The Making of "Riedel"

[Xenedis]

Rightio. It's time for a new 'the making of' tutorial from my blog.

This one's a little light (pardon the pun), as the setup and execution was quite simple.

I hope you enjoy it and learn something you can put to good use.

A couple of years ago I created a simple still-life image, which I still enjoy viewing.

The image is titled Riedel. Here it is:



Photographed at 6:21pm on 13/09/2008 with a Canon EOS 5D at 85mm for 0.005 sec (1/200) at f/1.8 and ISO 100.


As simple as the image appears, so, too, was the work that went into creating it. It is surprisingly straight-forward.

The image consists of four Riedel wine glasses.

I photographed them inside a light tent, with a blue backdrop. Using a ruler I aligned them precisely so that I could produce a symmetrical image.

The lighting setup consisted of two desk lamps (one with a tungsten globe and the other with a fluorescent globe), each placed on the outsides of the light tent on the left and right. This produced the orange glow visible on the stems and bases of the bowls.

The backlighting was achieved with my Canon Speedlite 580EX II positioned outside the light tent, to the rear. I triggered it wirelessly with a pair of my PocketWizard PLUS IIs.

There was very little post-processing involved: just some simple straightening, cropping, contrast and sharpness adjustments, plus some clone-stamping of a few distracting specular highlights.

A simple setup, but an effective result to my eyes.