It's all about the glass...

[darkrainfall]

All comments are welcome and appreciated. *smile*

[Sean Dempsey]

Excellent curves, shape.. good top end. Nice hue. The glass is nice as well.

Who is the lady holding the glass?

[darkrainfall]

That is a friend of mine who did this as a favor for me. I had a few ideas that I had wanted to try out and it took me a while, but I talked her into it. I also took pics at her wedding back in December. She was happy with the pics as well.
Thanks for the reply!

[gahspidy]

Darkrainfall,
This is an intersesting composition. It has me looking and studying the form of her body, position of her arms,how her pinky on the hand holding the glass is extended down towards the base , and other things.Good creativity on your part. The only fault I feel here is I would rather see the bg not as a white sheet, but maybe as a gathering or party that she may be mingling with. Blurred but just able to feel like she is mingling or at an event. Anything, just not the white sheet.
Keep at it.

[darkrainfall]

Gary,
*smile* I can see why you dislike the white sheet, but I chose it so that she, and the glass would stand out more. I have a couple other on a different background, but I chose the white to show the color of the drink in the glass to be honest. This picture initially was all about the glass, but emilie kind of stole the spotlight. Thank you very much for the compliments... I was mostly concerned with what people thought of the lighting... I've been trying to perfect my lighting... as to the white sheet... maybe I'll work on perfecting my photoshop skills and add a different background.

~Tiffany

[gahspidy]

Gary,
*smile* I can see why you dislike the white sheet, but I chose it so that she, and the glass would stand out more. I have a couple other on a different background, but I chose the white to show the color of the drink in the glass to be honest. This picture initially was all about the glass, but emilie kind of stole the spotlight. Thank you very much for the compliments... I was mostly concerned with what people thought of the lighting... I've been trying to perfect my lighting... as to the white sheet... maybe I'll work on perfecting my photoshop skills and add a different background.

~Tiffany

I think it's really just the visible wrinkles, not the color that I feel is not right.If the sheet were blurred or she had stood further away from it so it was not so apparent what it was would have been good. you could still blur the bg with a gaussian blur in ps. but this is just my thoughts on it.
Yes, I think your friend stole the spotlight from the glass , somewhat. But thats ok, the glass works well in the shot together with her. The shot works as it does catch ones attention. cool idea. Could make for a good ad for whatever it is she might be drinking in that glass.

p.s What is that cool blue beverage, and where can I buy some?. . . .

[darkrainfall]

An ad is exactly what I had in mind for the serious of photos I did with Emilie... and I see what you mean, the wrinkles are kind of annoying... it's a white muslin... I suppose I could attempt ironing it, but it's rather large (16'x12') and prone to wrinkling... so I'll try the gaussian blur, though it will have to wait until I return from my meeting with the advertising company this morning.
*smiles* The blue stuff in the glass is the cheapest wine product they sell out here in missouri... I don't think it's on the east coast at all, as I didn't know about it when I lived over there, but it's called Boone's Farm, and while the raspberry lemonade is rather good, the blue stuff is called Tropical Hawaiian and imo is absolutely horrible, but it is a very nice shade of blue and at $2 a bottle it's worth buying just for the pictures. It's also much brighter, but I mixed some of the pink with it to tone it down a bit for this pic. I buy this for a lot of my test beverage shots because they have a nice range of bright, interesting colors... If you absolutely have to try it, I could send a bottle... and have a nice laugh about how the shipping costs more than the wine... *smiles*

[natatbeach]

I was a college student in NM and well--- a starving artist at that--- Strawberry Hill was the cheapest (by Boone's Farm) Thnaks for the trip down memory lane...

I agree about the background---might I suggest you play around with the lighting...maybe
some back lighting to add a "glow to her silhouette and maybe a spotlight under the glass to really make it sparkle... and maybe move her forward to blur out the background...just some thoughts I like the concept the glass(keep it brighter blue) the girl and the comp....also maybe have her put her right hand on her hip (more relaxed less posed)

looking forward to seeing more

[PuckJunkey]

Not a bad idea. I think that her right hand and the on-hip pose looks a little unnatural for some reason, but overall the composition works pretty well. Might be a neat idea to illuminate the glass with a gel-light or something next time around to sort of bring an added element to that part of the picture.

[dbutler]

I especially like the suggestion of lighting the glass for that extra bit of umph.

As for the muslin, get yourself a hand held steamer (I think the most popular one is by Rowenta but there are others). Beats ironing anyday!

And maybe it's because I'm a girlie girl but I would also have her punch up her nail color. The red is coming across as orangey (or maybe it's my monitor) but something deeper and bluer would complement the blue liquid and the black and white colors better, IMO.

But it's still a great shot!

[darkrainfall]

Natalie,
Thanks for the tips, if I can talk her into posing again for me I will be keep those ideas in mind and I should have had her stand out a bit more from the background... especially because i wasn't doing a full length shot. Lighting... a spotlight under the glass... I can do that, and a background light to make her glow... I can do that as well... I do have problems with my lights being too powerful for the small space I'm working with. I turn them down as far as I can, but they still tend to be a bit too much at times. Anyway, thank you for posting, your ideas have helped.

PuckJunkey,
I'm afraid that I don't actually own any gel lights, but upon obtaining one I will definitey try that. Thanks for posting, the comments are appreciated.

dbutler,
Her nail polish actually is orangey and it was pure luck that she happened to have her nails done when I called her to request that she pose for some pics for me. She got them done Wednesday morning and I called her Wednesday night to see if she would come to the studio on friday. I have a friend who has a Rowenta Iron and she loves it... maybe I'll look into getting a steamer for those wrinkled muslins. Thanks for posting.

[darkrainfall]

Sorry, it took me a couple days to get to this, but I blurred the background, as suggested. Better? *smile*

[Almighty_tuna]

I like the blurred background much better than the original. Her navel jewelry jumps out more than before though, and I think its because the "outer edges" of her figure and the glass are soft (as opposed to the look one would get by blurring via dof vs photoshop) and the jewelry/clothing in the center is sharp. Or maybe I'm just 24, heh.

It would be an interesting effect to tape a small (very small) light on the inside of her hand (being hid from view by the blue liquid) to give the appearance of glow from the cup. It would take a couple other well placed lights to make it look "natural" but it could be a neat effect.

[Wings]

No Darkrainfall, sadly that's not the way to do it.

The problem with gaussian blur is that it goes beyond the borders of your selection. Look at the dark edges around her body; it creates some kind of drop shadow look.
Also the blur created by gaussian blur is unnatural. If you are lucky and you have Photoshop CS, then you can use the new lens blur filter, which creates a much more natural blur, very close to what you get with a real lens. Another advantage with this filter; it blurs inside the selection only.

It's important that you make an accurate selection of the background. Feather this selection and blur it with lens blur (on a separate layer). This quick example took me about 5 min, but I have to admit, I have a lot of experience with Photoshop. Still room for improvement, but you get the idea what's possible.

[gahspidy]

It does look much better with the blurred bg, and Wings, great work in ps. I use jasc psp8 and am practicing to try to get that kind of perfection. Nice ps work.
Darkrainfall, I liked this idea alot and it looks good after the ps edit. I would like to see you elaborate on your concept as I feel you have something quite original here with lots of potential.

[darkrainfall]

It does look much better with the blurred bg, and Wings, great work in ps. I use jasc psp8 and am practicing to try to get that kind of perfection. Nice ps work.
Darkrainfall, I liked this idea alot and it looks good after the ps edit. I would like to see you elaborate on your concept as I feel you have something quite original here with lots of potential.

Gary,

Thanks, I appreciate the comments *smile*

Wings,

Thank you for the correction, I'm afraid that my photoshop skills were learned while doing photojournalism, which only allows for cropping and color correction... I am learning how to do more though... and I don't have cs yet... but I'm working on it...

[SmartWombat]

I like it, but I'm drawn more to the hand on her hip than to the glass.
I think it's the perspectice that makes her right hand look so large in comparison to the one holding the glass that it's distracting. I even wondered if it was someone else's hand at one point!.
Maybe placing it more on the hip, perhaps even behind the hip bone, and fingers down instead of across would minimise the distraction? Just to reduce the apparent width of her hand.
I can see you might have been trying to get her fingers leading eyes to the glass in her other hand, but to my eye it just isn't quire there.

Instead of a light in her hand, I'd try a fiberoptic bundle with a remote light.
Similar effect, but her hand won't get so hot