Japanese Tea Pot - Take 2

[Manfred M]

This is another attempt at photographing a small, traditional Japanese, cast iron tea pot. It holds one to two cups of tea; so is quite small but heavy.

I wasn't really getting anywhere with the low key version of this image (on a black background), so I decided to switch backgrounds and shoot against white seamless. In my view, the shot is not nearly as dramatic, but seems to work reasonably well.

This is a composite image where I merged five different shots. I used flags to control hard reflections on the edges of the the tea pot as well as getting a more pleasing view of the handled and the reflections on the handle. It is a colour image; small spots of brown rust are visible in some areas of the image.





I used three lights; two small reflectors with grids on the camera left and camera right side and one strip box to light the background.

[pschlute]

I prefer this to the previous version as it brings out more detail in the pattern of the pot.

I wonder if rather than a plain white background, a suitable Japanese script on white background might not work even better ?

[Manfred M]

One reason I did the white was that alpha channel masking is easy and I could replace the background with something more suitable. I haven't gotten there just yet.

This is the last attempt I made with the black on black:

[mugge]

I much prefer black on black version. There are lots of distracting shadows bottom of the pot in the white version. The light coming from the right in this latest version is pleasing.
Cheers Ole

[pschlute]

Liking the latest black on black version., but looking forward to the background "replacement" !!!

[bje07]

Nice result with black background.

[Manfred M]

Liking the latest black on black version., but looking forward to the background "replacement" !!!

I'm not liking the way this is going. I used an obi (belt) from a kimono as the background and it is overwhelming the tea pot and takes away from the simplicity I am trying to invoke.

[Manfred M]

There are lots of distracting shadows bottom of the pot in the white version.

The shadows are there by design. Without shadows in this type of shot, the subject will look like it is floating in the air and that does not generally work well. In photocomposite work, we will actually create shadows to anchor the subject to the rest of the image.

This is what the shot does without the shadows....

[pschlute]

Yes Manfred that background is too busy. What about a simple white with Japanese script ?

[Manfred M]

Yes Manfred that background is too busy. What about a simple white with Japanese script ?

I don't have any of that around to photograph. I was looking at using a piece of washi paper to see how that might work, if I can get the texture to come out in the shot.

[mugge]

I don't like the 'floating in the air look' either but I'd prefer the shadows to be a bit more substantial.
Cheers Ole