Back in the studio following my failed second garagetography venture, I went back to uplighting bottles sat on a sheet of glass and a coloured gel. This first shoot was with a bottle of Gordon’s. I put a double layer of green gels under it for a deeper colour.
When I sat the bottle on the glass, I noticed that the bubbles in the liquid made interesting patterns as they swirled around, so I had a go at photographing them with a longer shutter speed. I was pleased with the result. The image is abstract and a vivid colour. I would spend time removing the light spots if I were to use this in the final cut.
This is another image of the bubbles swirling around at the bottom of the bottle. Although the colour is striking and the contrast between the bottle and the background is strong, this is not as strong an image as the first. The composition is not right.
Again, I like the strong colour in this image, but the composition is wrong.
I think that the cork is very interesting in this image. It has an ethereal glow. The rest of the image does not work, with the bottle being out of focus. I would reshoot this with a wider aperture if I were inclined to use it in the final cut. I do like the strong colour, however.
This is another example of me practising backlighting to get a good outline on the cork. I really like this aspect of the image; the ripped paper and label lit from inside make it pop out from the background. Perhaps a crop to get rid of the rest of the bottle would make the image work better. It might also benefit from the bottle being positioned in the centre of the image, and being upright rather than leaning to the right.
A perspective shot of the bottle. My aim was to capture the shape of it, which I have done, by ensuring that the corners are well defined. The edge of the liquid against the back of the bottle reinforces this. I’m not sure that this would make the final cut, but I feel that I have made progress in knowing which direction I am heading.
Phoblography with Debra Allen 