Pepsi Cola White Line

[smoke665]

Shot this old bottle from 1959 the other day, straight on. Couldn't capture the detail of the embossing and to many reflections, so today, I attempted a retake as a white line. Better but my lighting still seems off. Think I need some of those arms that bend in all different directions to hold my reflectors in place, and grids would have really helped control the light. C&C for next time??
Pepsi05202017_255.jpg by William Raber, on Flickr

 

[jcdeboever]

I think it's fine. Can't offer you any help.

 

[FotosbyMike]

It is a good start, grids would control the light so there is less spill on the back ground but will not remove white lines. Anyway to hold bounce cards not by hand is great investment, arms, clamps....etc.

One way to remove your lights from causing reflections is Polarizing Gel, it helps to reduce hot spots. But usually I would start with making our light source bigger and this is done with diffusion paper, shower curtain, bigger soft boxes, frosted Plexiglas.

A suggestion I have is to place the bottle, turn on one light and shot and see what it does, move it a little...on and on. Then add a bounce card and see what it does, add the second light.

So the only CC I have is the label is not exposed enough more light, it may take an extra bounce card or another light or even another shot and edit it in PhotoShop.

 

[smoke665]

grids would control the light so there is less spill on the back ground but will not remove white lines.

See the title, this is an attempt to do a "White Line" shot. The white line is supposed to be there, as opposed to a "Black Line" shot which will create a black line on the edges. In either case it's created by back lighting the object. Supposedly, "when done right" a "white line" shot will enhance the the texture of designs in glass. The whole purpose of the exercise was to capture as much of the embossing detail in the glass as possible, while still lighting the label.

On each side of the bottle there was a black foam core flag. Behind the bottle on each side of the center line was a narrow white reflector wide angled back toward the bottle. On each side of the bottle behind the flags I placed strobes with 7" reflectors, angled to catch the narrow white reflectors (this is where I think the grids or a snoot would have helped by keeping light off the background and the area behind the bottle). In front and just off the center line was a speedlight. I first tried using reflectors in front but just couldn't get enough light reflected back. Balancing the light from the speedight with the reflected light was killing me. If I brought the light up in front to expose the label, I lost the detail on the bottle, decrease it and the label looked under exposed. This was about the best I could get with my setup.

Have a couple more projects coming up, that I'm anxious to try some more things using what I've learned so far. I've done a couple of "black line" shots, but this is the first "white line" I've attempted.

 

[FotosbyMike]

My apologizes, I guess I didn't understand this was what your were trying to attempt. With that said I have shot a White line setup:

The I was taught and did this was placing a softbox directly be hide the product then draping black fabric down the middle of the softbox so only a sliver of light come out and touches the edge of the glass. Again as for exposing for the label it is its own shot then layer masked in Photoshop, the other way to exposure for the label in one shot is with another flash with a snoot.

 

[smoke665]

The I was taught and did this was placing a softbox directly be hide the product then draping black fabric down the middle of the softbox so only a sliver of light come out and touches the edge of the glass. Again as for exposing for the label it is its own shot then layer masked in Photoshop, the other way to exposure for the label in one shot is with another flash with a snoot.

Ok, now we're on the same page, nice shot. Everything I'd read on the process used reflectors, the softbox idea is interesting, though my thinking is that using the reflectors allows me greater flexibility in adjusting the width of the white line by changing the angle. I also noticed you used Plexiglass as the base. When I did the black line attempts, I used Plexiglass, but chose not to on this one. After seeing your example I'm thinking I should have used it, and will include that in the next one.

I was attempting to grab it in one shot, but I'm afraid you may be right about the composite. Trying to light the front of the glass bottle, without blowing out the detail from the rear lighting, was beyond my reach. With a can (that doesn't rely on back lighting), I'd think that a snoot would work. Did you also use a composite for the reflections also??? And, was the liquid in the glass a composite, or only from back lighting?

 

[FotosbyMike]

Did you also use a composite for the reflections also??? And, was the liquid in the glass a composite, or only from back lighting?

The reflection is 100% in camera and a real reflection, this is a piece of glass from IKEA BESTÅ Top panel - glass black, 47 1/4x15 3/4, I could never find black plexi and i love that the glass never scratches and unlike most reflective surfaces no space between product and reflection.

Liquid is all real one shot, this is another tick it is back lite with a bounce card cut in the shape of the glass and pained gold to give an amber color.

 

[smoke665]

Liquid is all real one shot, this is another tick it is back lite with a bounce card cut in the shape of the glass and pained gold to give an amber color.

Aaahh of course, I've read about that but have never tried it. That also explains the gold line on the left side of the glass instead of white. That was bugging me, but I erroneously assumed it was from the liquid. Being out in the woods, I've never found black plexiglass or glass. Instead I've had to rely on very thin plexiglass on black foam core. Doing it that way seems to add "depth" to the glass, but scratches are always a concern.