Lemon Water

[Mike Buckley]

I recently bought some high-quality black velvet at a fabric shop for use in my makeshift studio. As I was leaving, I noticed a pitcher of water with lemons floating in it for use as a light refreshment for customers. One thought led to another and eventually to the photo shown below.

The entire image is in color; nothing is converted to monochrome.

Please click the image to display its details at a large size.

Setup
The background is white translucent plexiglass composed to fill the frame, no less and no more. A large continuous-light lamp with five compact fluorescent bulbs rated at the equivalent of 100-watt incandescent bulbs is behind the background shining toward the subject and camera. The size of the lamp's reflector was ideal because of the vignette that it created at the top of the image. The brightness produced by the five bulbs was ideal because it allowed me to keep everything in focus using f/11, to release the shutter continuously at 3 frames per second and to stop the action of the bubbles and lemon so long as I pumped up the ISO value to 1600.

[NorthernFocus]

Nice idea and well executed, Mike. Very cool.

[Manfred M]

Another nice image, Mike.

The one part that is a bit odd looking is the water that is seemingly pouring out of the sky...

[Wavelength]

WOW...that is thrilling

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[Rita]

A 'refreshing' image. I do agree with Manfred though. It would be nice to see even just a bit of what the water was coming from.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, everyone!

If I had displayed that the water is being poured from one pitcher into another, do you think you would have wondered why anyone would actually do that in daily life?

[ST1]

Well captured Mike, I notice you've chosen to add tension to the image by not including all of the jug handle and base. Personally I would have rotated the jug slightly (anti-clockwise looking from above) so that all of the handle was visible. But teats just me commenting before breakfast so it could be a blood sugar issue

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, Peter!

I would have rotated the jug slightly (anti-clockwise looking from above) so that all of the handle was visible.

I actually began the setup with the pitcher rotated clockwise and with the entire handle displayed. The two problems for me were that the image seemed too stagnant and that the top of the pitcher was less interesting. I could have included the entire handle using the current position but decided not to for the reason you mentioned, that I liked the tension created by excluding part of the handle.

Those types of choices are a large part of the fun for me of doing tabletop photography. Everyone making a similar image would probably make different decisions for perfectly valid reasons.

[John 2]

Technically on the money and it conveys the "message". There are of course, other compositional options but are they better or do they fall into the category of personal preference rather than anything else? I think I would be happy if I had the skill to produce this as it is.

[madcrow]

Mike, leave it alone, great image.

[Rita]

Thanks, everyone!

If I had displayed that the water is being poured from one pitcher into another, do you think you would have wondered why anyone would actually do that in daily life?

Good point!

[Pixl8tor]

Beautiful.
Thanks for sharing the setup.
Bill

[Mike Buckley]

Continued thanks to everyone!

[FootLoose]

Well executed, Mike. It reminds me of an advertisement for something.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, Greg!

[LePetomane]

Well done.

[bnnrcn]

I love those bubbles in the water and the details in the slice of the lemon.Also the tones of grey go very well with the yellow. Very nice image Mike

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to Paul and Binnur!