Originally Posted by pathfinder My technique was pretty basic - ... I welcome comments or criticisms.

Great shots! Thank you for playing with us!
Corona bottle looks a bit tilted, but you probably already had some by then
Care to post some shots of your setup?

Originally Posted by Nikolai Great shots! Thank you for playing with us! Corona bottle looks a bit tilted, but you probably already had some by then Care to post some shots of your setup?

Nik - I didn't shoot any set up shots as it was as simple as I described - Studio softbox 6-12 inches behind the bottles. Studio strobe ( FLashpoint 620) at 1/8th power into a 16 x 30 inch softbox. Two pieces of black vinyl hanging parallel to the lens axis, to prevent any light from either side of the bottles, and a flash on my camera to illuminate the labels facing the camera. The studio strobe was triggered by the flash light on the camera. Bottle was sitting on a black speaker cabinet about 1 foot square in size. Simple as can be Camera lens optic ----->bottle -> studio strobe

Originally Posted by pathfinder Nik - I didn't shoot any set up shots as it was as simple as I described - Studio softbox 6-12 inches behind the bottles. Studio strobe ( FLashpoint 620) at 1/8th power into a 16 x 30 inch softbox. Two pieces of black vinyl hanging parallel to the lens axis, to prevent any light from either side of the bottles, and a flash on my camera to illuminate the labels facing the camera. The studio strobe was triggered by the flash light on the camera. Bottle was sitting on a black speaker cabinet about 1 foot square in size. Simple as can be Camera lens optic ----->bottle -> studio strobe

Thank you!

Originally Posted by Nikolai Great shots! Thank you for playing with us! Corona bottle looks a bit tilted, but you probably already had some by then Care to post some shots of your setup?

If you look carefully all the bottles are not exactly square - that is a result of my shooting handheld ( I was using flash so shutter speed did not matter really ) and did not hold the sensor plane vertical and parallel to the subject plane.

If I was being paid for this work, I would have mounted my camera on a tripod and use a bubble level to verify that the sensor plane was vertical and square to the subject plane. Just a quick and dirty effort on my part.

I might use a 50mm lens next time in lieu of the 85mm on my 20D. But then I would have to be even more careful about squaring up the camera properly.

I should mention the flash I used on the camera was an MT-24ex, which has two flash lamps, that I used on either side of my lens to help eliminate reflections in the center of the bottles. I had been using this flash for macro on my 20D so I just grabbed it and swapped the macro lens for the 85mm lens.

Originally Posted by pathfinder If you look carefully all the bottles are not exactly square - that is a result of my shooting handheld ( I was using flash so shutter speed did not matter really ) and did not hold the sensor plane vertical and parallel to the subject plane. If I was being paid for this work, I would have mounted my camera on a tripod and use a bubble level to verify that the sensor plane was vertical and square to the subject plane. Just a quick and dirty effort on my part. I might use a 50mm lens next time in lieu of the 85mm on my 20D. But then I would have to be even more careful about squaring up the camera properly. I should mention the flash I used on the camera was an MT-24ex, which has two flash lamps, that I used on either side of my lens to help eliminate reflections in the center of the bottles. I had been using this flash for macro on my 20D so I just grabbed it and swapped the macro lens for the 85mm lens.

Ah-ha, I thought there was something shaky :-)
Thank you for the details!
BTW, why didn't you use the macro lens? I heard that they make excellent portrait lenses and hence would do pretty good in this assignment?

This is good for me. I just bought myself a pair of strobe lights and now I get to learn how to use them! A little note about some of the bottles - they may look dirty but I found them years ago on a beach outside London in what is know as a Victorian dumping site. I wish I could have captured the writing on the front of the bottles better (like in photo #1), but after seeing Pathfinder's shots, I am thinking about trying some fill flash perhaps?? Alright - let me have it... I want to learn! Thanks

(I also need help with my PP skills as you can see from the first two. Whenever I use curves to try and bring the black out in the first photo, it darkens the bottle too much and makes it turn blue, when it is green).

NOTE: By changing my lighting slightly, I was able to better capture the writing on the front (new image posted) and that gave a better color too...









and here's my set up... (I never used the second strobe, just the one with the softbox on it)

Originally Posted by fashiznitsngrins This is good for me. I just bought myself a pair of strobe lights and now I get to learn how to use them! A little note about some of the bottles - they may look dirty but I found them years ago on a beach outside London in what is know as a Victorian dumping site. I wish I could have captured the writing on the front of the bottles better (like in photo #2), but after seeing Pathfinder's shots, I am thinking about trying some fill flash perhaps?? Alright - let me have it... I want to learn! Thanks (I also need help with my PP skills as you can see fromt he first two. Whenever I use curves to try and bring the black out in the first photo, it darkens the bottle too much and makes it turn blue, when it is green).

Thank you for joining us!
Nice set of both relective and refractive shots (and a setup;-).
I'm sure Ken will have more things to say on the point, I just wanted to say that it could be beneficial to mask the part of your primary light. The idea (according to the book Ken mentioned) is to have the b/g exactly to fill the frame, but not much bigger.
Nice setup, btw!

Originally Posted by Nikolai ... I just wanted to say that it could be beneficial to mask the part of your primary light. The idea (according to the book Ken mentioned) is to have the b/g exactly to fill the frame, but not much bigger.

I'm not following... can you show me where this info is - I must have missed it.


Also, where I was saying about using fill flash, should I be using my second strobe?

Thanks!

Originally Posted by fashiznitsngrins I'm not following... can you show me where this info is - I must have missed it.

It's in Ken'd post:

Originally Posted by LiquidAir ... Introduction To kick off this assignment, I am going to cover two basic strategies for lighting glass. Note that much of the material I am discussing here starts from the book Light, Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting by Fil Hunter, Steven Biver and Paul Fuqua. I am not going to assume you have read this book, but if you are interested in this topic, you should read it. Over the weeks, I intend to expand these basics in a few directions toward some more sophisticated lighting strategies. ...

Originally Posted by fashiznitsngrins Also, where I was saying about using fill flash, should I be using my second strobe? Thanks!

Probably yes, not exactly sure, though, can you elaborate, please?

Originally Posted by Nikolai In this version I like the more defined contrast between glass and the b/g. However, the really tight light patch on the b/g is ditracting, IMHO, I think it should be either better shaped or PS-ed into the rest.

Thanks for the feedback Nik. I'll give it another try with a better mask. I'm working on a "new improved" setup to help.

Originally Posted by LiquidAir Wow, those are some great bottles and some nice shots. A few thoughts: ... If you don't have a second flash, here is one thing to try. Set up an incandescent bulb as your back light and put some CTO (color temperature orange) gel on your flash to match the flash color to the light. This set is a handy collection of gels for color matching your flash, but there are others; you can get single sheets of a wide variety of colors. Cut them to fit; I use velcro to attach gels to my flash, but a rubber band works. Using a contiuous light for the background works nicely because you can control the relative power of the back light and the flash by adjusting the shutter speed.

Once you do this with the incandescent light and the gel do you need to set the white balance? Or shoot a 18% card?

Originally Posted by dlscott56 Once you do this with the incandescent light and the gel do you need to set the white balance? Or shoot a 18% card?

Setting the white balance for tungesten ought to be close. More accurate is to take a picture of the diffuser and white balance for it. If I have a diffused light source, I don't bother with a white/grey card for WB because I can go straight to the source.

Great work pathfinder and fashiznitsngrins. I'll get back to you in a day or two with detailed comments.

Here's the new improved set up and another try at controlling the light better.

It's late in the night now and I have to go to sleep, but here is my 1.st attempt to this assignment.
It's the first try and believe me, I tried hard. I fought with the hole stuff for some hours
The set-up and one picture. The other one is missing for the moment because I don't have any black cloth.
The set-up photo is out of focus because it was switched off I did not notice.

Originally Posted by dlscott56 Here's the new improved set up and another try at controlling the light better.

Wow, nice setup, you're getting into this stuff, aren't you?
I presume you don't have any other light on when you actually shoot, correct?
I like the last result!

Originally Posted by Antonio Correia It's late in the night now and I have to go to sleep, but here is my 1.st attempt to this assignment. It's the first try and believe me, I tried hard. I fought with the hole stuff for some hours The set-up and one picture. The other one is missing for the moment because I don't have any black cloth. The set-up photo is out of focus because it was switched off I did not notice.

Thank you, nice entry!
One thing I remember from the book is that you need to control the stray light. In your case you need to block the light from the flash that goes outside your diffuser. Please check Dave's setup, see how he blocks most of the light with his cut foam board?

HTH

Here are some of my reflection shots - shot with a 20D and a 45mm lens f8 1/200th ISO 100









The set up is shown here... Black felt background about 16x20inches about 18 9nches back from the bottle on my black speaker stand. 16x30 softbox on the left facing the bottle, and a silver Impact reflector immediately on the right of the bottle. Softbox triggered by a flash on the 20D.

Originally Posted by Nikolai Wow, nice setup, you're getting into this stuff, aren't you?