thommorris

Better With Age

I was trying to think of an entry for the commercial product photography contest. I like Martin guitars. I like wine. What do they have in common? They get bett...
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I was trying to think of an entry for the commercial product photography contest. I like Martin guitars. I like wine. What do they have in common? They get better with age! Ran with the concept. The most challenging parts were: getting the guitar layer to be inside the rim of the wine glass and creating a realistic reflection in the the wine. Fun!
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NIKON D610

settings

Aperture f/1.0 ISO 100 Shutter 1/30

upload_date

Feb, 2015

Views

1293

Likes

+69

Awards

Featured

Contest Finalist in Artistic Expressions Photo Contest

Peer Award

+60

Outstanding Creativity

+23

Superb Composition

Superior Skill

Absolute Masterpiece

Love it

Top Choice

Genius

Behind The Lens

Location

I took this shot in my studio/spare bedroom.

Time

It was evening and our son had gone to bed, so I had a cup of coffee and thought about a commercial concept. I like guitars and I like wine. They are both things that get better with age when properly cared for. To me it was a natural pairing of wine and song.

Lighting

I used two soft boxes, one to back light and shine through the red wine and the other to side light the guitar and bring out its details and to put a catchlight on the wine glass.

Equipment

I used my Nikon D610 with the 24-85mm f/4.5-5.6 set to 85mm on a tripod with two soft boxes as previously described.The wine glass was set on black acrylic for a nice reflection. I had to add water to the wine to get the light to shine through with a nice ruby red glow. Sad to do, but we must make certain sacrifices for the shot.

Inspiration

Again, it's well established that wine and song pair nicely. How to express that in an image with just those elements? I tried to imagine a Martin guitar advertisement that might be something you'd see in a guitar magazine that would make you look twice, linger on the page and smile.

Editing

This was for me a new venture into compositing and layer masks. The challenge was to imagine what it would look like if a guitar neck was magically rising from a glass of wine. I wondered how to get the guitar to appear in front of the back of the wine glass and behind the leading edge of the glass. Another challenge was to create the guitar reflection in the surface of the wine. I studied what reflections in dark liquids looked like and applied that to this image. I duplicated the layer with the guitar neck and turned it upside down. From there I fiddled with Lens Correction to skew the image in a way that resembled a real reflection. That little detail was the most challenging part for me to get right, but it was worth the effort to make real an impossible image.

In my camera bag

It varies. If I'm traveling and want to be well prepared, then it's a longer list than if I have a specific idea to capture. I'll always bring my front line D610 and an infrared converted D3100. The lenses are pretty basic: 24-85mm zoom, 70-300mm telephoto, 100mm macro with a 20mm extension tube, two batteries for each camera, appropriate chargers, international adapters for outlets if needed, three memory cards, 32, 16 and 16GB, tripod. I think that's about it.

Feedback

Check out some great tutorials on layer masks and compositing. Your imagination is the only limit. Try things that you're not sure whether they'll work. Your failures are great teachers and sometimes they result in happy accidents.

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thommorris

thommorris

Better With Age

I was trying to think of an entry for the commercial product photography contest. I like Martin guitars. I like wine. What do they have in common? They get bett... Read more

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow thommorris

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I was trying to think of an entry for the commercial product photography contest. I like Martin guitars. I like wine. What do they have in common? They get bett...
Read more

Share photos. Enter contests to win great prizes.
Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.