It’s not sharp, it’s not well-lit, it’s not particularly well-composed, it’s possibly not straight, but something about this photo appeals to me enough to post it – and, in a Homer Simpson-ish way, say “Mmmmmm….. lemonade……”. And that is despite the fact that I don’t even know if I like Pink Lemonade.
I took this in Enniskerry last July on the way back from a visit to the garden centre at Avoca, where we purchased two plants that subsequently survived for all of about two weeks. Shortly before taking this shot, I photographed my in-laws on their way to the coffee shop where these bottles of lemonade were on display.
These bottles were on a shelf that ran along one side of the room next to the tables, and I used the available light to grab a quick photo with my lens at 17mm as I was quite close to them.
What the photo does show is the distortion that you get at the wide end of the lens, and how at f/2.8 the sharpness falls off towards the corners. What it might appear to also show is darkening at the edges of the frame, but that’s actually a vignette I added in post-processing, and subsequently forgot to remove (having decided I didn’t like it).
As I said it’s not particularly sharp – this is because it’s shot at 1/3 of a second hand-held. In hindsight going to ISO 800 and 1/15s might have been a better idea. It’s not particularly well-lit because it’s available light, coming from the front, and the best way to light glass is from the back. And it’s not particularly straight because I tend to shoot 0.8 degrees off horizontal, or so it seems.
At some point I might try to acquire a few of these bottles and put my new-found knowledge of product photography from the Commercial Photography course that I am doing to use and take a better photo. But at least this one makes me thirsty, and that’s at least a reaction. If your photographs get a reaction, you’ve achieved something.
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