Wine stock shots

I have seen a few threads on here concerning lighting wine bottles. Possible ongoing work here for me if I can nail this one. The client has seen certain stock bottle shots and is very keen to emulate them as best as possible. I have tried to convince them that regular bottle shots (similar to many posted on here) would be fine but they are adamant that this is the style they want (see attached pic).
Any ideas?
I have fogged out the names of the samples for legal reasons but the main bottle is clear enough to see. To be honest I thought this would be easier than it has been so far.
Help pls

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What does the client think is so special about this shot? Quite unremarkable, if you ask me!

For this shot below I consider the wine bottle secondary to the overall shot complexity (three exposures, one piece of 4x5 film) and the lighting of the glass and of the background is primary (the bottle secondary). Nothing to brag about, for the bottle alone!

https://photography-on-the.net …hp?p=2750650&po​stcount=87

it look CG to me :S

I agree with Wilt. Personally, I think that the shot would look better if the bottle had some backlighting shining through.

The surface of the bottle in the first post looksto me like it's made of "ground glass" rather than a conventional smooth glass surface. It's rather opaque looking rather than transparent/translucen​t.

It looks like someone Photoshopped the extra reflections out, got rid of the existing cast shadow on the table and supplemented with a foreshortened one, added the original label with photoshop and hyper exposed the background which is probably backlit frosted Plexiglases or paper. See how the label has shadows equally from both sides.

Bo

Maybe this is just a computers simulation of what they are looking for, in a real photo. (Still quite ordinary.)

I have been using 3ds max for 5 years now and thought i would just model, light and render it when I first heard the spec. But.. It is an actual photo though and they are supplying bottles. They asked for muted reflections which must reflect light source only and no harsh edges on the reflections. Bottle edges must be well defined and labels sharp and evenly lit. Images to be supplied with no background for use in print. Yes Wilt it is a uninspiring shot I agree. Trouble is they don't like the type of image you have shown as an illustration, nice as it may be to us. They won't be swayed and its them that will be paying me so i'm tied on this one i'm afraid.
Skip I think you may be right about the glass being treated. The bottles are standard shiney glass type. I recall hearing from somewhere something about matte spray or even hairspray to mute reflection when shooting glass.
I thought maybe 3 shots blended. Shot one would be light source to give the fall of effect on bottle. Shot two using polariser to eliminate reflections. Shot three light the label square on and combine the three in p/shop.

Attached is another one. White this time. Again it illustrates the muted glass and a 'product only' shot, no creative environment. I have attached as pdf because original tif is corrupt and to get around it I had to dump it in quark and export as pdf (jpeg retained the error)

Also another red one.

Lots of glass shoots are done with plumes not softboxes. And then the backgrounds are dropped off. The org image you posted has been PS'd quite a bit too since there are shadow conflicts.

Most wine makers don;t want the light to shine through the bottle because of color changes. This is critical with reds and some other darker wines where the color is part of the way the wine is sold. Lighter wines are not so critical. Bottle colors,labels are color critical too.

Les

Grain wrote in post #2788582
They asked for muted reflections which must reflect light source only and no harsh edges on the reflections. Bottle edges must be well defined and labels sharp and evenly lit. Images to be supplied with no background for use in print.

Ahh, some real 'specifications' to work from! You can get more diffuse edges on the reflections of the light by careful control of shooting aperture, combined with placement of the light sources farther away from the bottles! You can also get less prominent (intensity) reflections simply by bouncing lights off of reflective panels rather than using lights to create the reflections (or just turn down the power on those lights, or simply shoot with modelling lights only on those heads and control intenisty via shutter speed!). Then the main light illuminates the bottle itself for the outline. If you use a green background, then use Photoshop to drop out the background green (same trick as used for 'disappearing' things on TV), it will drop out. Also, you can carefully cut out a black mask that is attached to the back of the bottle to prevent any light from transmitting thru the wine and the bottle glass.

Not sure what the mention of Plumes is about, as Plumes are merely softboxes. They make very shallow softboxes (nice, take up less floor area during a shoot) and they make strip (tall narrow) sofboxes; apart from that, I don't know what is unique about the Plume that they are needed, specifically.

Thanks all.
And thanks Wilt you have been incredibly helpful as usual, your'e a diamond bloke!

One of my profs was a studio photographer, well still is, and has some amazing work with bottles. A couple of his images are here: http://www.brooks.edu ….asp?s=Scott+Mi​les&page=1

Accomplishing the lighting is obviously the difficult part, and requires a lot of light, diffusers, reflectors and patience.

coreypolis wrote in post #2790901
Accomplishing the lighting is obviously the difficult part, and requires a lot of light, diffusers, reflectors and patience.

Patience...Yes, time is a considerable factor. That shot that I linked was done over a decade ago in a comm'l lighting workshop, where the day's activities were to bring something to photograph, then establish a set, light it, and shoot. Now admittedly things were made more complex by having to experimentally derive three separate exposures in one shot, and a little time was eaten up with getting the set ready, but one photo took 4 hours to set up and take test photos. Shooting the final chrome was relatively fast!

The reason plumes are so popular is because of their shape as you said. Softboxes seem to leave too large a reflection for mosts AD's taste.

Many of the plumes I have used were 6" wide and 3' to 5' long depending on how you large/wide a highlite you wanted on the bottles. Most do not want shadow across the labels and also print several labels to shoot with

I did a shoot two years ago using a plume style of box that was 2'x15'. It was custom built to shoot magnum size bottles. The AD wanted one hignlight the full length ot the bottle and requested that the highlight not change size with the curves. Bad day but we got on the first try. I have another shoot coming up next month where we are doing several different types and styles of wines and the current request is only highlites that are 10-20% brighter that the bottles themselves. Winery's are a PIA to please but at least they pay well.

Les

Understand the appeal of the Plumes, as described. OTOH, black cardboard clamped on the front of the softbox does most of the same thing (although admittedly nowhere as shallow a box!). A 2' x 15' box...you would think that would light up the NEBUCHADNEZZAR and not merely a Magnum or even Jeroboam. While that would have been fun to use, it would be more fun to empty the bottle!

Sounds like variable power output and fractional EV settings are in order for that next shoot!