Neither Simple Nor Plain Antique Glass Jar

[JBW]

Many of us have lived in a world as close to perfection as mass producing machines can make it. This glass jar was not created in that world. I'm glad it wasn't.

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured.

[JBW]

Nicely captured.

in this case nicely cropped might be more appropriate.

[Manfred M]

An even tighter crop might be warranted. There are areas of background on the top right and along the left edge that are visible.

That would give you a complete abstract, without the distractions of the background.

[JBW]

An even tighter crop might be warranted. There are areas of background on the top right and along the left edge that are visible.

That would give you a complete abstract, without the distractions of the background.

By definition an abstract is "existing in thought or as an idea but not having a physical or concrete existence." This is a glass jar which is really a glass jar. Most of the color comes from the background. It is the complexity of the jar that I wanted to capture. The mold lines, the bubbles, the curves and swirls. This is not a simple jar. It is an incredibly complex hand crafted container.

I may be doing a series on an old ink bottle that we also found.

[Manfred M]

Brian - glass is transparent, so we need to use techniques that bring out the characteristics, especially if the glass is clear and not coloured. The defects are important and frankly a perfect piece of glass can be a lot harder to photograph that samples like you are using here.

The issue I have is not your approach, but rather your crop. If you are showing off the whole glass, then do so. If you are showing off the textures with a coloured background, again do so. What hasn't been working well in this series is that you are not deciding which way to go; either you are shooting the jar as a subject, which means you need to compose your shot that way and incorporate a strong composition, including the background and negative space. On the other hand, if it is a shot of textures (like this one), you need to watch for distractions (like the ones I pointed out).

I think this is an interesting area to explore, but glass is a challenging subject from both a lighting and compositional standpoint.

[JBW]

Brian - glass is transparent, so we need to use techniques that bring out the characteristics, especially if the glass is clear and not coloured. The defects are important and frankly a perfect piece of glass can be a lot harder to photograph that samples like you are using here.

The issue I have is not your approach, but rather your crop. If you are showing off the whole glass, then do so. If you are showing off the textures with a coloured background, again do so. What hasn't been working well in this series is that you are not deciding which way to go; either you are shooting the jar as a subject, which means you need to compose your shot that way and incorporate a strong composition, including the background and negative space. On the other hand, if it is a shot of textures (like this one), you need to watch for distractions (like the ones I pointed out).

I think this is an interesting area to explore, but glass is a challenging subject from both a lighting and compositional standpoint.

At this point I'm not willing to admit that this is an either / or shot. Maybe you're right but...

As for the glass jar it's not clear. I have never seen perfectly clear ~ colorless ~ transparent glass. There is an overall pale green coloring with many areas of specific color.

I'll grant you that composition is not my strong point. No that's not right. In this genre I have 0 strong points. So I'm really paying attention and will incorporate your beliefs into the next shot to see where they take me.

Somewhere on the web, possibly in a monthly competition I saw a lady in a mask with a yellow dress. Both the mask and the dress have strong lines and curves. I saw the dress in competition with the mask and very distracting. Should the shooter have used a smoother flowing dress?

[Manfred M]

Somewhere on the web, possibly in a monthly competition I saw a lady in a mask with a yellow dress. Both the mask and the dress have strong lines and curves. I saw the dress in competition with the mask and very distracting. Should the shooter have used a smoother flowing dress?

I expect you are referring to this image:





One of the people I was shooting with entered a very similar image (same mask and same dress) in a club competition and did very well with it, so yes, that is a very strong combination.

The yellow in the mask, the blonde hair and yellow dress all complement the other. The mask is a Venetian carnival mask, so a fancy party dress is right on theme.

You are going to have to polish up your analysis skills to become a judge.

[JBW]

That I shall.