Broken Glass Abstract

[Mike Buckley]

My wife broke the water glass she has been using for years at her office. This closeup of just one part of the break is at a magnification ratio of about 1:1.12, which means the captured scene is only about 0.67" x 1" (about 17 x 26mm)

I have saved most of the drinking glasses I and my wife have broken over the years in anticipation of photographing them with a macro lens, which is now newly acquired. So, expect to see plenty of abstracts of broken glass coming your way.

Setup
The background is translucent white acrylic. A medium continuous-light lamp is shining from behind it toward the subject and camera. The precise placement of the lamp is especially important when the scene being photographed is so small because it determines whether the background is primarily bright, medium, dark or a gradient such as in this photo.

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured.

[JBW]

we walk a different path but the Tamron helps both of us. How cool is that

[Kaye Leggett]

This is also mixing into your abstract theme.

One question - you saved the broken glass to photograph it - then what do you do with it ?

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to John, Brian and Kaye!

we walk a different path but the Tamron helps both of us. How cool is that

Very, very cool!

you saved the broken glass to photograph it - then what do you do with it ?

Sometimes I continue keeping it with the idea that I might get inspired to make different photos of the same glass. If not, I recycle it by placing it in a small box that is labelled to indicate that broken glass is inside. That hopefully prevents anyone at the recycling plant from getting cut by the glass.

[NorthernFocus]

That's really interesting. Where the chips came out it looks like what we call "beach marks" in a fatigue related failure of metal.

[John 2]

That's well seen Mike. Amazing what's on view if you look. Nice image.

[billtils]

Glad to see the fruits of your venture into macro Mike. Were you perchance a crime scene photographer in an earlier life - or is that to be in the next one

[marlunn]

Now thats nice. really nice, great image and fantastic control of lighting to show the glass fracture stress lines. If you dont mind I may have to try that myself I have a 'few' bits of glass around as I make lampwork beads as a bit of a hobby

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, everyone!

Were you perchance a crime scene photographer in an earlier life - or is that to be in the next one

I've never been a crime scene photographer but people who know me would predict that it's more likely that I'd be the criminal.

If you dont mind I may have to try that myself I have a 'few' bits of glass around as I make lampwork beads as a bit of a hobby

I look forward to your images, Mark. Keep in the back of your mind to be prepared for possibly using vastly more aggressive sharpening settings especially locally in small parts of the image than you could ever use in a more typical scene without creating artifacts.

[Mike Buckley]

Hopefully someone can explain the tiny curly shapes that to me look like hair, dust or fabric particles and run in a different direction than the other lines in the glass. I can confirm that upon close examination of the physical scene with the naked eye that they appear to be fractures within the glass (not on the surface of the glass).

[Wavelength]

Very nice concept; well conceived...if you were standing a bit more towards right, would that major break appear more thin?

[marlunn]

Hopefully someone can explain the tiny curly shapes that to me look like hair, dust or fabric particles and run in a different direction than the other lines in the glass. I can confirm that upon close examination of the physical scene with the naked eye that they appear to be fractures within the glass (not on the surface of the glass).

Hmm, I wonder if the glass had a coating of some sort and it is 'cracks' within that. I did think they were fabric particles myself as I cant really understand how they have formed in the glass otherwise - stress fractures normally radiate out and are reasonably uniform, impact fractures are also 'uniform' from point of impact in line with the crystaline structure and these fit neither to my mind. The only other thing - if this break happend a while ago they are organic growth on microparticles on the glass, a fungi in effect ?

[Mike Buckley]

if you were standing a bit more towards right, would that major break appear more thin?

That's a really great question and I don't know the answer to it. I'll get back to you later after I return to my makeshift studio.

I do know that changing the position of the camera, subject or back lit background when using the setup I used will alter the appearance of an image like this sometimes just a little and sometimes a lot. As an example, when setting up a non-macro image, there is a lot of artistic choice about how close the subject is to the camera. Moving the subject relatively a lot toward or away from the camera while leaving the back lit background and camera in the same place not only affects how much the subject fills the frame but also the definition of the edges displayed in dark tones.

One advantage of using this setup to make a macro image is that the subject is so close to the camera and thus so far away from the back lit background that all of those dark lines are very well defined. (If I wanted them less defined for artistic purposes, I would need to devise a setup that allows me to place the background much, much closer to the subject while leaving the subject still so close to the camera.) The acceptable range of distances between the subject and camera when making a macro image is so small that no appreciable changes will be made to the appearance of the subject when moving the subject forward or backward to create a different composition.

[Mike Buckley]

if this break happend a while ago they are organic growth on microparticles on the glass, a fungi in effect ?

The break occurred a couple months ago, so that might be the explanation. It will be interesting to return to glass broken years ago to determine if anything like that characteristic is also displayed.

[Mike Buckley]

I can now answer Nandakumar's question:

if you were standing a bit more towards right, would that major break appear more thin?

Yes, whether moving the camera to the right, moving the glass to the left or rotating it clockwise so the breakage moves to the left, the dark, wide line that extends to the bottom of the frame becomes as thin as a hair subject of course to a sufficient amount of adjustment. Naturally, making any of those adjustments also affects other aspects of how the scene is displayed.

[bnnrcn]

Another nice abstract . I like the light, the curves and the shadows

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, Binnur!

All,

Keep in mind that the subject is a breakage in a fairly large, thick drinking glass. The image shown above was captured by placing the outside of the breakage closest to the camera. I'll call that the front side of the breakage, which is located on what I'll also call the front of the glass. I chose that position because photographing it provides the most options with regard to composition and optical quality; regardless of the composition that I choose, nothing but air is between the camera and subject.

It occurred to me that I had not tried rotating the glass 180 degrees to see how the breakage looks up close when viewed from its rear. I raised the camera to avoid shooting through rear of the drinking glass. I also lowered the camera, which would have required accepting the optical compromise that would come from shooting through the relatively thick rear of the drinking glass. In both situations, the composition and details of the breakage are not nearly as interesting when viewed up close from the rear.

In other words, I got very lucky that the really interesting composition is also the one that is viewed from the front.

[billtils]

Hopefully someone can explain the tiny curly shapes that to me look like hair, dust or fabric particles and run in a different direction than the other lines in the glass.

Mike, I'm not certain which marks you mean, but on the basis of your description of them as being "curly shapes", the curved ones that radiate from the top are Wallner lines - see Figure 4 here.

[Mike Buckley]

That document is really interesting, Bill. Thanks for providing it! However, the lines I'm referring to don't seem to be the Wallner lines explained in it. I'm referring to the lines displayed below in pink tones. Please excuse that I didn't take the time to properly mask them.