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FORUMS General Gear Talk Flash and Studio Lighting 
Thread started 29 Jun 2008 (Sunday) 13:35
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How best to shoot a brown beer bottle?

 
ebann
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Jul 03, 2008 11:54 |  #31

breal101 wrote in post #5841939 (external link)
Back in the film daze we did what you are saying, now you only need to put a reflector behind the bottle and paint in the result in post if the camera is on a tripod. We used to use a gold foil for this, again not really needed for digital since you can also change the color in post. An overhead light source works best for this.

I have to try an overhead light source. I have no giraffe so I have to think how to do that. Should I use direct or diffused light overhead?


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ebann
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Jul 03, 2008 12:04 |  #32

Mark1 wrote in post #5841856 (external link)
I don't like the blanket at all! If they are going to remove it then ok. But you should never have something like that as a floor. Hard surface is best.

I was going to use a black silky material for the table cloth and background but my cousin forgot to bring it! The darkest material I had was this one. The table used is my chess table so it was not a nice material to place the product on.

Shoot at 100 ISO. Its not moving, So why such a fast ISO?

I was in a delusion state because I thought that to properly expose the bottle I had to balance ISO/shutter/aperture. But flash photography is tricky! It's actually two exposures in one! I was worried about properly exposing the background, i.e. f/8, 1/8s, ISO 400, but forgot that the bottle was being exposed almost 100% by flash.

I should have shot at ISO 100, shutter 1/250s, f/8 and adjusted from there to get the desired background effect.

Only 1 of the three cards looks to be reflecting any light on the bottle.

The 2 cards on the back where used to give the white border outline on the beer bottle. I got that idea from the links above.

If you dont have a way to fire the flash that is on the camera, if you take it off. Remove the Stofen and point it to the left and have it bounce off the cards. This will soffen the light. As well as remove the hot spot in the center of the bottle.

The flash on-camera does not fire. I did not have an ST-E2 nor an off-shoe cord (which will be my next purchase). The 580EX was just acting like an expensive ST-E2 transmitter. I did fool around with direct frontal flash, diffused, bounced, etc. Now I know why flash on-camera is sometimes just a big headache for these kind of shots!

Glass is hard. Take some time and play with everything you have there. Change the positions and relations to each ohther. You will get it. But most importantly you will learn!!!

This was fun. I will keep on fiddling with this until I get it right. Thanks for the comments.


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breal101
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Jul 03, 2008 12:34 |  #33

ebann wrote in post #5842317 (external link)
I have to try an overhead light source. I have no giraffe so I have to think how to do that. Should I use direct or diffused light overhead?

I use a softbox overhead slightly behind the bottle to eliminate the reflection of the source in the bottle. It can be done with a soft light from the side but it is a bit trickier to get it right. An overhead source is easier to manage IMO. Just one comment, I would 86 the bottle cap. I don't see a reason for it to be in the shot.


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bieber
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Jul 03, 2008 12:42 |  #34

Definitely getting there, hope you don't mind if I critique a little.

Like has been said before, definitely shoot at your sync speed. Remember that as far as the camera is concerned, you want the room behind you to be pitch black, so that it doesn't register on the bottle. You might even need to turn off that overhead light that keeps showing up in the bottle, but I think shutter speed will probably take care of it.

Next, get the tupperware and plastic off your flashes. Their purpose is to send light up to the ceiling to light up the rest of the room, which we're trying to keep pitch black.

Now, I'm not sure why you put that reflector sticking out on the left, but it's going to make your edge highlights look uneven, and probably introduce some glare that you don't want: it should go. A good reuse of it would be to put it above the other two, also flat against the background like they are, so you get some nice reflections in the top edges of the glasses.

The really tricky part is going to be with the lights themselves, though. You need to light up just the edges around the background. If you want the background to have color, instead of blacking out, you can put a light on it, too, but the two lights really need to be separate. Generally, the way to accomplish this is by having the subject, the background, and the rim around the background all on different planes, with the subject closest to you, the background farther away, and the rim the farthest away. Then you can put a light behind the background and have it light the rim, and if you want to light the background, you can do it from below and slightly behind the subject. Of course, this would all be mighty difficult with Canon's wireless system. Did I ever mention how much I hate wireless ETTL?

And that's about all there is to it. Also, you can use either a softbox, or a rectangular reflector similar to the one you have on the left now, but placed farther away, to create some window-esque highlights on the bottle. The trick is to make sure you fill up the rectangle completely, because as you find before, any light modifier you try to use will "imprint" itself on the bottle, so it's important that it look like something natural, not studio equipment. Also, for bonus points, you can add black tape across the device in question to simulate window panes, and make it look just that much more natural.


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bieber
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Jul 03, 2008 12:44 |  #35

breal101 wrote in post #5841939 (external link)
Back in the film daze we did what you are saying, now you only need to put a reflector behind the bottle and paint in the result in post if the camera is on a tripod. We used to use a gold foil for this, again not really needed for digital since you can also change the color in post. An overhead light source works best for this.

Wow, that's clever. Damn, you commercial shooters are sneaky :O


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breal101
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Jul 03, 2008 12:48 |  #36

bieber wrote in post #5842579 (external link)
Wow, that's clever. Damn, you commercial shooters are sneaky :O

I always try to remember that the layer mask is your best friend. Thinking digital as opposed to my film daze has opened up a new world for me. :)


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24Peter
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Jul 03, 2008 17:14 as a reply to  @ breal101's post |  #37

I don't drink... but I do have a lot of time on my hands...

Unprocessed shots (can do a lot to clean these up with Photoshop) and the setups.... (hope I wasn't supposed to limit myself to Speedlites...)

1.

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Had a couple more but can only post 8 pics at a time...

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ebann
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Jul 04, 2008 07:04 |  #38

I like the first one best... but being a perfectionist I can clearly see the shoot-thru umbrella imprinted on the bottle's left side. I guess that the perfect setup would be two softlights, one on each side to get that nice straight line that shows up on the right side.

Image 4 has your room imprinted on the glass bottle. Image 3 is fainter.

Thanks for trying it out too! You gave me good ideas.


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bieber
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Jul 04, 2008 07:41 |  #39

ebann wrote in post #5847371 (external link)
I like the first one best... but being a perfectionist I can clearly see the shoot-thru umbrella imprinted on the bottle's left side. I guess that the perfect setup would be two softlights, one on each side to get that nice straight line that shows up on the right side.

Image 4 has your room imprinted on the glass bottle. Image 3 is fainter.

Thanks for trying it out too! You gave me good ideas.

You really just need the opposite colored border, is all. Think like this, but without the glare (sorry, was working in cramped quarters)


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rohicks
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Jul 08, 2008 02:33 |  #40

I shot this in my lightroom a while ago when i was first experimenting with a DIY lightroom.
I can def. shoot a better one now that i have more experience in product photography, and better equipment if i was to re-do the shot ;)

Not the greatest, but not terrible.
Two hallogens on either side diffused with a flash mounted on camera bounced off the side into white board to fill the bottle some.

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How best to shoot a brown beer bottle?
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