11
1/13s
ISO 100
35mm

Also I think the vignette is a result of the single light source behind the subject, Mike may or may not have edited it to his liking though.

[Manfred M]

Mike - I keep coming back to this shot and re-examined it a number of times. That suggests that it intrigues me, but I haven't quite made up my mind about it.

As with all of your work, the image has been well thought out and the execution while you photographed it and how you handled the image in post is up to your usual high standards. Yet, something bothers me about it and I think I've finally figured it out (more on that later).

I like the subject matter and the lighting. I suspect the vignette-like effect is just the way that the lighting worked out. I like the simple shapes and find the negative space works extremely well, as this balances out the left and right hand sides of the image. I agree with you that this is definitely not a low key image; there are far too many highlights in it and your histogram shows that clearly.

Others have commented on the cut-off bottle on the right. And that is the part I am still wondering about, so I moved it around in Lightbox. Removing it simplifies the image and results in a pleasing image, but one that is more sterile. That half bottle adds tension to the shot and removes that sense of serenity.

I suspect this is why I keep coming back to the image; seeing tension in an image that really should not be expected to have any. This is what makes this shot work so well and takes if from merely being a good shot to a great shot.

Nicely done Mike. I love images that make me think.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to Nandakumar and Robbie!

Nandakumar: Everything about the primary subject and its reflection is perfectly sharp even when the full-size file is displayed at 100%. I tried six aperture settings ranging from f/8 to f/22 and settled on f/11 as Robbie mentioned because it threw the other two objects and the horizon line out of focus just the right amount to my taste.

To add to Robbie's EXIF data, the Nikon D7000 is a 1.5 crop camera.

Robbie: You're correct that the bottle top is leaning a little to the right. If it is possible to get it perfectly straight, I wasn't up to that task. It took a lot of work to get it as straight as it is, as the natural fit is very crooked. Even so, like you, I like the slight tilt or at least it doesn't bother me.

Both of you: Robbie is correct that the vignette is solely the result of the lighting, not post-processing. I maintain an inventory of lamps in three sizes almost entirely because the major difference is the size of their reflectors. I have a small reflector about 6" in diameter, a medium reflector about 12" and a large reflector about 17". In most situations, I choose the size of the reflector according to the size of the vignette I want to use or not use. I further refine the size and intensity of the vignette in a setup such as this one by moving the lamp closer to or farther away from the background being lit.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, Manfred, for taking the time to provide all of us such detailed thinking about your responses to the image.

the negative space works extremely well, as this balances out the left and right hand sides of the image.

I have the same reaction but I still don't understand why the left and right sides seem so balanced. Intuitively, such equal amounts of negative and filled spaces shouldn't seem balanced; the right side in this case should seem "heavy" enough that it wouldn't be possible for the negative space to balance it. Similarly, because the right and left sides are so close to being equal in size, intuitively it seems to me that the image should be seen as two halves almost as if there are two scenes and the photographer should have chosen which scene to photograph. Instead, the two sides of the image seem unified and make one whole scene that seems very natural to me, and I'll be darned if I can figure out why.