Glass bottle with baseball and books

[Mike Buckley]

This image shown below displays the same glass bottle included in my first photo of it. This time I used a completely different approach to the display of its embossing. Most important, I intentionally didn't display all of it so the viewer perhaps wonders what the words are at the bottom of the bottle. Second, the painted letters don't stand out as much as in the first image (again by design) and instead lend to a softer look that is in keeping with the mood of the rest of the scene.

Please click to view at a larger size to appreciate the detail.

Setup
As in the other image, the tabletop is wood and the background is textured art paper that looks like textured plaster when lit this way and presented in this context. Also as in the other image, a flash light on the left side of the scene shines toward the background. The light bounces off the background to light the tabletop and the inside of the bottle. A second flash light in the front left area is shining mostly away from the scene but some of the light bleeds onto the books and baseball to add detail to that area. The tabletop and an unused wooden paint stirrer about the same color as the tabletop reflects additional warm light into that area. A sheet of translucent vellum is in the right rear area and a strip soft box fitted with a speedlight is touching the vellum at a 45-degree angle. That setup creates the gradient reflection on the right side of the bottle. The first capture was made properly exposed for the entire scene. A second capture was made at 2 stops greater exposure to brighten the top of the bottle. Without that extra exposure, the top of the bottle would not have appeared translucent. That area of the second capture was then merged with the first capture.

For those who really get into this stuff, it might be interesting to understand my very different approaches in the two images having to do with the reflection on the right side of the bottle. In the first image, I wanted the reflection to be just a sliver. So, I positioned the translucent vellum and shined a continuous-light lamp through it to produce a hard edge on both sides of the reflection. In the second image, I wanted the reflection to be relatively larger so it would bleed into much more of the lettering identifying the name of the store. If I had produced the reflection the same way as in the first image, the hard edge on the left side of the reflection now in the middle of the lettering would have competed too much with that lettering. Instead, I positioned the vellum and replaced the continuous light lamp with a strip soft box positioned as described above. The result is an elegant gradient that in my mind enhances the scene but doesn't compete with the lettering.

[Manfred M]

The books and bottle look old. The baseball, perhaps a bit less so.

I'm trying to figure out the theme of this image.

[Digital]

Mike, I like the way you lit this photo.



Bruce

[mugge]

Mike, I think this is one of your best photos. The lighting suggest a dimly lit room in a college somewhere after a baseball match. The bottle suggest a toast after an enjoyable day. The books suggest a literary inclination. This is, to my mind, a very well crafted image.
Cheers Ole

[Marie Hass]

The approach, lighting and PP rich brown colors are all right with this "vintage" theme.

I just wish you had a vintage ball that had been autographed by some players or something instead of seeing the contemporary black lettering that shows in the picture.

Marie

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you, everyone!

I'm trying to figure out the theme of this image.

The theme that inspired me to create the image is that of memorabilia, though it's not important to me that the viewer knows that.

The books are elementary school books used by a member or members of my family on my father's side about three generations before my time. (I never met anybody in my father's family, though my brother met some of them after he became middle-aged.) Both books are copyrighted in the mid to late 1800s and one of them is signed and dated 1896.

I caught the baseball barehanded in 2006 at a Baltimore Orioles Major League baseball game while I was sitting down and holding a full glass of lemonade in my other hand. After the game, my wife and I joined her sister and boyfriend for dinner, as they had become engaged just a week or so before.

The bottle is one of many displayed in our sun room. My wife and I bought the bottles one day in Virginia's historic Old Town Alexandria when the sun room and deck were built in 1993. The addition, which also doubled the size of our dining room, was completed just in time for our tenth wedding anniversary.

[Marie Hass]

I beg to differ. I think the theme is very important. Thank you for sharing some background on the objects that you used for display.

Love it.

Marie

[bnnrcn]

Great image Mike

[zen]

Mike,

When next in Olde Town, drop in at Gadsby's and have a hot buttered rum. Delicious at any time of year, but particularly in the fall . . . Have enjoyed many a late supper there in years past.

Zen

[Shadowman]

Interesting combination of props, the shapes and surfaces work well together.