Bottle Shots

[benjamieson]

Hi all,

Thanks to reading so much on here, I felt comfortable enough to accept a job shooting a series of bottles for a client late last week. I felt it only fair to post back here with the results and a breakdown of how I took them, as I've taken so much from here - time to give back!

Set up was as follows:

Bottles were placed on a piece of black foamcore on my dining table. A second piece of black foamcore stood upright on a chair to provide the background, about 2ft behind the bottle.

The main light was a softbox containing an SB600 on full power to camera right. Fill was provided on the left by a third piece of foamcore, this time white, to camera left. On the chair pointing up at the background, I set my 430EX to 1/2 power with 3/4 CTO gel to give a warm arc of light that echoed the tones of most of the bottle contents.

The resulting shots:



EXIF:
Exposure: (1/250)
Aperture: f/7.1
Focal Length: 85 mm
ISO Speed: 100

(There's two more if you click through on the image. One of them, the vodka bottle shows how you can control the look of the bottle itself with a simple strip of white card behind the glass to prevent the background colour leaking through.)

[SuperStubbs]

GREAT Shot! I love how you used a gel on the back lighting to bring out the tones of the bottle. Very impressive!

[Fernando]

Very nice indeed! Do you think you could get the same effect without using as many flashes, and using standard lights instead? I only have one flash right now....

[benjamieson]

Originally Posted by Fernando

Very nice indeed! Do you think you could get the same effect without using as many flashes, and using standard lights instead? I only have one flash right now....

Fernando,

I'm not sure if standard lights would be bright enough, but... give it a go - always the best way to see if something will work!

[ttosifa]

I like these a lot. I shoot bottles all the time, and know how much effort it takes. You did a really good job of getting the form of the bottles to show. I like the vodka bottle a lot, but wonder if a red gel might have complemented it more...

I do not mean to provide critique here, especially as this is not a critique section. Instead, I am soliciting your thoughts on how you might change a couple of things since I personally have not gotten adequate solutions in my own shots.

First, I always have one or two small parts of the bottle I wish I could get more light on without introducing additional reflections. For instance, if I had shot these (I wish I had!), I would wish that I could get more separation of the top camera left bottle, which seems to disappear into the background. For me, sometimes it's the top, sometimes it's the bottom, but it drives me nuts! Any ideas?

Second, in this particular shot, parts of the 43's disappear in the center of the bottle, particularly the top 43. Sometimes I want more light there. But, that would require light right where the camera is! Any thoughts?

Again, I am not critiquing, just asking questions of someone who has talent at lighting bottles.

[ttosifa]

Originally Posted by Fernando

Very nice indeed! Do you think you could get the same effect without using as many flashes, and using standard lights instead? I only have one flash right now....

Yes. You'll need a longer exposure of course, or if your camera can do it, you can also double expose.

One advantage of using standard lights is that you can move/shake your lights during the exposure. This will soften the edges of the reflections on the bottle, and reduce the intensity of the reflections on the bottle (letting more of the bottle "show through") while keeping their general shape.

Come to think it, this might be a way to solve the problems I've had that I mentioned in my previous post! Hmmm.

[Fernando]

Originally Posted by ttosifa

Yes. You'll need a longer exposure of course, or if your camera can do it, you can also double expose.

One advantage of using standard lights is that you can move/shake your lights during the exposure. This will soften the edges of the reflections on the bottle, and reduce the intensity of the reflections on the bottle (letting more of the bottle "show through") while keeping their general shape.

Come to think it, this might be a way to solve the problems I've had that I mentioned in my previous post! Hmmm.

HAHA I love how in answering my question (which was a great suggestion by the way.. many thanks!) you kinda started to answer your own question.
Thats what this is all about.. thinking... asking questions.. answering them.. and learning all around!
Cheers!

[benjamieson]

Originally Posted by ttosifa

I like these a lot. I shoot bottles all the time, and know how much effort it takes. You did a really good job of getting the form of the bottles to show. I like the vodka bottle a lot, but wonder if a red gel might have complemented it more...

I thought about changing the gel (and have a couple of versions) but the client will be using these all close together, and as the vodka is the only white spirit in there, it would have jumped out of the line up and looked really odd - hence I stuck with the white strip - seems to be the best solution!

Originally Posted by ttosifa

I do not mean to provide critique here, especially as this is not a critique section. Instead, I am soliciting your thoughts on how you might change a couple of things since I personally have not gotten adequate solutions in my own shots.

Trust me - critques are welcome! How do we learn except through trying stuff and then discussing it all!

Originally Posted by ttosifa

First, I always have one or two small parts of the bottle I wish I could get more light on without introducing additional reflections. For instance, if I had shot these (I wish I had!), I would wish that I could get more separation of the top camera left bottle, which seems to disappear into the background. For me, sometimes it's the top, sometimes it's the bottom, but it drives me nuts! Any ideas?

Second, in this particular shot, parts of the 43's disappear in the center of the bottle, particularly the top 43. Sometimes I want more light there. But, that would require light right where the camera is! Any thoughts?

This is always a tricky one - I only own two flashes and tried all sorts of things from adding in reflectors to dropping he shutter speed and hitting the front with a torch by hand!

Nothing worked! I think the real solution is a third light source, tightly gridded or snooted to just provide a tiny bit of lift.

Unfortunately, I need to find more clients before I can get that third source!

Originally Posted by ttosifa

Again, I am not critiquing, just asking questions of someone who has talent at lighting bottles.

Well, thanks for the compliment - but its not a talent, just a lot of reading on DPS, obsessive Flickr'ing, trial and error and a forgiving wife!

[Glayva]

Excellent product shots. You seem to have mastered the lighting set up.

[Bloater]

the lighting on the shot above is stunning