 Figure 19 |
 Figure 20 |
Stuff it!
One common way of dealing with reflections off the back wall of a glass is
block them with paper or fabric. The insert can also provide strong contrast for the label, although one still has
to be wary
of reflections bouncing off the front wall. The Gannymede "76" glass in Figure
19 is a good example: this image was created by the same seller who snapped
the Shamrock above. Again, the source of the refection is the camera
and hands that hold it, accentuated by the contrasting material within.
Figure 20 shows a "stuff it" technique that never works: filling the glass
with a dark liquid. Despite all expectations to the contrary, liquids just seem to make the pre-pro labels fade away.
|
Figure 19 |
Figure 20 |
A Parting Shot
So what have we learned from our eBay tutors? First, make sure that the image
on the view screen is in focus
and there's sufficient light to read the label by without overwhelming it.
Second, choose a
background that's uniform and contrasts well with the label. Third, be aware of any
brightly-illuminated hotspots in the vicinity of the glass that may cause strong
reflections. Finally, crop the image so that the glass fills the frame.
| These are the basic rules, but how they're translated into a successful image depends very much on individual tastes and the willingness of the photographer to spend a few minutes experimenting. I'll provide some specific ideas in the next installment, but for now, I'll leave you with one of my favorite "shot shots". The background is black felt and the glass is illuminated by soft, natural light coming from my home office window [Figure 21]. It doesn't get much easier than that! |
 Figure 21 |
Robin is an enthusiastic collector of shot glasses and maintains the collector’s website www.pre-pro.com. He can be reached at 245 N 15th St., MS#488, Philadelphia, PA 19102, e-mail oldwhiskey@pre-pro.com.
| Shortly after the first installment of "Shooting Shots" went to press, Consumer Reports printed a buyer's guide to point-and-shoot cameras (November 2005, pp. 16-19). They gave high scores to the Canon Powershot A510 ($180), the Kodak EasyShare CX7430 ($180), and the Olympus D-580 Zoom ($160). Two others footnotes. A collecting colleague wisely suggested that one select a camera in which the memory card is accessed from the side rather than the base. This makes it easy to remove in the middle of a shooting session. For similar reasons, you might also want to start each session with a set of fully-charged batteries so that you don't have to disassemble the camera-tripod assembly in order to replace a drained power pack. And finally, my four-year old digital camera is beginning to show signs of age. Specifically, images shot under low light conditions are scattered with multi-colored dots, much as if I'd strung my glasses with teensy fairy lights. I believe this reflects individual light detectors going bad, so given how low prices on point-and-shoot cameras have fallen in recent months, it may make more sense to buy new rather than used. |
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