Orange and Soda Water

[mjordan]

It's funny how many of us have been playing around and how many chose an orange to play with. :D

I've been playing arond with soda water and an orange slice for awhile, but I was having trouble with reflections on the round glass bowl I was using... even with my softboxes. I started to make my own light tent, but decided this was something I could probably use occassionally, so I decided to buy one of the folding ones on a flex frame like the reflectors. It folds down about the size of a 12 inch light disc and just as flat, so it will be easy to carry with me if I want.

Anyway, it came in on Friday so I tried it out tonight. Here is a orange slice in a bowl of soda water so I can get bubbles on the orange. The bubbles show up ok but I'm not happy with the lighting on the orange slice. I don't think I sliced it thin enough, so I'll get out the meat slicer and do some really thin later. But here is a sample of my playing around. Canon 10D with 24-70 2.8L at ISO 100, f22 and 1/100th shutter speed. Lights were 3 Excalibur monolights, one on each sides and behind.

http://www.sitnprettyphoto.com/display/soda4958.jpg

and

http://www.sitnprettyphoto.com/display/soda4952.jpg

Mike

[pdrow]

There does seem to be an orange theme for the week. I like the look of the bubbles on the slice. I particularly like the first one. I keep looking at it because it reminds me of something, but can't figure it out. You lost some of the detail in the orange I have seen in some of the other shots this week, but the bubbles add so much, I don't miss it.

just a thought, but I wonder if you could lay another slice in the bottom of the bowl to have more bubbles rising around the orange slice. They are really cool shots.

Hmmm, my husband bought some oranges today and there are Sprites in the fridge . . .
pam

[down_shift13]

cool photo, i think i saw one just like that in a magazine but he used lime instead! :)

[thefly]

I would try backlighting the orange. I think it would add more interest. Might try this myself. 8-)

[michael.luczkow]

i just saw that in a magazine, i want to try it now!

[mjordan]

Thanks for the comments. Yes, I've seen this done with lime, lemon, strawberries and a olive. I'm going to try some other things once I get the lighting down better.

Pam, the one problem with Sprite is that it's got surgar in it and the orange wants to float (the reason I don't show the whole slice is I have weights on the bottem to hold it down) and you have to keep getting it back out to drop it again. With soda water there are more bubbles and it isn't sticky on my fingers. :D What I have been doing is holding it just above the rim of the bowl and dropping it in and shooting (I'm using a remote) just as it reaches the bottem. Sometimes it stays flat to the lens and semetimes it turns as it goes in. My biggest problem with doing it this was was focus. If I manually focused, even at a small fstop for DOF sometimes the refraction of the water would throw the focus off. If I used AF sometimes the lens wouldn't obtain focus before the orange was out of position. So that's why I went to the weighted bottem to hold the orange in one place, or at least slow it down a bit as it turned slowly in the current after putting it in or moving it.

TheFly, I do have it back lit but I think the orange slice is too thick (it's about 1/4 to 3/8th" thick). I'm going to use the meat slicer and slice off some really really thin slices next. I'm also going to move my lights around , although I've got limited room on both sides (I don't know who's idea it was to put furniture in the living room!). I'm thinking that a bowl (even a nice round one) is not the best, but I don't know if I can get enough club soda to fill up our 50 gallon aquirium. :D Although I do wonder how a gold fish would look in soda water. ;D

By the way, Shasta Club Soda is only 77cents a litter where I bought it. So it's pretty cheap to play around with. Or you can get water and a can of carbon dioxide and make your own a lot cheaper.

Anyway, I'm going to keep playing. I hope others give it a try too.

Mike

[michael.luczkow]

stupid question. what kind of glass did you use? i used a seemingly regular drinking glass but the images were very distorted because of the curvature of the glass. Not to mention they foged up and had condensation on them because the soda was cold :-(

[RJSorensen]

What a way cool concept . . . I might give this a go as well.

[mjordan]

Michael, I used what is called a "bubble bowl". They use them for making candels and other things that look pretty sitting in a bowl. They come in all sizes. I bought 4 sizes when I got them, from 20 oz size all the way up to a big 64 oz fish bowl size. I've been using the 48 oz size one for these shots. It holds about 3/4ths of a litter of soda water. I found them at this web site: http://www.glassware4gellin.com/

Keep in mind that round adds a bit more complexity to getting them reflection free. A small flast glass fish bowl might work better. I've also thought about making my own small tank out of either glass or plexi-glass, but usually for me, it's cheaper and easier to just buy something. :D


Next time I shoot something in one of the bowls I'll take a picture of the set up to give you an idea of what it looks like.

Mike

[Persian-Rice]

Mjordan, I was messing around a couple months ago and came up with this. Make sure you light it from behind.

http://img228.exs.cx/img228/8324/lime7ti.jpg

[thefly]

TheFly, I do have it back lit but I think the orange slice is too thick (it's about 1/4 to 3/8th" thick). I'm going to use the meat slicer and slice off some really really thin slices next. I'm also going to move my lights around , although I've got limited room on both sides (I don't know who's idea it was to put furniture in the living room!). I'm thinking that a bowl (even a nice round one) is not the best, but I don't know if I can get enough club soda to fill up our 50 gallon aquirium. :D Although I do wonder how a gold fish would look in soda water. ;D



How bright of an light are you using? A thiner slice would also help.

[mjordan]

Persian, that's an excellent shot of the lime slice. And was much thinner than my orange slice. Your light might have been brighter or closer as well.

Fly, the back light was a 160 ws monolight at 1/4th power shooting out of a parabolic 16" reflector. I will try moving it up to 1/2 power and full power to see how it does. I ate the last orange so I've got a choice of some tangerrines or I need to go to the store. :D

Mike

[Persian-Rice]

Lime is in a big, flat, clear dish filled with perrier sitting on a lightbox.
You might need to shoot macro, I used tubes.................. that way you get some more detail.

Cheers

[mjordan]

Here is a remake of the orange slice. I upped the saturation a bit to bring out more of the orange color.

Persian, I've shot a few other things in the soda water since the orange and I did use my Kenko tubes. I'm planning on hitting the store and finding a few more things to try and also pick up some more oranges and give this a try again... but with a slice that is much thinner. Kind of like your lime slice.

http://www.sitnprettyphoto.com/display/orangeprep4952m.jpg

Mike

[Michaelmjc]

I just tried this, and I cant white my background out. I have the mine in a small glass dish sitting on top of a softbox... and still ****ty.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks

[mjordan]

You may be getting lens flare if you are shooting into the light. That's one thing you have to be careful of. I had the back light behind the light tent, which evened out the light a bit.

Post some of your tries and let us see what you are dealing with. Maybe I or someone else can give you a few ideas to try. I didn't get that great of shots the first few times either and it did take some practice and moving lights around.

Mike

[david lee]

This looks really good
Does it work with Salami do you think?

[Michaelmjc]

I was up all night trying, I finally got one thats not too bad... It's definately not the easiest thing to do.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y7/mikeclarke/aeaf5263.jpg

[mjordan]

David, I think you have to have the right brand of salami. :D I have tried a few things that didn't quite work out, but it never hurts to try. Just have lots of Soda on hand to put in fresh.

Michael, not bad. I think you need a little bit of light in the front though. It's a pretty thick piece of lime so not a lot of light is getting through. If you used a fill light in the front, it will light up the front of the object. But not bad. It's a nice deep green color.

Mike

[drakkar20d]

mmmmmmm..... salami, great shots though guys

[mjordan]

For some reason, salami and soda just doesn't sound right. :D


Mike

[Litespeed]

Bryan Peterson did this in his book so I thought I would try it. Let me know what you think.

[Marlfox]

What sort of set-ups are you guys using to get these shots? Could someone take a photo of the setup so us newbies can get some pointers? :)

[kraaazymike]

Do you realize this thread is almost 6 years old? Start a new thread! LOL

But to answer your question, I think they're good. Maybe a tad under exposed but I like them.

[mjordan]

It was a quick shot back when I was doing these soda shots (was it really 6 years ago? Wow!) but here is the setup I used on some of them:

http://www.sitnprettyphoto.com/display/setup5832.jpg

It's probably been about that long since I last posted on here.

Nice job on your shots, LiteSpeed. They're kind of in your face close, but good rich and saturated colors.

Mike

[Litespeed]

I did mine a little more simple. I just went outside on a sunny day, had a square vace, filled it with Seltzer water and an orange. I managed to keep the orange in place by putting a clothespin wedged behind it so it wouldn't move. If you want some smaller bubbles to got with it, put in a little salt. I had a red scarf behind it for the background color.