Steve DeMott Loc: St. Louis, Missouri (Oakville area)

I was playing with tabletop lighting today.

35mm Camera w/60mm Macro lens placed upper left, looking slightly down, tilt was on purpose, 2ft in front of wine glasses. Black felt covered table w/black curtain 2 ft behind

small continuous light w/barndoors & lt. orange gel directly above wine glasses

Speedlight behind left of wine bottle w/grid behind scrim

speedlight w/snoot set to lowest setting to the right and even with table to add light to label.

I wanted the front glass, grapes & bottle to be softfocus, hence the f/3.2.
Wine glasses are very cheap & glass is a dust magnet.

This is a work in progress so ANY comments are welcome.

P.S. Not one droplet of wine was wasted on this project.

(Download)

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Yellowtail huh? I know that wine! 😃. I am glad to hear none was wasted.

I like the setup and composition with the grapes. The orange grapes are a little puzzling they feel a little out of place to me in the low key scene.

As a work in process, have you considered trying to get one with more DOF so the wine label is in focus?

Steve DeMott Loc: St. Louis, Missouri (Oakville area)

Funny thing about the grapes, they're actually red. The orange filter is likely the source of color. Concerning DOF, I have tried a couple different focus point, but all very shallow DOF. Stay tuned for further developments.
Thanks for stopping by & leaving a comment

JD750 Loc: SoCal

I understand about DOF. It's a real challenge getting much DOF with a macro lens up close. keep shooting and have fun!

NJFrank Loc: New Jersey

I like the lighting and the general setup. But I find the tilt to be a distraction. Like I am waiting for everything to slide off the table. Have you thought about using photo stacking to keep all parts of the photo in focus?

Steve DeMott Loc: St. Louis, Missouri (Oakville area)

The story behind this idea. I saw an ad for Vodka and this is the basic setup even the tilt. Instead of buying a new bottle of booze and glass I thought about using what was around the house.

I started out with a 28-300mm zoom lens but didn't like the camera distance and the DOF was too wide. The wine glass was too tall so more of the 2nd glass and bottle was in the frame.

To answer the question. No, but under consideration. The distance between the 1st glass and bottle where f/11-16 wouldn't bring everything in acceptable focus.

Stay tuned more later

Thanks for the comment & stopping by

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Two comments, first it’s your art. Some will like it some won’t.

Second getting significant DOF is hard with macro lenses, or other lenses, up close. This is a great opportunity for you to learn more about the relationship between DOF, focal length, and camera to subject distance. Experiment by changing those things. You will learn a lot.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

Just a few comments. The DOF used, I think, is spot on. The bottle is OOF enough to make it not the star of the show, but sharp enough that the label is legible. The star is the glass on the right, more importantly the wine in the glass, so even the base of the glass is OOF. The red grapes add a bit of colour. If they weren't there, then the only bright colour would be on the label, and that would certainly draw the eye away from the glass. I find the angle distracting. I see photos taken at an angle and always wonder why. Some find it artsy. I find it distracting. I'm thinking about the inclusion of the second glass. (the OOF one) I'd like to see the image without it. One the one hand, it does welcome the viewer to join you. On the other hand, I'm thinking that leaving it out and moving the bottle slightly to the left might be a stronger image.

Steve DeMott Loc: St. Louis, Missouri (Oakville area)

I like your ideas and thanks for explaining the likes or dislikes. Give me a few new ideas.

I kinda like the tilt. No real explanation as to why except since the world has a little right hand tilt, tilting left straightens everything to normal. Or NOT.

If two friends were sitting on the couch discussing the worlds problems and offering solution over a bottle of wine. This might be the picture you'd get after a few.

Thanks for stopping by and commenting.