Little Bang Theory

[jordand]

[DigitalScape]

Excellent!

[Mutley]

Very good indeed

[Wavelength]

WOW.... a click in time saved you fame

[bnnrcn]

Very nice image indeed Do you have some more space at the bottom?

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[ionian]

Great shot Jordan. Can you briefly describe your set up, lighting and shooting method? I'm just curious, I wouldn't know where to start with this but would love to learn.

[Tony M]

Superb. Looking forward to your reply to Simon

[John 2]

That's a cracking shot. +1 to Simon's comment above.

[ShaneS]

Very cool Jordan! Like Binnur I too would like to see a bit more at the bottom but it is a minor quibble on a very nice shot.

[IzzieK]

How many glasses did you break before you got this shot? Just curious...

[jordand]

Hi everyone,
This is what I used for the shot.



And this is my final requisite setup /including the kitchen floor and the cabinet door/.



As for the glass, it was broken long ago, but I kept in because I had the feeling it might be useful one day. I also have a broken white teacup and another wine glass, identical to the one from the photo with broken stem.
I’m saying this, because it might be a good idea to keep such “useless” things for future projects.
If you look closely you’ll see the flash just behind the pot, pointing at the ceiling. It was set to -1 and covered with foil.
My camera was set to Commander Mode, WB-Flash, f/11, 1/250, ISO 100.
It took about 40 shots all around the kitchen until I choose the floor.
You can see it reflects some light from the window to the left.
As for the flash power and shutter speed, one might thing that faster and lighter is better but of what I saw in the net and experienced myself, more power means that the flash emits light for a longer period and this produces blur.
For the final shot I used real wine and a walnut, which I dropped in the liquid from about 30cm, pressing the trigger button almost simultaneously.
I was shooting RAW+JPEG Fine.



It took 5 minutes to make 8-10 shots and 30 minutes to clean the floor…My advice – DO NOT SPARE THE FOIL!
My initial PP steps were in ACR.I corrected the Shadows and Highlights, sharpened and selectively desaturated the background /not completely/.
I then moved to CS6 for noise reduction /Nik Dfine2/ and sharpening using new layer, High pass Filter and Overlay blending mode.
In my final steps I applied Levels /Ctrl L/ and Curves /Ctrl M/ on separate layers, setting the white point for the latter in the lower third of the background, thus lightening the picture a bit more.
Hope this will help. Thank you all for the comments.

[Wavelength]

Splendid illustrated explanation

[jordand]

Splendid illustrated explanation

Huh..!
To be honest, I don’t know where the first picture came from.
It wasn’t there when I posted my reply and I don’t have it on my computer I think.



I actually put this one.

[IzzieK]

Thanks for the detailed explanations. I thoroughly enjoyed the lesson here. I am not sure I will have the space in my smallist kitchen like yours so perhaps in the summer, this will be a good subject to make on the deck. At least our hose will be out by then...I will copy and paste this instructions for 'ron.

Hi everyone,
This is what I used for the shot.



And this is my final requisite setup /including the kitchen floor and the cabinet door/.



As for the glass, it was broken long ago, but I kept in because I had the feeling it might be useful one day. I also have a broken white teacup and another wine glass, identical to the one from the photo with broken stem.
I’m saying this, because it might be a good idea to keep such “useless” things for future projects.
If you look closely you’ll see the flash just behind the pot, pointing at the ceiling. It was set to -1 and covered with foil.
My camera was set to Commander Mode, WB-Flash, f/11, 1/250, ISO 100.
It took about 40 shots all around the kitchen until I choose the floor.
You can see it reflects some light from the window to the left.
As for the flash power and shutter speed, one might thing that faster and lighter is better but of what I saw in the net and experienced myself, more power means that the flash emits light for a longer period and this produces blur.
For the final shot I used real wine and a walnut, which I dropped in the liquid from about 30cm, pressing the trigger button almost simultaneously.
I was shooting RAW+JPEG Fine.



It took 5 minutes to make 8-10 shots and 30 minutes to clean the floor…My advice – DO NOT SPARE THE FOIL!
My initial PP steps were in ACR.I corrected the Shadows and Highlights, sharpened and selectively desaturated the background /not completely/.
I then moved to CS6 for noise reduction /Nik Dfine2/ and sharpening using new layer, High pass Filter and Overlay blending mode.
In my final steps I applied Levels /Ctrl L/ and Curves /Ctrl M/ on separate layers, setting the white point for the latter in the lower third of the background, thus lightening the picture a bit more.
Hope this will help. Thank you all for the comments.

[Loose Canon]

Very, very cool shot Jordan!

Hats off for stepping into an area of photography that relatively not so too many folks will take the time to attempt, much less attempt to understand what goes on with the dynamics!

Further? Your shot is an excellent example of the fact that this type of shooting can be done with a minimum of equipment, but a maximum of willingness and “stick-to-it-tivness”!

If you don’t mind Jordan I’d share some thoughts on my experiences with this type of photography. And these are going to be mostly technical and involved with post-production because I think you pretty much nailed it with your vision and what you worked with to get it framed successfully. These are just opinions as and always YMMV!

What will make a shot like yours really shine is how you process it because once you get it nailed in-camera there is a lot going on for post-production when you shoot glass, moving translucent liquid, and provide light for the entire scene.

First off, and I know this has been mentioned, the glass is way too tight at the bottom of the frame. And maybe not tight enough at the top. I might suggest using a nice surface of some kind or maybe a include a little of the glass “pedestal” in your shot.

There is some “grunge” at the top corners that would probably be better off not being there. The entire white background is gradated, but not enough to look credible as a gradient. Now from the looks of things you might not have had the lights to evenly light the BG so this would be an easy job for post.

I would suggest some clean-up of the lines on the glass to make the dark outlines on the stem, base, and edges of the bowl a little cleaner. I would also suggest possible de-saturating the red and blue on the base and the blue on the stem. But again that is just opinion. The shot looks sharp. I have found that some local contrast can help with the appearance of sharpness just as something to put out there!

The splash looks great and I think you did a great job stopping it. Appears you know how it’s done and why and I think you chose a splash that nicely compliments the shape of the broken glass. Something that, at least for me, makes a nice clean looking splash is what you don’t leave in. In this shot I would suggest that you clean up a lot of the smaller wine drops, and for sure the drops that do not show the color red. Cropping from the top and putting the visible top edge of the glass bowl close to the upper third would do away with some of the drops. The rest of the particularly small ones I might clone away. A lot of times less is better with the small drops. The eye will follow the small drops around the frame, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but if they are not there then the eye will stay drawn to the main splash/glass which is a better thing.

Jordan, when I brought the shot into the editor I noticed some red bleeding around and to the outside of the airborne drops. I see this sometimes with my wet work. It needs to be cleaned up because, being red, it is very noticeable. When you shoot liquid with a light field, as you have here, you will generally get a dark, or black outline around the outside edges of the drops the same as you do with the edges of the glass. Because of this cool phenomena, it is easy to clean up around the drops and keep them very well defined.

Excellent work Jordan. The more I look at this shot the more I like what you have done. And the more I like what you have done the more I like that you did it with the equipment you used.

If you are going to pursue this avenue of photography, may I suggest a nice tarp and professional level mop and wringer bucket?