MarkPrince Moderator Joined: 19 Dec 2001 Posts: 4,700 Location: Vancouver Expertise: Professional
Espresso: Frankenstein'ed LM Linea Grinder: Anfim Super Caimano Vac Pot: 1922 Silex Drip: Krups Moka Brew Roaster: Hottop
Posted Mon May 19, 2003, 10:52pm Subject: Re: The "personal touch" of a member's photo
dankehn Said:
Can you tell me how to accurately photograph crema? When I try to photograph my attempts at a "demi-God Shot", the crema appears notably lighter in the picture. If I don't use a flash, it looks washed out. The colors in the shot on coffeekid.com's home page look a lot richer than mine.
I gotta tell you, shooting (as in photographing) crema accurately is one of the more challenging aspects of still life photography. Curvy stainless steel faces on machines are almost as challenging, but something happens to crema and light - maybe it's like this black (brown) hole that sucks up light and refracts it back in such a way that distorts its colour, I dunno. (all my study of colour and how light interacts with it, showing it to your eyeballs vs. how it shows up on film (or CCDs) hasn't helped with crema).
I've thrown 4,000 watts of light at crema. I've thrown 400 watts (quartz) at it. I've thrown halogen, florescent, daylight, cloudy, you name it, and colour balanced before and after for it. I've used tungsten film, daylight balanced, filters, and white balance settings to the ying yang. To this day, getting an accurate colour that my eye sees in that crema has proven hard. I get close, but never quite perfect - many times I gotta go into photoshop and bring back what nature gave my eyes in the first place.
ELEKTRAMAN Senior Member Joined: 21 Mar 2003 Posts: 180 Location: UK Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: Elektra A3 Single Group! Grinder: Modified Mazzer Mini! Roaster: Hottop! (To be modified...)
Posted Tue May 20, 2003, 2:11am Subject: Re: The "personal touch" of a member's photo
No offence to the person concerned, but if I said to you "the guy with the warped head" some of you may recall his photo. (He's a regular senior and owner of "the twin towers".)
Photo's have to be of decent quality to remember the face otherwise you risk being branded a mutant or something!
From "the guy standing by the front door".
(Actually it's where they filmed the infamous bedroom scene in 4 weddings and a funeral, where Hugh Grant ends up sitting on the windowsill)
ELEKTRAMAN Senior Member Joined: 21 Mar 2003 Posts: 180 Location: UK Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: Elektra A3 Single Group! Grinder: Modified Mazzer Mini! Roaster: Hottop! (To be modified...)
Posted Tue May 20, 2003, 2:29am Subject: Re: The "personal touch" of a member's photo
as to "Shooting the crema" I would personally not use stainless steel due to the light problems.
Photographing it in a clear shot glass using natural light would be best. (A macro lense or a basic telephoto used form some distance would be a good start)
Thought i'd try "scanning" mine (Place shot glass on desk and turn scanner upside down, holding against shot glass. Dont try it, although the result could convincingly pass as an eclipse!
What we really need is a "bank" where everyone deposits a sample of their shot. (We are talking coffee!) We would all vote on each shots worthiness and the winner would become "the benchmark". This would give fellow geeks the chance to rate their shot and see how far off the mark they are. Ideally you would "download" a sample of each shot etc etc. Maybe in 100 years Microsoft will have such a product (Which will inevitably require upgrading).
Posted Tue May 20, 2003, 5:32am Subject: Re: The "personal touch" of a member's photo
What really annoys me is names like: xyz2323 and ghtyou. They mean nothing compared to nicknames.
Really simple for me.... I participate in several online forums and have needed to register for countless other websites (ones to keep track of my flier miles, bid for hotels etc). I ended up so frequently finding that whatever user name I selected had already been taken, that I just settled on phaelon56 - it's actually supposed to be spelled phelan (my great grandfather's name) but due to a glitch it ended up as you see it. The good news is that pretty much anywhere I go that requires sign-in, I always know exactly what user name and password to enter if I've been there before and If I'm just signing up, my user name always seems to be available.
I own and operate a studio which specializes in recording acoustic guitarists
I love guitars
I am also...(depending on the group or forum)
Guitarlj
LarryPlaysGuitar
LarryIsAGuitarPlayer
I might be...in the future
Expobarman
E61ruler
Varimaniac
Icanspellespressocanyou
I have been... I won't go into these...(early INTERNET names were embarrassing, senseless and lame since they were usually assigned by the vendor of said services). Names like: xyz2323 and ghtyou.
xristrettox Senior Member Joined: 22 Jan 2003 Posts: 278 Location: Portland Expertise: Just starting
Posted Tue May 20, 2003, 9:51am Subject: Re: The "personal touch" of a member's photo
I have not taken steps, before now, to post a picture of myself, as upon viewing my picture, most would dub me as the youngest coffeegeek member. Yeah, I am just pup. But if you do wanna see what I look like just click on my profile.
Lava Java is the cafe that I work at and the logo is the stamp that we use on our coffee cups.
xristrettox... well, come on. That just says hard-core all over it!
xristrettox Senior Member Joined: 22 Jan 2003 Posts: 278 Location: Portland Expertise: Just starting
Posted Tue May 20, 2003, 9:51am Subject: Re: The "personal touch" of a member's photo
I have not taken steps, before now, to post a picture of myself, as upon viewing my picture, most would dub me as the youngest coffeegeek member. Yeah, I am just pup. But if you do wanna see what I look like just click on my profile.
Lava Java is the cafe that I work at and the logo is the stamp that we use on our coffee cups.
xristrettox... well, come on. That just says hard-core all over it!
Posted Tue May 20, 2003, 11:47am Subject: Re: The "personal touch" of a member's photo
xristrettox Said:
I have not taken steps, before now, to post a picture of myself, as upon viewing my picture, most would dub me as the youngest coffeegeek member. Yeah, I am just pup. But if you do wanna see what I look like just click on my profile.
I read your profile, "Took 5th Place in the National Barista Championships @ Boston." Whoa! Now I have something to push my oldest kid towards (he's five; who needs all those expensive swim lessons?). You'll hopefully be retired by then.
More seriously... it's great to see that this common interest attracts the full spectrum of ages and backgrounds. Your "elders" could obviously learn a lot from you. This thead has been a lot of fun. I appreciate how everyone has responded in such a positive way. :-)
Indeed, you're right. FWIW, I asked my brother-in-law the professional photographer. He said put the camera on a tripod and use natural light at whatever speed is necessary to get the correct exposure. I'm pretty much an "auto-everything" photographer, so that didn't help me much. Anyway, here's my best attempt (without color corrections) out of 4-5 shots. I backed away about six feet, zoomed in, and used a flash. Even so, you're seeing here only about 1/10th of the frame. This isn't far from the correct color.
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