How To: Photographing Bottled Light

My aunt shared with me a You Tube video a while back by one of her favorite photographers - Harold Davis.  It was how to Photographing Bottle Light.  I just loved it!  Check out his videos if you are interested.

I am offering my experience with the process.

Materials needed: Colored bottles, color for water in clear bottles, sunshine, a camera with a macro lens or at least a good macro setting and a very clean white surface.  I will cover some options in each area.

Colored Bottles or containers - wine bottles, vinegar bottles, olive oil bottles, condiment bottles, etc.  Check the kitchen and cleaning supplies.  I found the dark green olive oil bottle did not light a lot of light through so great job for oil maybe less effective for this process. But use whatever you find and see what happens. Think of colored vases as well.

Clear Glass - bottles or vases of clear glass can be used with colored water.  

Glass texture and pattern - some texture or pattern in the glass adds to the refraction of the light.  I had a small etched vase where the etched areas became almost black.  Not what I wanted.

Color for Water - I have lots of liquid acrylic so that is what I used. Harold used food coloring.  It needs to concentrated and transparent.

White surface - It must be CLEAN and smooth.  The material should not absorb the light.  I used foam core board which worked well.   It needs to large enough for the light to be refracted beside the containers. 

Light - I found bright sunshine the best.  Any artificial light I used did not produce results I was happy with.

My experience with stemware was not very successful.   

Setup is entirely up to you.  Does the light go through one bottle to the next creating new color? Do you want the shape of the glass to play a part? Compose your art as you wish based on light, shape and color.

Very Important - You are photographing the light on the white not the light through the containers. 

 

Here are some examples of the photos I took over 2 photo sessions.

Post Processing: I had to trim all of my images because I could not isolate the light from the container.  All of these have been brighten and had some adjustment in the color saturation.  Rotate the image as you may see something you could see from the other direction.

Now, I don't have the imagination that Harold has to see objects within the abstract shapes.  Maybe that will come in time.

How about photographing the light through the glass?  Anything goes really.

This one has the large blue bottle in front of the olive bottle with an artificial light behind the olive bottle.  The bottles are overlapping creating the bright green color in the center.  It was nice to have the 2 small dots in the bottom right hand corner to provide a git of a focal element.

I would encourage you to experiment!  All you have to lose is a bit of time and colored water.

I am so glad I tried this technique!

Share Your Cup #219 - This Week

This was breaky before I headed off to teach my Be Present for Christmas class.  The dinnerware is all by Johnson Brothers. The mug - JB Cotswold in brown.  I paired it with a brown fluted plate by JB - Watermill pattern on a JB - Regency White fluted plate. The tea is Jade Citrus Mint which is one of the few teas I can drink with no cream or sugar.  A couple chocolate bran muffins and an apple.

Sunrise this morning filled the sky with pinks, purples and blues.  There is just a hint of what is to come coming over the evergreens.


I found this really nice bottle by Avon at the thrift shop this week.  The scent from the lid leads me to believe it may have been perfume. I have not found the exact bottle in my google search.  I loved the ridges on the body of the jar and the fluted shiny silver lid.  The price was right so it came home with me.

Dill is one of my favorite herbs so when they had some bunches of fresh at the grocery store on my trip last week I brought a couple home.  I lined my cookie sheet with parchment paper as they recommend the herb not touch metal.  I turned my oven to the lowest setting and then checked it every 30 minutes.  It took over an hour for each bundle. As you can see, it did not generate much in my dill container.  I`m not sure it was economical to do it, but live and learn.   It may have been better to use the second method which was to place the herb in a brown paper bag with slits to keep the dust off and provide air circulation.  It would likely have taken several weeks to get the same result.



This flower came across my path this week and it really has gorgeous colors.  I may need to use a larger vase for the size of it.  I loved it so I brought it home. 

Sharing with Jan at Daily Cup with Mrs Olson who hosts Share Your Cup #219.

Cool Tool - Refillable Bottles for glue

If you find yourself trying to glue down small pieces of paper like thin die cut letters or small punchies you know that a glue stick won't do a good job. Snail adhesive a bit better because it's dry but still covers way more area than you want and wastes glue. Double sided tape is really not flexible enough to meet the need. You need an application of glue in a very thin line. This requires a narrow tipped applicator. On the left with the purple lid is the tool I use for this job. I buy it a the craft store and it works great. What if you would like several of these then it becomes expensive. In comes the idea of recycling bottles sold with various other contents. You need ones with very fine tips which are removable from the bottle. Once emptied it can be converted to glue. Good old white glue works well and is inexpensive and likely is on sale right now for "Back to School." The middle one is fabric glue bottle and the other is used in stained glass. I found these in the clearance section for very little money. And since I was more interested in the bottle and not its contents that was great. Once I have used the contents I will have 2 small bottles for dispensing glue on small items. I teach classes so that will provide several to share around the table. Maybe you have some already in your craft supplies, maybe you have a friend into fabric or stained glass. Maybe a posting on-line will connect you with those who empty these bottles regularly. This is a cool tool! I can't take the credit for this idea, it came from my sister during my visit this summer.