This was shot in total darkness with a single strobe light with snoot from behind through a defuser.
Classy capture. I like the presentation and I have a thing for bells.
Yes! The trans-illumination is great! because it shows the properties of the glass and emphasize the lines of the bell.
What I woud like to see as a major improvement is the elimination of the horizontal line in the background. To preclude a horizon, you need to creat a cyclorama, that is, a continuous seamless background. It can be made of paper, Plexiglas or other opaque or translucent material. There are pre-manufactured product tables that I will attach a picture of, however you can make your own at a minimal expense. I just want to show you the basic shape and design of a tabletop cyclorama.
My main reasons for this suggestion is that the strong horizon interrupts the flowing lines of the bell and is refracted in the glass and adds yet another distraction in the form of a broken line. A cyclorama setup can also be used for may kinds of product or still lifework with a wide variety of backgroud materials. A Plexiglas or flexible plastic cyclorama can be used with transmitted light which can be pure or colored with gels. It can also act as a support for paper, fabrics or othere background materials.
I do like the graduated darkness or falloff of ligh at the base of the bell because it brings out the textured pattern in the glass.
The refection at the bottom serve no compositional purpose in that is is cut off and doesn't echo the complete shape. I would rather see the roundness at the base of the bell as the bottom or base of the composition.
Let me know what you think! Nice job! Also you may want to try this out with cut glass or etched glass as well.
Thanks EL, appreciate hearing from you and your suggestions. I have some scrim material coming tomorrow. I think it will work per your suggestion.
Jim
I lost a lot of the texture shooting with the lights to the sides Right & Left with a sweep. If I added enough light to remove shadows or moved lights overhead I lost the edges. This did remove the line where the back and base meet. I hope you comment again EL on this version.
Jim
Jim-Pops wrote:
I lost a lot of the texture shooting with the lights to the sides Right & Left with a sweep. If I added enough light to remove shadows or moved lights overhead I lost the edges. This did remove the line where the back and base meet. I hope you comment again EL on this version.
Jim
Nice job on background treatment. I did a quick edit on a few reflections and a bit more detail in the glass.
E.L.. Shapiro wrote:
Nice job on background treatment. I did a quick edit on a few reflections and a bit more detail in the glass.
Thanks E.L. I did as you suggested and while I was at it moved the chain over to have it in the center of the bell. I like the shot. Thanks for pushing me to improve the photo. Each time I learn a little bit more while improving my edits using Photoshop.
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What if you inverted the background lighting so the darker was on the bottom. In the original the 'flutes' in the glass were more visible below the 'horizon'. I think the 'flutes' are an important detail.
Centering the chain did a lot for the balance of the image.
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