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I like wine made with Affinity


ronniemcbride

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Nice—I started watch your Lynda.com and Ive already changed my workflow based on some the tips I picked from you. Just wanted to say thank you for knowledge. 

 

Thank you so much for the kind words and support! I am so glad to hear you are picking up a few tips from my course. Hell, I am glad to hear you are watching my course. Thank you so much for your support it really means a lot.

 

 

Cheers! (Literally) lol

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Looking pretty sweet Ronnie!

 

Very Nice....looks expensive.

 

Add a bag of pork scratchings and thats a good evening right there.

Pork scratchings, haha I've always loved that name... classy ;-)

 

@Ronnie — No worries. The course has a lot of gold nuggets that I wasn't aware of. I hope that you will do more because it's really helpful. 

 

 

Mahalo—and cheers.

ONSO, which Island do you call home?

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Looks really good, Ronnie! The backdrop was well done and the colour of the surface under the bottle works well together with it. The gold and green on the 'wrapper' really help to sell it as far as attempting to be photorealistic. Hiding your 'virtual/vector' strobe behind the bottle to light the backdrop was an excellent choice as well to help define the edges of the bottle. I would kill to get a backdrop looking like that in my little studio!

 

However, were it I who was actually trying to photograph such a bottle on such a surface with such a background (which of course it is not) I might have went with slightly different lighting. The reflections on the sides of the bottle appear to be mimicking light from two reflective cards (one on each side) as do the two on the neck. Replacing that imaginary lighting setup with two strobes with reflectors shooting through vellum placed at an angle would provide a nice diffuse gradient to those reflections rather than the rather sharp edges reflected by the (again, imaginary) foam-core boards. The reflection of the bottle on the surface seems to imply a diffuse light from above and towards the front but that should have given some reflection on the 'shoulder of the bottle as well. I suppose that if you had the virtual money to throw around you could also get a 'virtual' Broncolor Picolite with a spot mask to throw a small pool of light onto the label as well.

 

I guess that all of the cross-contamination I get from using both AP and AD is making me loopy; now I have an urge to shoot a similar bottle shot, edit it in AP and then try to reproduce it with AD - if only there were eleventy-seven hours in a day instead of a paltry twenty-four. What fun one could have! :rolleyes:

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Looks really good, Ronnie! The backdrop was well done and the colour of the surface under the bottle works well together with it. The gold and green on the 'wrapper' really help to sell it as far as attempting to be photorealistic. Hiding your 'virtual/vector' strobe behind the bottle to light the backdrop was an excellent choice as well to help define the edges of the bottle. I would kill to get a backdrop looking like that in my little studio!

 

However, were it I who was actually trying to photograph such a bottle on such a surface with such a background (which of course it is not) I might have went with slightly different lighting. The reflections on the sides of the bottle appear to be mimicking light from two reflective cards (one on each side) as do the two on the neck. Replacing that imaginary lighting setup with two strobes with reflectors shooting through vellum placed at an angle would provide a nice diffuse gradient to those reflections rather than the rather sharp edges reflected by the (again, imaginary) foam-core boards. The reflection of the bottle on the surface seems to imply a diffuse light from above and towards the front but that should have given some reflection on the 'shoulder of the bottle as well. I suppose that if you had the virtual money to throw around you could also get a 'virtual' Broncolor Picolite with a spot mask to throw a small pool of light onto the label as well.

 

I guess that all of the cross-contamination I get from using both AP and AD is making me loopy; now I have an urge to shoot a similar bottle shot, edit it in AP and then try to reproduce it with AD - if only there were eleventy-seven hours in a day instead of a paltry twenty-four. What fun one could have! :rolleyes:

 

Thank you justwilliam for the compliments and insight into how you would approach this. I  created this illustration to see how far I could push the realism based on the idea that this was a bottle shot in studio product shoot setup. The great thing about Affinity Designer is that it gave me the ability to try out different lighting ideas before even actually shooting a product that doesn't exist. I tried diffusing the light a bit more, but I felt like the sharpness of the bounce reflections was consistent with the majority of references I saw online so I ran with that look. Also, I felt like the soft diffuse had a different visual effect that made my bottle look like it had a different feel to the surface even making it look a bit more matte in the finish. I have few different versions I should share. The options are infinite!

 

I actually explain a bit of my approach in my Lynda.com course. I used this image as the backdrop of another project in my course. Sure, I could have just used a photo, but I would not have learned as much. Creating this image taught me a lot about seeing and how to apply what I seeing to the tools and effects available in Affinity Designers tools set. Also, the study also gave me some additional content  to share in my course which aint a bad thing :) 

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Thank you justwilliam for the compliments and insight into how you would approach this. I  created this illustration to see how far I could push the realism based on the idea that this was a bottle shot in studio product shoot setup. The great thing about Affinity Designer is that it gave me the ability to try out different lighting ideas before even actually shooting a product that doesn't exist. I tried diffusing the light a bit more, but I felt like the sharpness of the bounce reflections was consistent with the majority of references I saw online so I ran with that look. Also, I felt like the soft diffuse had a different visual effect that made my bottle look like it had a different feel to the surface even making it look a bit more matte in the finish. I have few different versions I should share. The options are infinite!

 

I actually explain a bit of my approach in my Lynda.com course. I used this image as the backdrop of another project in my course. Sure, I could have just used a photo, but I would not have learned as much. Creating this image taught me a lot about seeing and how to apply what I seeing to the tools and effects available in Affinity Designers tools set. Also, the study also gave me some additional content  to share in my course which aint a bad thing :)

You're very welcome, Ronnie. The first part of my post were heartfelt comments on the positive qualities of your piece; those last comments flowed from my critical photographer's eye and yet they were meant merely as a bit of silliness - and even jealousy for the ease in which your work can be tweaked, adjusted, and refined; in a way it is never 'finished'. Whereas for me I have all of the time I wish to take in setting up a shot, adjusting the lighting or composition, and getting my camera settings where I am pleased with them. Then I press the shutter and the set-up is taken apart never to be replicated again. Of course, I make adjustments and corrections with software but I never have the freedom which an illustrator has. I do have AD and experiment in it as much as time allows - I think that it has even improved my ability to 'see' light because in AD I must 'create' the light.

 

Here is an example from yesterday (lo-res file): about 15 minutes to set up the items, about 30 minutes to set up the lighting (reflectors, gobos, etc), and then (after the shutter release) about 30 minutes on the computer. But then I am done. I can always go back to the RAW file and make different adjustments but I can never go back to the exact composition and lighting easily. I can examine this photo and find a butt-load of mistakes I made or changes that I would like to make in it but it is too much work so I must try to remember these errors and simply not make them the next time. Whereas you could simply go to a layer or object which you feel requires tweaking and do so. Yep, a smidgen of jealousy.

post-15796-0-45658400-1460882930_thumb.jpg

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You're very welcome, Ronnie. The first part of my post were heartfelt comments on the positive qualities of your piece; those last comments flowed from my critical photographer's eye and yet they were meant merely as a bit of silliness - and even jealousy for the ease in which your work can be tweaked, adjusted, and refined; in a way it is never 'finished'. Whereas for me I have all of the time I wish to take in setting up a shot, adjusting the lighting or composition, and getting my camera settings where I am pleased with them. Then I press the shutter and the set-up is taken apart never to be replicated again. Of course, I make adjustments and corrections with software but I never have the freedom which an illustrator has. I do have AD and experiment in it as much as time allows - I think that it has even improved my ability to 'see' light because in AD I must 'create' the light.

 

Here is an example from yesterday (lo-res file): about 15 minutes to set up the items, about 30 minutes to set up the lighting (reflectors, gobos, etc), and then (after the shutter release) about 30 minutes on the computer. But then I am done. I can always go back to the RAW file and make different adjustments but I can never go back to the exact composition and lighting easily. I can examine this photo and find a butt-load of mistakes I made or changes that I would like to make in it but it is too much work so I must try to remember these errors and simply not make them the next time. Whereas you could simply go to a layer or object which you feel requires tweaking and do so. Yep, a smidgen of jealousy.

 

First off, I would like to say that your still life shot is gorgeous! I love how you have set up the light in this scene. The composition is strong and the items you chose are well selected. I really get a sense of style, time and place from this image. This is image has a story and that is what makes it so interesting among other things.  I too, do some photography work. It is not my main day to day thing, but it is a skill that helps me with understanding what I am seeing in the world that surrounds us. There are details that surround our everyday life that we take for granted, but you don't truly appreciate them till you focus and really try to understand what you are seeing and I find a camera is a great way to fucus your attention to the visual world around us.

 

You are envious of me? It goes both ways and I think we both learn plenty from the approach. It is really the approach and the journey one takes that rewards us in the end. Yah, sure your some what stuck with what you have composition and light wise, but you know that going into the project and  you make decisions based on that. It is a workflow and that workflow is what contributes to the beauty and originality.

 

Anyway, hope that makes sense and I didn't ramble too much :P   #adwinechallenge

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  • 2 weeks later...

Oh!! That bottle looks real!! I want to get as good as you using AD

 

Thank You! :) Stay focused, keep experimenting and try to be observant of the world around you. You can do that by taking lot of pictures and studding lights, Shadows, and colors and how they interact with the objects of focus. 

 

Cheers and Good Luck!

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