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The Pour View Larger Image
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Coming Soon: Image of the Week Fine Art Print Offer
Each week, I post an image from my recent or historical work and talk a little
bit about it; the process, creative thought, and technical details that
contributed to its creation. During the week an image is featured, I offer it as
a Limited Edition Fine Art Print at a special price. Each image is printed
personally by me on the latest Epson printers using archival pigment inks on
acid-free archival paper. The prints are shipped matted and signed and can be
framed using a standard size, off-the-shelf frame from your local frame shop.
Learn more about my fine art printing process.
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Other Images of the Week
- Chapel of the Transfiguration, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
- Cross-Country Runner Alexandra Krieg, Middlebury, Vermont
- Horse Bath, Morgan Horse Farm, Weybridge, Vermont
- Whitney, Citronelle, Alabama
- The North Window from Turret Arch, Arches National Park, Utah
- Jeff, Middlebury College, Vermont
- Hostas II, Middlebury, Vermont
- Hikers in Coyote Gulch I, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Utah
- Ocotillo Shadow, Abandoned Cabin, Anza-Borrego State Park, California
- Moonlit Palms, Anza-Borrego State Park, California
- Park Avenue, Arches National Park, Utah
- Ashton and Whitney, Citronelle, Alabama
- Steven
- Halladay Road III
- Fall colors and ivy-covered wall, Middlebury College, Vermont
- Maple Tree, Middlebury, Vermont
- Jesse Hamner at Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone NP
- Aon Center from Millenium Park, Chicago
- Mountain Biking I
- Boulders II, Canyonlands National Park, Utah
- Hosta Leaves
- Joe
- The Pour
- Skylar
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Image of the Week
This week's image is more about the technique than the subject. Sure, the subject is nice: when I see
a column of red wine pouring into a glass, I think of nothing else but smoky flavors, italian meats, red
sauces, and thick, juicy steaks. But I'm not here to discuss the gourmet side. Instead, I want to focus on the
technical minutiae that went into this shot, because bagging it wasn't as easy as you might think.
Before we get to all of that, I want to come clean: I didn't actually use red wine for this image.
Most of the wines I tested were too dark to create the rich, backlit effect I wanted, and all of them frothed
heavily when poured from the height needed to crop the pitcher out of the photo. And honestly, I didn't want to waste
a ton of delicious wine. I substituted grape juice and added a bit of Karo Syrup to control the frothing. Trust me: when faced
with a similar dilemma, you'd have done the same.
I wanted to freeze the wine pour in action; to have the column of liquid take on
the appearance of an acrylic sculpture without it looking synthetic or sterile. To do that, I needed more than
just a fast shutter speed -- I needed fast strobes.
When you vary a strobe's power, what you're actually doing
is telling the strobe how long to emit light. A strobe doesn't actually get brighter when you crank it up to eleven,
it just stays on longer. My standard studio monolights weren't up to the task. To produce the light output I needed for this shot,
their flash duration was far too long, and the resulting photos showed noticeable motion blur.
So I turned to my bag of Nikon hotshoe flashes: two SB-25 and
two SB-26 strobes. I remembered from Nikon product literature that these flashes have a duration as fast as 1/23,000 of a second at their
lowest power setting, more than enough speed to catch the pouring liquid.
All four strobes were gaffer-taped together
and shoved into the speedring of a softbox that served as the background. I had to use all four to produce the light required to shoot
at ƒ/11. With a cable release in one hand and a pitcher of grape juice
in the other, I fired off a couple of hundred frames in a darkened studio to get one that really captured the look I wanted. I've included
a few of my second choices on the left.
Have questions, comments? Let me know what you think.
Technical Data
This image was captured using a Nikon D200 with a 105mm ƒ/4 Micro-Nikkor manual focus lens. Light
was provided by four Nikon SB-25/26 strobes at minimal power inside a softbox. Exposure was effectively 1/23,000 of a second
at ƒ/11.
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