UND BECK'S!!!!!! Ja!

[minicoop1985]

Und Beck's? UND BECK'S by longm1985, on Flickr

Thought I would try the ol beer bottle game again, seeing as I love beer and have new lighting equipment. How did I do here? Besides the wonky label and surface-the surface is wood covered with a sheet of posterboard, hole drilled in the middle, and a slave flash thrown under to add a little "pop" to it. The wood has been absorbing humidity at a different rate than the posterboard (superglued on), hence the warping . Otherwise, two speedlights (bare) kind of offset (camera right more forward, camera left slightly rear), one 300w equivalent softbox between camera left speedlight and camera, and... a camera. I dunno about the last thing. Not sure if the camera part's important or not, but you never know. Anyway, lemme know what you guys think. Always looking to improve. Thanks!

 

[Geaux]

lol, I shot beer pictures tonight too, check my thread.

I find the lighting to be a bit flat and shadows off-putting. Maybe try a strobe at 45 degrees either left or right and move the other light to blow out your background so you are not left with a gray/white gradient type background.

 

[minicoop1985]

Single strobe and a speedlight in the background? That's easy enough. Now, to get more beer, or try this with some UV. UV it is.

 

[Scatterbrained]

Were you going for an all white background? Personally, I'd say to light it from behind and use a reflector to fill the label, or a small mirror.

 

[minicoop1985]

Hmm, that is easily doable too. I was intending for the gradient, thinking it would add a little interest. I did VERY little processing to this because I don't learn to get it right in camera if everything's so heavily processed it's barely resembling the original, and the help you guys give goes further.

Edit: tried with the UV. Will post soon.

 

[minicoop1985]

Ultraviolet Radiation by longm1985, on Flickr

I tried Geaux's idea, and I think I need a different subject. I LIKE what this does, but it needs the right bottle/contents, and a clear one full of clear vodka seems to be the wrong one.

 

[Geaux]

Much better

 

[Scatterbrained]

You don't light product from the front. If you keep trying to light it with the lights in front you'll constantly struggle. Hang a sheet next to it just out of frame and shoot the light through the sheet from slightly behind the subject. You can use a piece of paper behind the bottle to catch the light to illuminate the inside of the bottle. A black card next to the bottle will allow you to control where the highlight starts on the side of the bottle and how much you feather the light will help to control the strength of the highlight and the softness of it's edge. Right now the highlights on the bottle look quite bad and you've got small specular highlights from the light source right in the front of the bottle.

 

[Scatterbrained]

Another thing, if you're shooting clear glass against a white background, flag the background with black around the edges of the frame. This will give a good, crisp black edge to the glassware.

 

[minicoop1985]

THAT'S how you guys do it. Time to make some flags and flag stands. Thanks a ton for the advice.

 

[Scatterbrained]

A few resources you might find helpful:

Start at the back and work backwards. This thread is all about set ups, but it started with a whole lot of "camera on a tripod" set ups and has kinda devolved back to that. There's still a lot of set ups shown so there is a lot that can be gleaned from it:
Show us your setup and the final result! - Page 541 - Canon Digital Photography Forums

Professional Product photography tutorials and forums. A lot of what is there is behind a "pay wall", but there is still a wealth of free information here:
Photigy Studio Photography | Where passion meets profession

Karl Taylor: Imagine Scott Kelby, if he were British and a better photographer
Karl Taylor Photography Free Video Library | Karl Taylor Photography Blog

 

[minicoop1985]

I will admit, I've had success lighting non-glassware from the front, but it takes several shots merged in Photoshop to get it just right, usually. Glass lighting has been REALLY hard for me to master.

Another thing I need to learn is selecting bottles with properly aligned labels.

 

[whomovedmyblender]

Black cards are a must for definition of edges, I use some sneaky techniques like hiding gold card around... I often shoot 18+ layers for product photography. Most of the time bottles have labels photoshoppd' on.

 

[Msteelio91]

Not even sure if that's a legit post (first post????) but nice setup.