Hi everyone. I don't post too many critiques but would value your opinions on this one. Please take it for whatever you take it as. Thoughts on anything goes (success in my goal, technical problems, personal opinions, composition, camera angle, subject angle, etc.)

My goal was only to present the subject as beautifully and accurately as possible. I realize you will have a hard time judging accuracy :) I found the task to be very difficult.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Wow,

First off, great colors in this shot. I love just the crisp clean colors that are coming through. The only crititque, I find atleast, is with this vase, being it partially transparent, it's hard to define what the shape is in the middle. I'd recommend almost a higher angle shot, to get more of a shot of the top, but I'm sure you tried that already.

Overall, great shot, just a little hard to define edges and shapes,

My two cents,

Jared

Jared,

Insightful and valuable critique, thank you!

No problem Trevor,

Just out of curiousity, how tall was this vase?

Trevor, I like the way you presented this vase. There is absolutly nothing in the photo do distract the viewer from the subject. It looks like it was taken for a catalog or some type of display. I agree with what Jared said about the higher camera angle. It would help to see the opening at the top just to get a better feel for the shape. I find your subject to be very sharp with nice crisp lines and the colors and lighting are wonderful. A very nice photo.

Michael,

Thank you very much. Your words are helpful as well.

Jared,

The vase was probably about 10 inches tall.

Once I get past how beautiful th colors and crisp/clear execution is...the glass looks perfect but I agree taht it lacks fullness/depth to it. is there a way to light from behind or from above somehow to give it more dimension?

even without all that it really is quite beautiful. Almost a graphic quality than a photo. nice

The vase was probably about 10 inches tall.
Interesting. Did you take any other shots of it or was this the only one? I'm interested to see how your other shots turned out! What gear did you use for this shot Trevor?!?

Thanks,

Jared

You have done the vase great justice: The words Pure, Fragile, Clean, Fresh spring to mind when I look at this. There is also a chill about the whiteness which I like very much. Don't think this could be improved on.

A bueautiful vase and I love the colours and the way it seems to stand in mid air with no supports - how did you achieve this.

I see what others are saying in that it has little depth but personally that does not bother me at all. I think its great

Interesting. Did you take any other shots of it or was this the only one? I'm interested to see how your other shots turned out! What gear did you use for this shot Trevor?!?

Thanks,

Jared

I'm trying to learn studio lighting. I picked this subject because I thought it would be a very difficult one that would teach me a lot. Of course, I didn't start with this subject....I started with a box :)

This shot is something of a composite. Looking back since I took the shot I think I know how to light it so that I can get what I want all in one exposure but what you see here was a slight blending of two different composites. Photoshop was used to remove the background.

The goal of the shot that was obviously lit from behind was to create those dark black edges on the glass and to give a little bit of glow from the glass. Those are the elements that I pulled into the other photo which to be honest with you I can't quite remember how it was lit. I know I used a large softbox and black reflector but I don't quite recall where the softbox was positioned. It it was positioned above the subject then I must have also used a white reflector at the right of the subject because I can see the highlight from it. Otherwise, that highliht must have come from the softbox :)

You can see where I did some touchup at the deep blue section near the base of the vase to remove a distraction.

There was a lot of photoshop work but my lighting skills aren't there yet so I rely on digital methods at this point. I think the lighting skills will come with time.

I never shot different angles but I remember spending at least 10 minutes trying out different angles visually. The chosen angle was something of a compromise you could say. I wasn't after any artistic vision so it needed to be obvious that this was a vase and roughly it's shape. I couldn't figure out an angle that showed all the important parts of it. In other words, I was imagining that I was taking a photo of the vase for the purpose of selling it in a catalog. If I had a top down look, you'd never know how tall it was. But if I had a straight side view then you'd lose some of the beautiful detail that shows at the top. It was kind of a three sided vase and that didn't help things much either :)

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

There was a lot of photoshop work but my lighting skills aren't there yet so I rely on digital methods at this point. I think the lighting skills will come with time.

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

Wow great photoshop touch up job. Definately impressed.

Jared

Wow! I have a lot to learn - I've only just taken my first photo using lighting and my PSE is not even close to what you achieved. Still getting a hang of layers and what they do.

great stuff.

Nice job but I like the one in the example window with shadows.

Floating a piece of glass like this is tough (unless you ChromaKey it).

Shapes and colors really need a reference as they're solid object. Of course you don't want to just make catalog shots either!

I collect glass of this type and have at various times played with photographing pieces of it (not very often satifactorily I'll admit) and it is hard to convey all that light!

You can shoot on a turntable so you don't have to move your lights. After creating that well lighted background (transmitted light works soooo much better for glass) then you can play with angles by just moving the turntable and raising and lower the old tripod.

This is well done color and clarity. Thanks and look forward to more.

-CDP