I had a lot of difficulty getting this shot. I am not sure if I was successful. I think it could be better.
1. I took it without a flash, should I have used one?
2. The natural light was behind the glass, good idea or not?
3. Is there too much reflection or noise on the glass?
4. How would you have shot this picture?
5. Was I focusing too much on the fish and should have focused on the glass?
Lighting glass is quite tricky. i'm not an expert myself, but the reflective and refractive qualities of glass mean the more light sources you have, the more things you have to worry about.
I can see that the fishbowl is not sparkling clean and the imperfections are very noticeable. You should definitely focus on the fish like you have rather than the glass. I think the weakest part of the image is the highlight down the lefthand side of the bowl which draws my attention to the brown/blue edge of the bowl.
Try spending more time composing your shot, think about what you want in the background, where you want the subject inside the frame (at the moment, the left half of the photo seems to be going to waste).
As for your questions 1 & 2. Best way to find out is the take a hundred shots, each time change one thing a little bit and see how it turns out.
1) No I dont think so
2) Yes fantastic idea that is where it should go
3) No I do not think so
4) Its hard without seeing more of the image.
5) The main subject is the fish so that is what you focus on.
I'm reading the following book on lighting which addresses the difficulty of shooting glass. http://www.amazon.com/Light-Science-Magic-Fourth-Introduction/dp/0240812255/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328699642&sr=1-1
I was having great difficulty shooting this photo, and using the book as a reference helped me finally get the lighting the way I wanted it.
I just completed a week of series of shots of my glass fish paperweight. I wish I would have seen the book reference above before doing my series. From my series experience, I found that diffused natural back lighting, on a mirror, and side natural lighting were the best. I found shooting glass was tricky. You should have seen the shots that did not turn out well! By the way, I like the concept behind your shot. You might try experimenting with cropping before completely reshooting this. I am no expert though, as I have just started doing cropping in a big way this year.
I like this pic. Reasons are that the edge of the fish bowl is quite clearly defined and sort of says the fish can't go any further. A title to the pic, something like - "a fish's life" could really go to enhance the feeling that the fish is somewhat trapped in the bowl.
I think you handled the lighting well. You don't always have to use flash, and this is a good example of not using it. Back lighting seemed to work just right. Whether you focus on fish or glass depends on what you are trying to show in the pic. If the intent was to show the fish in clear focus, you did very well.
There might be just a smidge too much negative space to the left of the fish bowl in that the line created by the bowl is near the center of the pic and sort of splits the pic in 2. A recomposition with the edge of the bowl a bit more to the left might work. Or just a quick crop to remove some of the negative space.
I imagine the tricky part was getting your model to cooperate as fish tend to not stay real still for very long.
Good job, I think.
Thank you for the feedback. It is much appreciated. I think I will revisit the Beta once I am a little bit further into the project and hope for growth. I will also check out the above reference (thx for the link). Cropping it tighter is a good idea, I had already cropped it quite a bit so I was worried I was taking too much away, but looking at it now I see where it could be brought in a bit more. Just an FYI the fish was in a wine glass....
@heatherwilsonaz Oh, don't let a certain someone know your fish is in a wine glass! I won a them last year with a fish in a glass coffee cup and got the most hateful comment about how cruel I was! I can laugh about it now, but I didn't think it was so funny when it happened.
@heatherwilsonaz i would like to see a shot showing the whole wineglass with the fish in it. with the right background. it'll be very interesting on its own i think.
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I can see that the fishbowl is not sparkling clean and the imperfections are very noticeable. You should definitely focus on the fish like you have rather than the glass. I think the weakest part of the image is the highlight down the lefthand side of the bowl which draws my attention to the brown/blue edge of the bowl.
Try spending more time composing your shot, think about what you want in the background, where you want the subject inside the frame (at the moment, the left half of the photo seems to be going to waste).
As for your questions 1 & 2. Best way to find out is the take a hundred shots, each time change one thing a little bit and see how it turns out.
happy snapping!
1) No I dont think so
2) Yes fantastic idea that is where it should go
3) No I do not think so
4) Its hard without seeing more of the image.
5) The main subject is the fish so that is what you focus on.
Well done over all.
I was having great difficulty shooting this photo, and using the book as a reference helped me finally get the lighting the way I wanted it.
I think you handled the lighting well. You don't always have to use flash, and this is a good example of not using it. Back lighting seemed to work just right. Whether you focus on fish or glass depends on what you are trying to show in the pic. If the intent was to show the fish in clear focus, you did very well.
There might be just a smidge too much negative space to the left of the fish bowl in that the line created by the bowl is near the center of the pic and sort of splits the pic in 2. A recomposition with the edge of the bowl a bit more to the left might work. Or just a quick crop to remove some of the negative space.
I imagine the tricky part was getting your model to cooperate as fish tend to not stay real still for very long.
Good job, I think.
Thank you for the feedback. It is much appreciated. I think I will revisit the Beta once I am a little bit further into the project and hope for growth. I will also check out the above reference (thx for the link). Cropping it tighter is a good idea, I had already cropped it quite a bit so I was worried I was taking too much away, but looking at it now I see where it could be brought in a bit more. Just an FYI the fish was in a wine glass....
Dislaimer: No fish were harmed taking this pic. He was only in the wine glass while my son was cleaning his bowl. (thx for the warning)