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DPChallenge Forums >> Challenge Results >> Coffee Challenge - What I really wanted...
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Showing posts 1 - 5 of 5, (reverse)
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10/12/2005 11:02:35 AM · #1
I wanted to enter a coffee photo all week long since my wife is a manager at Starbucks and my friend owns his own coffee shop in town. I had two places of unrestricted access to take photos and just didn't have a chance to make it happen. The week got away from me and I found myself setting up a photo at home about 30 minutes before the challenge ended.
I set up a burlap coffee bean bag from Brazil, added a mug, and poured coffee beans around the mug. I then broke the heads off 5 or 6 wooden matches and put them inside the mug, in a shotglass. I used a tripod and pre focused, then turned off all the lights. I lit the matches and took the shot, and fired my 580EX flash manually on 1/128th power, just to try to get some light on the beans. I used a very low power to preserve the luminous look of the mug.

With so little time, I had to use what I got. I was unable to get the color shot the way I wanted it using the Basic Editing Rules. BW is much more forgiving with dynamic range, so I had to use a BW conversion for the challenge. It did pretty well, getting 20th place, but here is the image I was really trying for:

//www.pbase.com/jdanderson/image/50296319



How would this have done??
Thanks,
JD
10/12/2005 11:18:35 AM · #2
Thanks for sharing the technique you used on this shot. Very interesting setup. I like the glow you created in the cup and the light cast on the bag behind it. Lighting on the beans is just right. Only change I might consider is rotating the physical cup to the left so the Starbucks label is a little more head-on.

Great job overall I'd say! See if you can sell it to Starbucks. ;^)
10/12/2005 11:53:51 AM · #3
I much prefer the warm glow of the colored version
10/12/2005 12:44:26 PM · #4
I really didn't care for the BW version myself, especially compared to the color version. My options were to go with BW or cheat and enter the color version. I hate Basic Editing Rules!!
JD
10/12/2005 12:45:36 PM · #5
Your black and white version has had a few things done to it that this hasn't. At first look, I felt it was a little weak due to composition. Cropped as your B&W submission was, it's much better.

I too prefer the colour, mostly because of the beans and the fact that moving to B&W loses the effect of having the mug glowing. Without the colour, it just looks like the mug's decorative colouring.

Still a pretty nice capture.
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