Geekgirl Photo: The Art of Tea

[JBaymore]

Geekgirl,

Best of luck on the new venture.

best,

................john

[Geekgirl]

Thanks so much for the encouragement! I'm also thinking it's time to take a few classes, to push things along to the next level. At this point, I still feel like most of my good photos are happy accidents, and I'd like to have a little more control and repeatable results.

Also, it would be lovely to get back into film, just for the experience and the reality check. I love digital, but sometimes I fear it's too easy to become artistically lazy - taking 100s of thoughtless shots on the chance that one or two will be "good." There's something to be said for a fully manual film camera with a fixed 50mm lens (or 35mm!) and no "chimping."

Film: Superia
Camera: Minolta SRT-101
Lens: Rokkor 50mm 1.4
Settings: No idea. No EXIF with film. HA!



Wait! No tea in this photo? Nah. Louie is French. He prefers wine.

[Geekgirl]

One of my favorite cups from the wonderful Fred Parker Pottery:


are you willing to wait for the miracle


I feel like this photo would be better with an old-timey fade and texture. Hmmm... experimentation is good for the soul.

[JBaymore]

Your use of depth-of-field generally is wonderful.

best,

............john

[Geekgirl]

Thanks John! I've got scads of shots where it's set wide-open, and I find myself wondering where the heck the in-focus point is. Ha! This was shot at f2.8

[Littlepig2]

Thanks John! I've got scads of shots where it's set wide-open, and I find myself wondering where the heck the in-focus point is. Ha! This was shot at f2.8

Ah! You are in many ways my teacher.

[Geekgirl]

Another Parker cup, this time with a more "useful" aperture: F7.1



More detail of the cup is retained, although the dreamy fuzzy background isn't there anymore. Still, nice bokeh is possible with a smaller aperture and more depth of field.

On another note, isn't the cup wonderful? Completely unglazed, this clay is produced from a collection of scraps of different kinds, then carefully rehydrated, wedged(?), and turned into this cup to maintain the striated look. Truly one of a kind!

[Chip]

Beautiful photos as always, Geek. And so full of ... mood?

[Geekgirl]

Mostly a change of light. Fall has arrived with a vengeance. But I do have to say that these cups make me feel somewhat contemplative.

[lucienkoonce]

hi geekgirl...thanks for your comment on my work. the crackle shino piece was a test to see what kind of crackle i could get. judith duff(brevard, nc) has a great crackle shino...check her website out sometime, she has awesome chawans www.judithduff.com i shoot my work and have used, in the past, tungsten light when i was shooting slide film, and daylight now that i have switched to digital (nikon d-40). but i am interested in switching over to fluorescent lighting. do you have any experience photographing ceramic pieces with cf? ~lucien

[Geekgirl]

Fluorescent is probably the easiest way to get straight "product" shots. It's very easy to control, color corrected, doesn't create harsh shadows, and you can use simple white boards for fill light. Plus it doesn't get hot, and you can easily break it down and store it.

If you really want to get fancy, you can get a one piece molded background "studio," that makes it very easy to showcase your ceramics. You won't get much mood out of the shots, but it's virtually foolproof for shots that you mean to post on vendor sites.

This is shot with fl. lighting and a molded light cube:

It's right behind you!!!

[lucienkoonce]

when i set up and photo my ceamics, esp. the tea bowls, i use a tent and have a graduated backdrop, white to jet black, as background. i have a reflector on either side, with barn doors, and a 500 w daylight bulb in each. as a fill in light, i have a reflector shining on the backside with a 250 watt bulb. in looking at fluorescent lighting, i could not find a recommendation for suggested wattage amount. i noticed that some reflectors utilized one or three bulbs, and some went to as much as eight or nine bulbs in a single fixture. what is your perspective as to the amount of needed wattage? i know that the camera settings can be set to accomodate what available light there is, but with the daylight bulbs, as bright as they are, i tend to shoot (digital) with the lowest noise seting and smallest aperature setting in order to get the most depth of field. even with the daylight bulbs, as bright as they are, i don't believe i get the back rim of tea bowls, etc, totally in focus.

[Geekgirl]

What focal length are you using? If you have to zoom in, you will (usually) need more light and have less DOF, as opposed to using a wider angle, getting a little closer and stopping down a touch.

I have no idea of the wattage, but your dark background is probably absorbing some of the available light in your set-up. I would imagine that you can create some of the graduated background by repositioning your lights and taking advantage of the slight light fall-off.

TBH, my lighting is not nearly as complicated as what you are describing. There are some really good suggestions though, in the Pro-Lighting series edition: Food Shots. Some of it is beyond my ability and the equipment I currently have available, but I'm getting ready to dive into more complicated lighting scenarios.

[lucienkoonce]

thanks for all of this insightful information on photographing work. ~lucien

[Geekgirl]

I probably should be working more on learning all the bells and whistles of my NEW CAMERA!!! (there should be a little smiley who jumps up and down!) instead I had asked my niece to work on developing a nice watermark for my stuff. Heh.

Anyways, I'm using my new little sansai cup today. It's such nice size and shape, and to think, I almost passed this one up. The horror!

snowberry and sansai