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Sonata in Blue
Sonata in Blue
levyj413


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Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Free Study 2007-11 (Advanced Editing V)
Collection: Glasses
Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR DG IF-ED
Location: Dining room
Date: Nov 27, 2007
Aperture: 4.0
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/90s
Galleries: Still Life, Traditional Art
Date Uploaded: Nov 30, 2007

 Same glasses as from my "Alone in a Crowd" entry:

After I entered that, I tried out various additional arrangements with the free study in mind.

The setup was fairly simple. I have three clamp lamps ($5 each at the hardware store: 2 with 100W equivalent compact fluorescent bulbs and one with a 150W equivalent bulb). I pushed my dining room table up against the wall and put the lamps on it, pointing them to my yellow dining room wall so no light came forward toward the glasses. I got the idea from Raziel's excellent description of his Lucky 7 entry.

As for the glasses, that's blue gelatin - a packet or two plus some blue food coloring. Not jello, so it wasn't good to eat, much to my kids' disappointment.

They really are balanced that way - no strings or anything. I stomped gently on the floor to be sure they wouldn't fall over easily, tiptoed back to my camera (which I'd already aimed and focused), quickly hit the shutter and took the glasses down. This was at 1am, and I really didn't want to have to explain to my wife why she woke up to the sound of shattering wine glasses. :)

Unfortunately, I hadn't thought about the result of lighting blue gelatin with yellow light. Not much blue comes off the wall, so the gelatin was very dark, and it appeared green. I couldn't fix that easily in the other entry, but here in advanced editing I used a soft light layer to brighten the gelatin and a color layer to change it back to blue. Whereas I usually use editing to change a color, here I used it to restore the real color.

The rest of the editing was the usual: sharpening, USM for contrast enhancement, and cropping. Oh, and I cloned out some uneven coloring in the wall and a few minor messy spots in the glasses and gelatin.

This picture has been my most winning outside of DPC - 1st place in betterphoto.com's November 2007 contest "Elements of Style" and the Kodak Picture of the Day on Feb. 27, 2008. And it won on trustedreviews.com for Feb '08. Not exactly winning a prize, but a woman on betterphoto tried to copy it (she was even nice enough to tell me about it).

WAAAYYYYY post-challenge: well, whaddayaknow? I used what I learned 8 months later and won a ribbon with another gelatin shot!

Statistics
Place: 20 out of 393
Avg (all users): 6.7647
Avg (commenters): 7.7647
Avg (participants): 6.7182
Avg (non-participants): 6.8837
Views since voting: 5982
Views during voting: 348
Votes: 153
Comments: 35
Favorites: 24 (view)

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AuthorThread
 02/01/2008 08:46:42 PM
Sorry it took so long to get around to this, Jeffrey. Another great shot here - although I can only imagine what your wife would have done to you if she saw you setting this up with her good wine glasses. :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/20/2007 04:37:34 PM
Congrats on your latest achievement Jeffrey. Way to go.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/20/2007 12:21:27 AM
My 8-year old son and I enjoyed this shot. I asked him how he thought it was done and his initial response was that you must have taken the picture very quickly before the liquid settled/ran out...then he quickly retreated because of the difficulty of doing that with the fully inverted upper glass and I challenged him to think of different ways it could be done...he came up with paint, taping or gluing something in the glasses and a couple other pretty good ideas...and he got excited as he got more creative...Oh well, probably more than you need to know! But we did enjoy it and I think this creative shot helped my son better understand that there often are many different ways to achieve a result/solve a problem which was a fun process to witness. Thanks!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/09/2007 08:34:35 PM
Nice job on this one, Jeff - no shoehorn here! ;-) Congrats on a great finish!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/09/2007 01:04:45 PM
Congrats on the top 20! Glad to see these do well for you. Really good job with the lighting and set up, and with the editing. You have a very good eye for very pleasing graphic presentations, and a whole lotta skill in creating a professional, finished look in post processing. (All that said, this reminds me a bit of He Who Will Not Be Named...)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/08/2007 07:13:27 PM
awesome shot Jeffrey. I like this one better than the alone in a crowd shot. Very well done.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/08/2007 06:41:23 PM
Excellent shot! Beautiful colors! Congrats on a great score!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/08/2007 03:37:18 PM
I love the colors and light in this shot -- much more life than the one for Alone in A Crowd. Congratulations for a a beautiful image, an excellent score, and a very impressive placement in a Free Study challenge.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/08/2007 01:49:08 PM
Unbelievable that some people would give a 1,2, or 3 on this photo. Hope my vote of 10 helped put in 20th place.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/08/2007 11:09:07 AM
Great job! This works much better than the "Alone" entry both the color, and the stacking of the glasses.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/08/2007 10:33:28 AM
Jeff!!! Top 20?!!!!! Woo Hoo!!! You are a Master of Balance & Design. Congratulations!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/08/2007 07:52:54 AM
Gelatin appears to be a good thing here at DPC! I will need to remember this.

Nice work and great finish Jeff. The lighting is really good, the composition is interesting, and the graphic feel really draws the viewer in with that "Wow" effect.

  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/08/2007 07:47:39 AM
well now, Jeffrey, this is not too shabby!
Seriously, big congrats on high placement- your set-up & execution (ooo creepy word) are perfect ! :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/08/2007 02:53:56 AM
Congrats on your Top 20, Jeffrey!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/08/2007 01:34:19 AM
Brilliantly executed, and congrats on your finish. BTW I liked all 3 of your glass shots.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/08/2007 12:19:38 AM
Congrat's Jeffrey! Nice score and top 20 too!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/08/2007 12:12:15 AM
Congrats on a top 20 FS finish, Jeff. This one is actually my favorite so far.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
12/07/2007 07:26:09 PM
The magic of jello (or something like it). Great complementary colors. The blue pops out beautifully and I love the gradient yellow in the background.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/06/2007 11:17:18 PM
Now this is really clever. I'll look for it after the challenge to see how you did it!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/06/2007 06:25:21 PM
A slightly different take on the ol' wine glass shot get's you a bump up to 9 from me. Ok - now never do one again! : )
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/03/2007 10:17:34 PM
I thought only movies could cause me to suspend belief, but you have proven me wrong.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/03/2007 08:29:44 PM
the setup for this looks tough...nice job 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/02/2007 11:29:29 PM
Interesting setup. Very good lighting and color.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/02/2007 09:27:33 PM
wonderful study in light and colors.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/02/2007 09:04:15 PM
nice balancing act! should do very well for you. :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/02/2007 10:31:18 AM
Nicely done
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/02/2007 08:45:09 AM
I saw this on Photosig and it really caught my eye. Very nice composition. Love the balancing act.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/02/2007 06:08:06 AM
Very cool - jelly? Excellent stuff!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/02/2007 05:16:44 AM
Is that jelly?! =p hehehehe

Nice and neat shot
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/02/2007 04:44:37 AM
fantastic composition, lighting, clarity and colors. Looks like Irene-Style. Very well done!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/02/2007 01:27:52 AM
This is one for my wall. Interesting, clean and very sharp photo. I love the background colors, frames... altogether excellent photo.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/02/2007 12:54:15 AM
lovely study...you abviously have another variation in the comp colour challenge, so good luck with both 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/01/2007 12:43:39 PM
Nice twist to the other versions of this
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/01/2007 02:04:46 AM
So is this frozen blue water, in stacked wine glasses? I've always wondered about the technique that creates this effect. Whatever you did to creat it, you did it well
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/01/2007 12:51:06 AM
Oh my...stunning and amazing...like wow! Seriously this is fabulous!! So well-executed. A 10!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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