Pouring Coffee. Suggestions please.

[Mr Yuck]

Alright, I like the idea behind this, but need suggestions in pulling it off.

Hosted on Flickr

For this one, it was on a tripod, on timer+burst
1/30 sec
F5
50 ISO
Canon A510

I blurred everything but the stream of espresso in post.

Should I use milk rather than a premade coffee drink to give more contrast?

What about composition?

Background, tile ok or should I use some other background?

I kinda feel like i should give it more room at the top, should I show my hand pouring the coffee from the container?

[mondo1090]

what about pouring milk into coffee? i think this might be the first time ive seen coffee being poured into milk which makes the whole thing alittle weird to me

[Mr Yuck]

problem with that is that I use espresso. If I added milk to coffee like that, it would require that I use lots of coffee, and I drink what I make...and...well...I would explode or something.

[readingr]

Hmmm! I don't have a problem other than why spoil espresso coffee

To me the whole shot looks too soft, I like the glass with the milk in but the tiles and background don't help the picture to pop. I would try several plain backgrounds to see what suits, the tiles don't work for me.

I would also give the top a bit more space possible with the spout of the jug in view could be another alternative.

One last thing - you need to get rid of some of the reflections when you retake this.

Just my opinions. I would try this but it would be really difficult with a bean to cup machine, but then again you've whetted by appetite.

Roger

[Mr Yuck]

Hmmm! I don't have a problem other than why spoil espresso coffee

To me the whole shot looks too soft, I like the glass with the milk in but the tiles and background don't help the picture to pop. I would try several plain backgrounds to see what suits, the tiles don't work for me.

I would also give the top a bit more space possible with the spout of the jug in view could be another alternative.

One last thing - you need to get rid of some of the reflections when you retake this.

Just my opinions. I would try this but it would be really difficult with a bean to cup machine, but then again you've whetted by appetite.

Roger

I'll try this, you're right about the tile, it's no good, I'll find somewhere else to do this. It'll be a while. The softness was to try to make the tile not as noticeable.

Thanks for the suggestions

[Greg McCary]

If you blurred everything but the stream on purpose I would like to see more stream. The tile seems ok to me.
Greg

[GB1]

Mr Y - The shot is very very soft. Not sure from what I've read whether that was intentional or not, but I think everything but the liquid needs to be sharp (background excluded). I agree that a differernt background could help significantly here - perhaps a black one, or a dark blue? You never know till you try, so maybe trying a few expts would be good.

Also, I think that the stream of coffee coming into the glass/mug is also part of the photo. So I would emphasize it more than you have, showing more of it or even showing the tip of the coffeepot. I would also try some other angles. You appear to be at a 30 degree angle now: I would also try 0 degree and 60 degree shots.

One other suggestion - make the photo warmer. These type shots typically work best if they depict warmth, so try adding a reddish table protector (whatever they call those things) and whatever else to warm it up. The black background would be a separate expt.

GB

[Mr Yuck]

I believe it's called a placemat or tablecloth, depending on size, so it should be "warm" even though it's an iced coffee? Maybe because it's for a warm day...makes sense.

The softness was intentional partial orton effect because of the tile, I'll post a sharper one after class.

Excellent ideas. Thanks

[GB1]

I believe it's called a placemat or tablecloth, depending on size, so it should be "warm" even though it's an iced coffee? Maybe because it's for a warm day...makes sense.

The softness was intentional partial orton effect because of the tile, I'll post a sharper one after class.

Excellent ideas. Thanks

I didnt realize it was iced coffee But, here's some links I found on the web that are food for thought:

http://www.keysan.com/thumbnails/pdxe9683.jpg (cold)

http://www.fotosearch.com/comp/IDM/IDM105/jjia1013.jpg (warm)

http://absolutdrinks.com/content/cac...ource/1352.png (black bkgd)

http://static.flickr.com/95/243217433_cebbaa079a.jpg (a coldish bkgd where objects behind ehhance the feeling)

[Mr Yuck]

Good call. I like the black bg and the "busy" one. I dont have anything like that busy one available, well, if I did set up my tripod downtown etc, the people in the bg would be staring

Just for fun: Here's a sequence of images I posted in the viewfinder:


Just for reference, here's the original, as you can see by the reflection of the fridge on the tile, this was in the kitchen. For the reshoot, I'm gonna use a different style glass, might make a coffee for lunch, unsweetened so the contrast between milk and espresso will be greater.

[photophorous]

Hi Mr. Yuck,

I like your concept too, and I agree with a lot of the suggestions I've read. I just wanted to add a few comments. This is something I would have to do a lot of experimenting with, so this is just me brainstorming.

I agree that the tile is no good as a background and that you should include more of the stream, maybe even the whole carafe if it's not too big. But, you may have problems with lighting if you use a darker bg, because the coffee is also dark. I think part of the problem is with the angle of view. I think you should either go lower, so you can get the whole cup sharp and the bg blurry, or you should go higher, make the top of the cup sharp with the bottom and table cloth/tile blurry. I think a busy multicolored bg rendered out of focus with shallow depth of field would be nice. Something with warm but subdued colors. You could also use some kind of strong side lighting and let the background go black but that would require a lower angle of view.

Just ideas. Good luck. Let us see what you come up with.

Paul

[Trevor Ash]

Don't forget to put some more work into the quality of light as well as the reflections in the glass.

[Mr Yuck]

Gah, forgot to avoid reflections again. Oh well, here's what I got with today's reshoot.

The carafe is really ugly, so I got the closest thing to a shot glass I could find. (hehehe, triple shot glass!!)

Also couldnt find any suitable tablecloths or sheets, I know that brick isnt much better than tile, but what do you think of the background, other than the edge of the window....I really thought I was avoiding that.

This is with no PP.

Flickr page
*check out the pics surrounding the one on my flickr page too, for this post i just picked the one that showed the diffusion the best.*

[GB1]

MY - Really like that sequence of images, what did you use to put it together? It looks like a video where you were able to selectively decide which frames to use. Also, how many frames was that? Guessing 25-30.

[Mr Yuck]

used windows movie maker to put that together, and yeah, I think that was 25-30 images, I'm downtown at free public wifi spot right now so I dont have the originals with me.