Beer Photography

[Bokeh]

Seeing as photography is a hobby of mine, I figured what better subject than something I love so much, Beer. I was enjoying a nice Bell's Amber the other night at the bar and decided to take a quick shot and share it with you guys. Feel free to add to this post. Anyway..enjoy.

 

[BierMuncher]

Nice.

 

[KingBrianI]

Sweet bokeh, Bokeh!

 

[KayaBrew]

That is a classy shot. Why don't you pop a few more tops and post us a few more photos? I'd love to see more!

 

[Airborneguy]

Great shot! I'm not a great photographer, so I like to play with editing my photos:

 

[Bokeh]

Sweet bokeh, Bokeh!

Thanks! Someone noticed!

 

[Bokeh]

That is a classy shot. Why don't you pop a few more tops and post us a few more photos? I'd love to see more!

I'm about to cook dinner and drink a few. I'll post some up for ya.

 

[Bokeh]

Great shot! I'm not a great photographer, so I like to play with editing my photos:

Thanks. Art/Photography is so subjective, who's to say who's good and who's not. I think your shot is nice...and New Belgium makes some Great beers!

 

[Bokeh]

Nice.

Thanks.

 

[Bokeh]

Ok, well...This isn't beer related other than the fact that I was drinking while I was cooking and had one with my dinner. Beer for dinner: Red Hook Blonde Ale. It goes well with chicken. Dinner was Parmesan crusted butterflied chicken breast pan fried in olive oil and butter, and jalapeno mac and cheese. Yes, all home made by me.

 

[billtzk]

I really like the first photo of Bell's Amber because the out of focus area is smooth and not distracting. I'd crop the OOF on the right side of the verticle blurred bands because it has a totally different character from the OOF behind the bottle. The cropped image would be more intimate. A crop of just the right side would make a nice abstract photo. The colors and the warmth across the entire frame are great.

In the picture of the breaded chicken and mac, I'd prefer to see the foreground in sharp focus. If a shallow depth of field is desired or can't be avoided, then shifting it further to the background would make it appear more pleasing to my eye. It would blend better with the deep OOF area. Either way, now I'm hungry.

If I may ask, what lens did you use? I'd like to know because the bokeh in the first photo is exceptionally pleasing, very smooth and clean. I don't think the camera matters nearly so much as the lens, but I'm curious about that too.

 

[Bokeh]

If I may ask, what lens did you use? I'd like to know because the bokeh in the first photo is exceptionally pleasing, very smooth and clean. I don't think the camera matters nearly so much as the lens, but I'm curious about that too.

SMC Pentax 135mm prime F3.5 on a Pentax K-x body.

 

[billtzk]

Thanks. That's a nice lens. Hang on to it. I wasn't familiar with it but I read up on it and it turns out that the beautiful bokeh was not incidental, but rather an intentional design element.

I love lenses in the 85mm to 135mm focal length.

 

[Bokeh]

Yeah, I love it. Great thing is, I only paid 26 dollars for it.

 

[billtzk]

That's an amazing deal. I wonder if the trend to replace dedicated cameras with cell phone imaging is leading to lower demand for camera bodies and lenses.

 

[mmb]

That's an amazing deal. I wonder if the trend to replace dedicated cameras with cell phone imaging is leading to lower demand for camera bodies and lenses.

Nope. Sales of dSLRs are increasing.

Camera phones ARE destroying the point and shoot market, however.

 

[mr_goodwrench]

I can attest to that: we bought a dSLR this year and both SWMBO & I use our cells for any candid snaps that would have been taken with a point and shoot in the past.

Neither of us are photographers by any means, but we figured what better way to learn than to do? Kinda like brewing, eh?

BTW, Bokeh, love that pic. Seems like beer photography would make an excellent subject for the learning!

 

[pcollins]

I'm into it! Nice first pic of the Bell's.

I'm also a brewer/photographer among other things. I just sat down the other morning to submit some photos to a beer-related photo contest at "A good beer blog". I blogged about it on my blog as well over at Photo contest! | It's what's on tap…

(I don't think I am able to post photos here, though )

 

[Bokeh]

That's an amazing deal. I wonder if the trend to replace dedicated cameras with cell phone imaging is leading to lower demand for camera bodies and lenses.

The reason it was so cheap is because it's old. I believe it was made some time in the late 70's or 80's. Pentax never changed the mount, so any K-Mount lens is compatible. I think the trend of cell phone cameras is hurting it somewhat, but I'll never trade my DSLR for any phone camera.

 

[Bokeh]

Mr goodwrench - Thanks. I'm still in the learning phase, but I take every opportunity I can to learn something new.

pcollins - I'm going to check that blog out for sure. If you ever feel like adding something to this thread, feel free. I'd love to see some of your work.

 

[pcollins]

Here's one!

I just spent a few seconds to upload the photo when I thought that service wasn't enabled for me. Time well spent. LOL

 

[Bokeh]

That is awesome!

 

[KayaBrew]

Nice job on the photos! I'm really enjoying this thread.

 

[KurtB]

Very nice shot of the Bell's bottle.

Was it really a 4 second exposure? I peeked at the exif data to see what camera and lens, but that was before reading the rest of the thread.

The only nitpick (and it is a very minor one), is the seam on the bottle is a bit distracting. About 10 seconds in photoshop to clone it out.

 

[Bokeh]

Yep, 4 seconds. I agree about the seam, but It doesn't bother me enough to take it out. Thanks for the compliment. I'm going to shoot a few more tomorrow night so I'll post up the results.

 

[pcollins]

SMC Pentax 135mm prime F3.5 on a Pentax K-x body.

Fabulous! I have the Pentax SMC 105 f2.8. It was handed down to me when my grandmother passed away a few years ago along with a slew of other photographic gear both still and motion.

I may have you beat on price, though. I got a Carsen 135mm f2.8 lens on ebay a few years ago for $15. Gotta love going manual on digital.

FWIW, my macro work is done on a Pentax SMC 50mm f1.4 with extension tubes. A bit futzy to work with at times but it definitely gets the job done.

 

[Bokeh]

I was looking at a 105 and a 100 not too long ago. I have a 35mm that I got on ebay for 3 bucks. It's not a bad lens, but my my favorite. I have a SMC 50mm Macro that I've done some work with. I love it. I'm going to shoot with it tonight, actually.

Here is an example from the Macro 50mm

 

[Bokeh]

As promised..

 

[Bokeh]

 

[HexKrak]

Thanks Bokeh, I'd managed to not get hungry up till now...