Another espresso attempt

Ok, wanted to do another try (the first try is here). Pretty much the same light setup (single flash, on camera 430EX bounced to the right... a white paper acting as a reflector on the left side). This time I used a simpler espresso cup (think it works better with the composition) off-center, two amaretti biscotti and a few spilled coffee beans.

How does it work? C&C is most welcome and as usual, click the picture for a larger version

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …ontext=photostr​eam&size=o

Great photo, really makes me want a cup of coffee now!

The beans on the right get a little lost on the black background, great composition though.

Thanks

You’re right about the beans. I really wanted to keep the background kind of neutral, so a colored background wouldn’t have worked so well. I tried with a white one, but that took too much away from the cup. Guess the beans give the background a bit of a texture though

Well it makes me want to drink it and i dont even like coffee so yes its a success!

Yummy - makes me want to fill the cup the rest of the way with hot milk.

If the beans were wet (or varnished) they would reflect more light.

Thanks for your kind comments Sarah and Athena The cup is really quite big for an espresso cup, so I guess that is really a double espresso already.

True about making the beans wet first

I can almost smell it..... Looks great!

the picture is beautiful and clear.
the cookies really look scrumptious

I'm not mad about the beans there
they look a bit like tablets
(and could spoil the taste for the yum cookies)

sorry for saying but to me the coffee looks a bit too cold and murky
maybe a darker or even a milky coffee would look better

Beautiful!

Although maybe if you had a dark green background the beans might show up a bit better and it will all work togeather, marie has a point to, using a black coffee with maybe a little cream swirled in it would look better.

Great shot regardless

I think this is an improvement over your first attempt. The extra elements make it more interesting to look at. Very nice lighting and composition. I agree with the others that the beans to the right kind of get lost. Nice shot.

man that would make a nice widescreen desktop. You wouldnt have a 1680x1050 version would you?

Again, the composition is fantastic. When I opened up the larger photo, I was suprised that it seemed to be fairly soft. It looks like the beans are in focus instead of the cup. (I apologise if I'm completly wrong, I'm super tired, and taking a quick break from homework.....must find some caffeine now )

Now I'm going to go check out your first try.

Thanks Cleo199

Thanks marie Actually, the beans have great aroma, and if you want to, after you have drank the coffee and eaten the cookies, you can put a bean in your mouth (not bite on it) to feel the aroma of it. The light reddish-brown foam on the surface of the coffee is crema foam, and I guess the lighting isn’t the best to make it photogenic next time I’ll try with cappuccino or maybe a macchiato or perhaps a moccachino, I think they might be more photogenic

Thanks Discordia

Thanks KYBOB. Yes, after looking back at the first attempt with the single cup, it does look much more boring

Thanks J.Vandever. That could maybe be done

Thanks Carbohydrate. You’re right, it is quite soft. I had focused on the crema foam, and I’m thinking that maybe it would had been better to focus on the biscotti. It was taken at f/9, so maybe I need to step it down a little bit more. It was also taken with the kit lens, which definitely has some issues with off-center sharpness. Also, it was taken @ 27mm... if I would move further away, and zoom in more, I would probably get the focus better, but it was also a limitation of my setup. I haven’t got a cable nor the ST-E2 to get the flash off-camera, and I wouldn’t have been able to bounce the flash on-camera the way I wanted if I would have been further from the subject.

I think your idea is great, and this one has more to it than the first try. The only thing that bothers me is the way you composed it. I would have liked to see something lower, with the cup the filling up a side of the frame, and the beans spilling over out of the frame with a small DOF maybe a spoon just laying on the side of the cup...I dont know, but still lifes are boat loads of fun...run with it!!
Nick

nrellas wrote in post #2108717
I think your idea is great, and this one has more to it than the first try. The only thing that bothers me is the way you composed it. I would have liked to see something lower, with the cup the filling up a side of the frame, and the beans spilling over out of the frame with a small DOF maybe a spoon just laying on the side of the cup...I dont know, but still lifes are boat loads of fun...run with it!!
Nick

Thanks Nick. I like your ideas for the composition. I might try it next time.

I did think about a spoon, but I didn’t find a suitable one (was going to buy a set of espresso spoons, but didn’t find the ones I wanted in the store). I was also a little bit worried about how to control reflections in the spoon.

I’m usually a big fun of small DOF, but here I’m not sure if it would have worked as well. Another thing was that I didn’t want to get any ambient light into the shot. Must try it when it’s really dark next time Getting really small DOF with the kit lens isn’t that easy either, and the bokeh of the kit lens isn’t the greatest

But I thank you for your comments and ideas, and I’ll try to implement some of it next time. Thanks for your time.