How I did Blast Off!

[Potatis]

I thought I better write how I did this. This was NOT a composite photo.


The first step was to open the bottle of champagne and empty the champagne into a jug.

Then I broke a hole in the bottom of the bottle which turned the bottle into a funnel.

I then made a very crude frame out of a wire clothes hanger that held the bottle upside down above the bathtub. I used a foam board with black “contact” on it, the adhesive stuff people cover books with. Originally I stuck the contact directly on to the tiles, but it made tile shape patterns in the background which showed up in test photos, so I stuck the contact on to a foam board I had.

So the bottle was hanging, pointing down into the bath tub, by the (mangled) coat hanger, and the black board was in the background against the tiles. Underneath was a bucket which collected the champagne after it came through so that I could reuse it everytime a did the shot, and I did have to reshoot MANY times. The whole thing took me a few hours.

I set the camera off using the timer remote.

I then poured the champagne into the bottle so it would come out the spout while I dropped the cork from behind the bottle. Perhaps I should have dropped the cork from in front of the bottle so there wouldn’t be so much champagne in the foreground.


Difficulties

1. Breaking the bottle – It was so hard to break a hole in the bottom of these bottles. The glass is so thick. I used a car wheel spanner because I couldn’t find my hammer. J I hit gently, and gradually increased the power of the blow until it broke a hole in the end. Fortunately the whole bottle didn’t break, although there was a crack running several cm down side of the bottle. That wasn’t in the shot though so it didn’t matter.

2. Hanging the bottle. There is a shelf above one end of the bath so I put one end of a small diameter (about 1 inch) curtain rod on the shelf, and the other end was at the other end of the bath resting on a light stand. The wire held the bottle from this wooden rod. I was worried that the wire frame would move a lot when pouring champagne through the bottle and make the bottle out of focus. However it turned out that there was very little movement. I was also afraid that when pouring the champagne, I might knock one end of the rod off the shelf or the light stand, and the whole thing would come crashing down and break. Luckily, that never happened.

3. Running out of champagne – No matter how much I tried to keep the champagne, the quantity went down and down with every attempt. I lost a little each time due to splash when falling into the bucket, and spillage when pouring into the bottle. My backup was soda water. By the time I got the shot I used for my entry, I was using soda water. So there is no champagne in my challenge photo. It was only Great Western Champagne in the $6 price range that I’d used up in earlier attempts, so it was no real waste. J

4. Exposure – Leaving the metering to the camera blew out highlights in the foil, but made the soda water look great. I had to reshoot in manual exposure mode to try lots of different exposures so that I could get a good compromise. If I was allowed to blend layers, I’d have the foil as it is now, but brighten the “champagne” much more. Increasing the contrast in PP made the background nice and black, and also brightened the soda water.

5. Getting the cork in the photo – It’s all luck. It took me ages to get the cork in a good place. Many shots didn’t even have the cork in them. Just champagne or soda water coming out of the bottle. Other shots had the liquid flying out to the edge of the photo, but the cork was only at the end of the bottle! That looked weird with the liquid so far past the cork. Other shots showed that the cork was not even in line with the neck of the bottle. So there’d be champagne coming out of the bottle, and the cork falling straight down BESIDE the liquid. Even weirder!

Other than that, the shot was really easy to take. Pressing the button on the remote control was no trouble.

[sirhc55]

Edit below

[sirhc55]

Well done Doug - I must confess that I thought the shot was a fake but your explanation and procedures leave me in awe of your effort

[Potatis]

I'm very disappointed it came across as being fake. If I wanted to bend the rules, I would have PP'd the "champagne" to be brighter. Doing that though blows the highlight in the neck of the foil. I had to expose for that.

I guess I lost votes because people thought it was photoshopped.

[birddog114]

I'm very disappointed it came across as being fake. If I wanted to bend the rules, I would have PP'd the "champagne" to be brighter. Doing that though blows the highlight in the neck of the foil. I had to expose for that.

I guess I lost votes because people thought it was photoshopped.

I'm going to withdraw my vote.

[birddog114]

I guess I lost votes because people thought it was photoshopped.

And no D70s for Genistar

[Alpha_7]

I thought it was a rippa shot, my first reaction was.... how many bottles of champange was used. When I read how he didn't it, I thought it was sheer brilliant genius.

[Glen]

Doug, didn't think it was photochopped, but I thought there was something behind it. I think you did well to be able to get the hole in the bottom with only one bottle, I would have broken a dozen to get there. Well done

[sirhc55]

Doug - I am sure the majority did not think it was a fake - I actually gave it a good score for ingenuity.

What you have achieved is very acceptable within the world I work in - like using methylated spirits on burning food dishes to get the correct coloured flame -

[Alpha_7]

I guess I lost votes because people thought it was photoshopped.

And no D70s for Genistar

Maybe she'll win it herself ? But it is a shame, if you can do something so good, no one believes it.

[LittleB]

Hi

Better clarify the spelling of my name it is actually spelt without the R at the end, correct spelling is "Genista". I would really like it if everyone can respect that.

Thanks.

[radar]

Amazing effort Doug.

I didn' t think that it was a fake but I was certainly curious as to how you did it.

cheers,

radar

[sirhc55]

OK - let’s define fake once and for all - ”a thing that is not genuine”.

As such, Doug’s shot is fake in the sense that it is not an actual shot of a champagne bottle ’popping’.

But in saying this, Doug has presented a brilliantly executed ’posed’ shot, something that can easily be accomplished with PP’ing but in this case a lot of work went into the shot and kudos is due to Doug. BTW Doug - your second entry, minutes before the end of the submissions, had me guessing and finally laughing

[Alpha_7]

OK - let’s define fake once and for all - ”a thing that is not genuine”.

Fair call, but I guess the majority of the shots in the challenge are posed / setup is some way

I'm not very well versed in champange, but why was Doug's the wrong colour, it being tonic water and all.

[stubbsy]

Doug. I was also concerned about the authenticity of this one since I couldn't conceive of how you'd captured something like this with the aperture speed in the EXIF. Plus it somehow looked wrong like the cork and liquid were in a different plane to the bottle.

Now I know how you did it I'm impressed with your cleverness. At the end of the day I decided to mark the image while assuming it was not a cheat and now I'm glad I did since what you did was not only well within the rules, but also ingenious. Thanks for the extra info.

[leek]

I'm very disappointed it came across as being fake. If I wanted to bend the rules, I would have PP'd the "champagne" to be brighter. Doing that though blows the highlight in the neck of the foil. I had to expose for that.

I guess I lost votes because people thought it was photoshopped.

I wouldn't assume that Doug... I wouldn't ever assume that a photo in a comp was photoshopped (apart from the allowable effects)... I always assume that there's a clever technique behind it... In this case it was very clever...

However, if it looks staged, then I'll mark it accordingly and differently to a true photo of what it tries to appear to be (if that makes sense)...

Maybe my monitor needs calibrating again, but I can't see the cork... Probably a good thing, because the cork should have been long gone halfway across the room with that much champagne coming out...

P.S. It always amazes me how much creativity and ingenuity goes into making some of these competition shots...

[Alpha_7]

John the cork is a yellowy blurr in the middle of the bubble stream.

[Potatis]

As such, Doug’s shot is fake in the sense that it is not an actual shot of a champagne bottle ’popping’.

Ah yes, but I didn't say I was photographing a cork coming off a bottle?

I called it Blast Off! because it looked like flames coming out of a rocket (except going down ), and also because it looked like something was blasting away from the bottle. I didn't call it "pop" to imply a popping cork, or call it anything to do with champagne. I was just photographing the movement of the water and cork. It is still movement, whether a real cork popping or not. Real or not real popping cork is irrelevant.

As for shutter speeds and Exif, the RAW is available to anyone who wants it, if it takes that to prove this is a genuine photo.

[sirhc55]

Doug - after your explanation no one is doubting that your shot was genuine, least of all me

[Glen]

Doug, I think we all mark as if an image is genuine, we are just all surprised when something doesn't look exactly right. Sure got my interest how it was shot, because (unless you are a champagne importer) it would be very time consuming and expensive just to pop corks and hope for the best.

[Potatis]

Ok, thanks for the comments everyone.

I'm pleased there was some interest in the method I used. Goodluck to all in Challenge 7!

[Matt. K]

Potatis
First of all...no one knew it was your image. It could have been anybodys. Secondly...it was obvious that the image was not a straight shot...however, the possibility that it was a legal construction was high. I picked the black cardboard background and thought that the fluid was painted on that.....a legal and clever technique. The hole through the bottom of the bottle was cunning. Did you consider putting the cork on a thin stick and pushing it through whilst the shutter was open? This would have been a nice touch. Well shot!

[Potatis]

Hi Matt, when I had the idea I thought I'd do exactly what you said. Push the cork through with a bit of coat hanger wire. But that showed my ignorance (I never buy or drink champagne) because once I removed the cork, it was MUCH fatter than the bottle. It kind of fans out at the bottom. There's no way it can be pushed back in.

When I first realised this, I thought I'd have to abandon the whole thing. The idea came to me though, to drop the cork behind the bottle since I knew it wouldn't be in the final photo. Originally I thought of the cork in the end of the bottle, and I push it out with wire from the coat hanger, hoping it wouldn't move the bottle too much.