I know....Martinis have olives, but all I had was a martini glass and CHERRIES. So maybe it's not a martini, but who cares anyway. The red and blue worked perfectly with each other (opposites on the color wheel).
So here it is. Again, let me reiterate that I am not a professional and I am sure there were things I could have done better or differently. I will simply explain what I did to get this shot in the hopes that you will learn from my mistakes. Just so you are aware, this took me about an hour to get right (maybe a little longer)
The set up: On my kitchen table with the sliding glass doors over my shoulder. In the background I had a white piece of tri-fold cardboard (what a kid would use in a science project or something). In order to extend the sides of the trifold, I used clamps to attach foam board on both sides. This covered pretty much 3 sides of a rectangle table with the open side facing the glass doors (with indirect sunlight coming through) and my camera off at an angle. My thinking was to try to collect as much light as I can. Since I didn’t really have any fancy lights, I used my standing living room light leaning against the table with 2 - 75watt lights pointing directly at the glass. In addition, I had my kitchen chandelier on (which has 3 small light bulbs….not sure of the watts). Lastly, I had my flash lying on the table literally right next to the base of the glass pointing directly behind it (you can see the flash creating harsh in the back left). I tried so many different settings that I am not sure what the power was (I think it was 1/8th). The blue is just construction paper taped to three sides of the tri-fold cardboard and the bottom is just a bunch of paper towels. See the EXIF info for the camera settings. Just like with the water drop, I prefocused on a spot in the glass and took some test shots (LOTS of test shots before I figured out the correct lighting and settings). The rest was just pure luck. I just had water in the martini glass and played around with throwing the cherries in (I didn’t have any olives). Those of you who know what the drinking game beer pong is would be proud that my college skills didn’t go away. It was quite comical because I was throwing them with my right hand extended (just out of the camera’s view) and holding the shutter release with my left. I was able to get 3-4 shots off with each throw before the flash needed to recycle (I tried it with one cherry and 2….both worked fine).
Photoshop – To be honest, there wasn’t much I did after the shot. All I did was crop it with the black on top and bottom (for no other reason but to get rid of the wet paper on the right of it from all of the splashing that I thought I could fix in PP (impossible….at least with my limited skills). Applied an unsharp mask with a highpass filter set to overlay (I got that tip from someone on this forum….sorry I don’t remember who but I think it was @bethnewell who said she used it to sharpen a blurry image). Lastly, I just adjusted levels to my desire, increased the vibrance and saturation slightly (very little because it made the blues look weird if it was too high).
What I learned. Lighting is a b**ch! I played around with the placement of the flash but I just liked how it looked on this one. By the way, the entire time I had it covered with a cloth to protect it from the mess I was making. I also learned the importance of seamless backgrounds. That was the other reason for the crop because there was a big seam between the two pieces of construction paper that was really dark and distracting. The same can be said of the bottom. Paper-towels don’t look too nice and also form a nasty seam between the base and the cardboard backdrop. It also gets very wet, so in the future I will leave myself more space between the glass and the backgroun to keep it dry and add more brokeh to the photo. It was just some good old fashioned fun on a snowed in day. If anyone has tried anything similar, I’d love to hear what you did because I am sure there is a more efficient way to do this. Anyway……CHEERS. Good luck if you try it. (Make sure you have your patience with you). ; )
This makes sense in my mind because I was doing it, but if my explanation doesn't make sense to you, feel free to ask me a question.
Just like last time.....if YOU did anything out of the ordinary either to get the shot or in post-processing, lease share your trials and tribulations with the rest of us. We are all in this together!!
I saw the word "Martini" in the title and gave this a read. You did a REALLY good job! The color contrast works really well. I am new to this as well...in fact I've only had my DSLR for about a week and have NO idea what I'm doing. I'm learning...slowly...how to work my camera.
Anyway, since you asked, I'll tell you how I did my shot. I actually recruited my husband to help me with mine, and he was short on time, so we literally spent about 5 minutes doing this. I really just wanted to play around with splashes, so I just put my martini glass in the one place in my house that can get messy with little clean-up...my shower. I sat the glass on the corner counter of my shower (which needed cleaning so had to be edited heavily, haha). I didn't have any olives either, so we actually cheated and used a non-food item altogether...some little glass bead from my craft drawer. I figured it was heavy enough to get a good splash, which it was. My husband basically just stood in the shower and dropped the bead from about 3 to 4 feet. I think the height of the drop makes all the difference in the splash. We played around with that.
As far as editing, I use Picnik. If I can remember, I played around with color contrast a tad, and heavily airbrushed the background to cover some soap scum....haha. I can't remember what gave me the blue color. Maybe "vibrance"? Not sure. Anyway, that's pretty much all I did. I had to use my camera's flash since I had NO other lighting but the light in bathroom. It would probably work better with off-camera flash. I've seen people rig up lamps with no lampshades on youtube. I might try that until I can afford a fancy remote-triggered flash.
I will have to try your way too. Hope this offers some sort of help...in what to do or what not to do. CHEERS!
Nice one!! You got a great shot for only a week of experience. If you keep reading and practicing you will pick it up quick. I got off to a slow start but since August I have gotten so much better.
This is really great Matt! Thanks for the information! I quite like the blown out spot on the backdrop give a little more dimension to the color. To bad about the harsh line going right through the glass though- but live and learn hey :D And overall this is pretty darn good :D
@mattyb That's pretty awesome, even if it is a cherry ;)
This is a shot I've been meaning to nail down as well, but it's tough to say the least. This is about the best I've come up with so far, but the olive is obscured, I didn't have enough light to utilize a narrower aperture to get more of it in focus, and I have two competing light sources of different temperature really throwing the lighting off. But I'm going to keep trying!
@marubozo I'm with you on that one. Very tough to nail. I will definitely try it again, but you are right, the lighting was very difficult. I also had a lot of trouble getting the right light and keeping a fast enough shutter speed, low aperture and a low iso.
By the way......your shot is awesome. Great angle, I wish I had thought of that. I also like the sword....nice touch.
@rebcastillo77 Thanks Rebecca. I wasn't sure about the flash spot, but for some reason I just thought it added a little something different from the other shots I took with the light bouncing off camera to the side for a more even light. I'm glad you agree.
@mattyb@marubozo@anprice24 Awesome guys!! Thanks for sharing your trials and tribulations. I probably echo a lot fo folks here who love to read about trial and technique. I try to put some in with my narrative, but it's much more brief and less detail-y than what you have here. Thanks!
Mine's not a Martini but thought I would share it on here. I wanted to experiment on splashes, did the set up in the bathroom and asked the hubby to drop the sliced lemon in to the glass. it took me a while to get the better shots. I didn't have a good lighting to make the splash more visible. This one's kinda better but I need to crop it via Picnik to get rid of the bathroom tiles.
@mattyb You are a little gem. I love this and more so cause I don't have the time,
patience etc to try - although I am flat out trying to get a decent picture of the White Cockatoo flying across the back yard or from one tree to the other, or just above me screeching ( as in laughter i'm sure) at my dismal antics of daily trying to get a photo. Congratulations on a great photo shoot.
@anprice24 Great photo and you are going to be great if this is after only one week. I must tell you I am full of imagination so when I looked at your glass I saw/see a tiny lady in a bikini/or skirt and long curly hair. I think it is really great.
@marubozo I reckon this is really great - who says everyone has to do a "perfect glass "shot, I like it and I thought it didn't matter about the olive. BTW I thought that was a "pink symbol for Breast Cancer in the bottom and made me like the picture more.
@katrinacristy Whoa that is seriously cool. Like we all would probably know it is dry ice. Yes do please be careful when you are using it. Think thick gloves?
This is a great shot and I'd be thinking what a great idea for "Fog in a glass".
Playing like a "needle in a haystack" whatever, I like it and good on you for setting this up as a first time try.
@bugik Oh that looks great - and green is my favourite colour. I love that it has created the water Crown, they must be difficult to get too. You are certainly lucky to have a hubby to help by dropping the lemon, keep up the great pictures.
@glenys Believe me, I don't really have the time either. I teach during the day, coach in the afternoon, go to night school to work on my second Master's degree and I have a 5 month old that I try to spend as much time with as possible. So if I can find a little bit of time, anyone can! Don't let that be an excuse, go out there and be creative.
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I saw the word "Martini" in the title and gave this a read. You did a REALLY good job! The color contrast works really well. I am new to this as well...in fact I've only had my DSLR for about a week and have NO idea what I'm doing. I'm learning...slowly...how to work my camera.
Anyway, since you asked, I'll tell you how I did my shot. I actually recruited my husband to help me with mine, and he was short on time, so we literally spent about 5 minutes doing this. I really just wanted to play around with splashes, so I just put my martini glass in the one place in my house that can get messy with little clean-up...my shower. I sat the glass on the corner counter of my shower (which needed cleaning so had to be edited heavily, haha). I didn't have any olives either, so we actually cheated and used a non-food item altogether...some little glass bead from my craft drawer. I figured it was heavy enough to get a good splash, which it was. My husband basically just stood in the shower and dropped the bead from about 3 to 4 feet. I think the height of the drop makes all the difference in the splash. We played around with that.
As far as editing, I use Picnik. If I can remember, I played around with color contrast a tad, and heavily airbrushed the background to cover some soap scum....haha. I can't remember what gave me the blue color. Maybe "vibrance"? Not sure. Anyway, that's pretty much all I did. I had to use my camera's flash since I had NO other lighting but the light in bathroom. It would probably work better with off-camera flash. I've seen people rig up lamps with no lampshades on youtube. I might try that until I can afford a fancy remote-triggered flash.
I will have to try your way too. Hope this offers some sort of help...in what to do or what not to do. CHEERS!
This is a shot I've been meaning to nail down as well, but it's tough to say the least. This is about the best I've come up with so far, but the olive is obscured, I didn't have enough light to utilize a narrower aperture to get more of it in focus, and I have two competing light sources of different temperature really throwing the lighting off. But I'm going to keep trying!
By the way......your shot is awesome. Great angle, I wish I had thought of that. I also like the sword....nice touch.
@rebcastillo77 Thanks Rebecca. I wasn't sure about the flash spot, but for some reason I just thought it added a little something different from the other shots I took with the light bouncing off camera to the side for a more even light. I'm glad you agree.
Mine's not a Martini but thought I would share it on here. I wanted to experiment on splashes, did the set up in the bathroom and asked the hubby to drop the sliced lemon in to the glass. it took me a while to get the better shots. I didn't have a good lighting to make the splash more visible. This one's kinda better but I need to crop it via Picnik to get rid of the bathroom tiles.
patience etc to try - although I am flat out trying to get a decent picture of the White Cockatoo flying across the back yard or from one tree to the other, or just above me screeching ( as in laughter i'm sure) at my dismal antics of daily trying to get a photo. Congratulations on a great photo shoot.
This is a great shot and I'd be thinking what a great idea for "Fog in a glass".
Playing like a "needle in a haystack" whatever, I like it and good on you for setting this up as a first time try.