Still Life

rab3rd · May 28, 2012

From a still life series I did...

sleist · May 28, 2012

I can't get past the fact that the food looks like it's made out of plastic. There's a reflection on the glass that looks like lip marks too.
Sorry - totally nitpicky. Maybe I need to go to sleep now.

rab3rd · May 29, 2012

uh, the food IS made out of plastic, and I assure there are no lip marks on the glass as that isnt really wine ;-)

sleist · May 29, 2012

Well, I didn't want to comment on the lighting and processing if it made real food look plastic.

amolitor · May 29, 2012

It's a very strange still life. On the one hand it looks like a completely formal painting, it has all the tropes one sees in a certain kind of painted still life. On the other hand, as people have noted, it looks plastic. Also, it's B&W, which isn't what you'd expect from a painting either. The bottle also looks plastic, it looks like a molding seam we can see there (although I guess glass bottles might have a similar seam). The whole things reads to me as a bit of a joke, but a joke that's probably too subtle for most people to "get it" on a casual glance. People are likely to say 'hmm, hey a still life. ugh, it looks weird.' and move on.

I have found that humor is hard, and if YOU think something is subtle, that means nobody else is going to get it. You have to think it's pretty obvious before people are gonna get the joke (or idea, or message, or whatever).

rab3rd · May 29, 2012

A joke? Its a photograph of a still life in a classic sense of a still life. There is no joke. Its about lighting and tones, in history there have been plenty of photographs of still lifes and there hasnt always been color film ;-) It is a real bottle of wine by the way, the plastic food just makes it easy to work with of the course of many sessions, id get fatter than I already am if I used real food. LOL

Side note: no offense was taken by any of the post and my response is not one of anger, I welcome the comments.

amolitor · May 29, 2012

Ok! In that case, I will say that the seam on the bottle is a little distracting, and more generally the highlight on the bottle is a little distracting.

Also, there's no texture that I can see in most of the bottle. I'd like to see more modelling going on in there. Similarly grapes and wine, they're all rendered pretty much flat except for the highlights, on my monitor. I'd suggest a somewhat more diffuse light, and a little more fill, perhaps. Reflective objects are always a bugger to get right, and I am no lighting expert, so your mileage may vary. Otherwise, the lighting is very nice. Good separation of the background, the pears and the bread look excellent. I like the definition of the plate, and the specular highlight on the surface of the "wine" as well.

rab3rd · May 29, 2012

excellent. thats what Im looking for. I fought with that specular on the wine bottle till it finally became an issue of the light being right overall. The scene overall is very contrasty in its nature to begin with. Those grapes, those black light sucking little orbs.... they were a battle too, being plastic they really dont have much texture to begin with. I totally missed the seam on the bottle because I was paying more attention to the label. Looking at it now, there is no way I could have avoided the seam unless I looked for a bottle with a better positioned label. Belive it or not I purchased that bottle of wine just for the shot as I liked the label.

The fun in creating the shot was in the composition and introducing speculars to create the seperation. Defining the edges of the wine glass without over doing it was a big challenge. I must have cut 10 different sized white mat board strips and moved them all over the place until I was happy.

I generate monthly assigments on another forum I go to and glass was one months assignment. People were shocked at the things one has to do to light glass properly. Its just glass, right? riiiiighhht... LOL

bdclippingpath · May 29, 2012

Only frustrated persons can thinks of it as I think. There is no one who tries to be failed from one's position.

KmH · May 29, 2012

Say what?

o hey tyler · May 29, 2012

KmH said:
Say what?

Seconded.

kundalini · May 29, 2012

For shots of bottles and tall reflective objects, long thin reflections are probably best, much like you have on the wine glass. The spotlight effect really doesn't marry well in this image.