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levyj413


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Alone In A Crowd (Basic Editing)
Collection: Glasses
Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR DG IF-ED
Date: Nov 27, 2007
Galleries: Still Life, Studio
Date Uploaded: Nov 27, 2007

 Blue food coloring in gelatin.

Lighting is pretty simple. I have three clamp lamps ($5 each at the hardware store) sitting on the table pointing at my yellow dining room wall. I pointed the lamps into the wall so no light fell directly on the glasses. The glasses were on some stacked books a few feet away on the other side of the table.

One problem was that yellow plus blue equals green, so I used a global hue/sat layer to try to get it back to blue. The second problem was that yellow light has very little blue to transmit through the gelatin, leaving it very dark, so in the same hue/sat layer, I increased the lightness, leaving the color a little muted.

To me, this was a subtle way of showing one non-conformist. I think the high number of DNMC comments (about 1/4 of the total) is interesting. At least three people saw it as two pairs instead of as three glasses with one loner. I hope to learn what the others saw. It's an interesting demonstration that different folks will see things differently.

I do like two suggestions I've received to make the "normal" glasses have level liquids and the oddball off-kilter and to use color to differentiate them.

I really like the shot, but I'm THRILLED with the voting results! This is only my third time in the top 10, this shot tied for my second-most comments during a challenge, and I'd bet 283 votes is a personal record, too.

I want to thank Raziel for explaining his lighting setup on his excellent Lucky 7 entry and various people who have used gelatin to produce gravity-defying "liquids."


For another setup from the same shoot, see my November Free Study entry:

Statistics
Place: 9 out of 93
Avg (all users): 6.3887
Avg (commenters): 7.1795
Avg (participants): 6.6316
Avg (non-participants): 6.3510
Views since voting: 4386
Views during voting: 720
Votes: 283
Comments: 52
Favorites: 4 (view)

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AuthorThread
 12/09/2007 03:38:11 PM
Congratulations on your top 10 finish. Excellent shot!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/06/2007 06:30:49 PM
Congrats on the finish! You have an amazing ability with visualization and camera know how. It would take me 50,000 shots to even figure this out.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 05:20:31 PM
Congratulations on the top 10 placement. I'm glad enough people liked it to offset the dnmc votes.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 03:06:51 PM
This is gorgeous! Congrats on top 10.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 10:00:37 AM
Congrats on your top ten. Lovely photo. I didn't get a chance to vote, but I admit this was too subtle for me. It wasn't until reading your comments that I realized one was different from the others! It would have been more obvious to have the different glass be completely level (rather than rotated), I guess.

It's hard to believe your physical set-up was as rough as described because this seems so technically accomplished. A little more blue and this could have worked for the complimentary colors challenge, too. :-)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 08:00:17 AM
Woooohoooo Jeffrey, good going. You got a little ol 9 from me. Congrats on the placement. Way to go!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 07:56:57 AM
Well, how about that?! Congrats on your top 10, Jeffrey!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 06:11:13 AM
Congrats on the top ten finish, goes to show what I know. :P
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 03:09:40 AM
Congrats on a Top 10 and a truly fine image. I rather liked this during voting as I had to look at it for a bit. At no time didi ti occur to me that it remotely DNMC, but it puzzled the heck out of me. I gave it a 7 and that stands! LOL!!! Congrats again, Jeffrey!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 01:14:33 AM
I love this one mate and so pleased you got on the front page as this image so deserved to be there.....
Very well set up, and I loved the idea.....
Your front page of your portfolio is looking really good.....

Message edited by author 2007-12-05 01:16:52.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 12:32:22 AM
Congrat's Jeffrey on top 10!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 12:09:37 AM
Nicely done. Congrats on your top ten!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
12/04/2007 11:00:04 PM
Black cherry jello? Hexadecimal 4? Nice composition, lighting, creativity.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/04/2007 04:41:12 PM
beautiful light!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/04/2007 03:49:27 PM
Interesting.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/04/2007 02:26:35 PM
I have to look twice.....
clever idea!
Reminds me to a photo in free-study.....
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/04/2007 11:44:14 AM
great subject and composition
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/04/2007 11:09:46 AM
This is really clever and nicely captured - 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/04/2007 03:49:08 AM
I think I saw these guys hanging around in the FS. :P
The backlighting is excellent, but this doesn't really feel like a crowded situation for me, so I can't give it the highest marks. 7
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/03/2007 10:17:26 PM
Nice photograph, lighting is good along with focus and colors but I'm finding it hard to relate the photo to the challenge. I know the two left and the two right glasses are different but it just don't click.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/03/2007 07:48:46 AM
Nice photo, but it doesn't really meet the criteria of "alone in a crowd".
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/02/2007 11:21:51 AM
Nice (un)symmetry!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/30/2007 09:22:07 AM
good twist on the theme, and well executed
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/30/2007 09:20:52 AM
I like it, but not sure how it meets the challenge. Cool shot, anyhow.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/30/2007 04:57:45 AM
This one is interesting, I kinda like it
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/30/2007 02:40:04 AM
wow! nice lighting and a cool idea
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/29/2007 11:32:41 PM
Hard mounted and swirled? clever and nice results. great lighting
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/29/2007 08:29:49 PM
pretty
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/29/2007 05:40:48 PM
Um. . . I'm gonna go with solidified jello. The good news is that you got me to sit here and stare at your image for a long time. The better news is that you got me to come back later and stare it it some more. After I had my brilliant (Doesn't matter if I'm right or not, it's still brilliant!) idea of how this was done, I was able to sit back and enjoy the quality of the lighting you used, the sharpness of the image overall, and the wonderfully warm colors. This is my pick for the blue! Well done!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/29/2007 01:52:22 PM
How the heck did you do that? Is the liquid frozen? Very cool...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/29/2007 01:44:29 PM
I actually had to look at it for a while to figure it out! VERY clever! How the heck did you do that????? 7
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/29/2007 01:39:00 PM
Jeffrey, now that I know it's yours, I'll give you a comment. I'd already scored it with a 7, which I'll keep as I gave it to you before I knew it was a Critical Mass member's. It's clever, and it does meet the challenge. It reminds me of those IQ tests where you have to find the odd one out. I understand why you chose to keep all the gelatin colors the same, though I think making the "odd one out" a different color might help drive the point home. Anyway, kudos for your creativity! And great lighting, BTW.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/29/2007 01:17:54 PM
Concept works, lighting is incredible and I can tell LOTS of effort went into this. 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/29/2007 10:25:42 AM
well doe image ... but hosestly ... I have seen way too many glasses. Dont get me wrong this is well done and I am giving it a 7 but the glass bit it getting a bit trite
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/29/2007 09:56:39 AM
This is good. Creative and the lighting is well balanced.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/29/2007 09:35:22 AM
great picture, just not on subject for me. like the colors and sharpness. has a nice goofy aspect to it
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/29/2007 09:17:21 AM
Lovely lighting, subtle way to make the point.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/29/2007 07:41:58 AM
Pretty pretty good
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/28/2007 11:46:04 PM
Interesting shot, and nicely lit, however I think it dnmc.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/28/2007 10:15:45 PM
Wow.. how'd you do that?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/28/2007 09:47:36 PM
this is great, love the lighting and composition. how did you do this? is that jell-o?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/28/2007 08:44:22 PM
NICE!!! What a great idea! Excellent lighting. Can't wait to see what you did.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/28/2007 04:05:06 PM
This is neat. How did you manage this with basic editing?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/28/2007 02:19:00 PM
hmmm, i don't really like the arrangment
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/28/2007 01:50:14 PM
ha....i had to look twice

great color
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/28/2007 01:05:04 PM
very interesting, love the colors
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/28/2007 12:54:01 PM
Nice, how did you do that? Hope you will share the setup details.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/28/2007 12:06:22 PM
Very cool
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/28/2007 11:03:14 AM
Not sure how this meets challenge. But it is a beautiful picture.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/28/2007 07:01:22 AM
Nice set of glasses. I like the tone too. But I couldn't figure out how this set up could be fit into the challenge.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/28/2007 02:25:03 AM
This would have worked better if the glasses were laying on their sides, so that it looked like gravity affected all but one of the glasses.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/28/2007 12:37:14 AM
Very technically impressive! I can't even see the shoehorn in the shot! :P
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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