Thank you all for the great votes and comments. For this setup I used three flashes. Initially I arranged everything (cup, coffee grains, coffee cup,...) just using a window light that came from the same direction than the photo is lighted. When everything was as I wanted, I started to work on the lights. First I "replaced" the main light (window) by a big softbox. Then I added two more lights, one for the bottom left coffee grains (that otherwise were completely dark) and the other one to reduce the shadow on the coffee cup.
The smoke was created using a small part of incense hidden behind the cup. There were some other photos with great images of the smoke, unfortunately they didn't seem at all real as the smoke was too relevant.
Everything finished when my helper (11 Years old son) dropped the coffee cup when trying to create a more interesting smoke moving his hand around... we had a lot of fun together with this setup ;-)
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 43 Avg (all users): 6.5238 Avg (participants): 6.6364 Avg (non-participants): 6.4000 Views since voting: 1042 Views during voting: 76 Votes: 42 Comments: 4 Favorites: 0
No intention to be a contrarian, but what I like here is the lack of tidiness, the capture of a candid moment . Somehow I have the inkling that you did place the objects the way we see them and not that you found them in their apparent disarray, but you pretended well
The dof works beautifully and the steam here and there can be almost smelled
All in all, a good, not “posed” still life
I like this image, despite it being a little cluttered. I think you tried to include too many elements in the shot. A simpler composition, with a slightly more interesting angle would have bumped this up even higher for me.
Espresso please
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