first attempt at a product shot ...

Sushant

In an improvised light tent.

Skippy

Good Attempt...

Sushant wrote:

In an improvised light tent.

Not that I could do any better, cause I probably couldn't.....but notice how the glass seems to lose it's stem? like the glass does not appear to be complete cause the whiteness has blown it out ?

Also the bottom of the the Wine Bottle.......the top is in focus and is clear but the bottom has some kind of shadow cast on it and is not in focus, it appears quite blurry and grainy ???

You are definitely on the right path.......maybe you need to shoot at a slightly different angle??

Hopefully someone else can offer you some advice, I don't consider myself to be that good at this type of photography, I was just trying to offer you some suggestions ..... don't give up, I think you always have it.
Skippy (Australia)

Sushant

Hi Skippy,

Thanks for your comments. These are exactly the type of things I want to flush out before trying any real work.

I think I'll need to work with multiple layers with different level adjustments with appropriate masking to get those wine glass details back.

Some adjustments with curves might get the bottom of the bottle looking better. It does appear washed out. Next time I shoot, I'll also have to keep an eye on DOF.

This is a lot tougher than I had originally estimated!

Thanks again!

snapapple

Oh yeah! This is not as easy as one might think. I've spent all day setting one of these up and shooting over and over.

You did real good. I think you need a different angle though. Your white background looks nice and white. You could also try a darker background to get that clear glass.

Very good start.

gtc

replace wine
its a good start-i agree with the comments on the blown out stem.

i have a good book on food photography and one method photographers use to get the wine looking better is to replace it with a clearer wine coloured liquid-something like blackcurrant cordial and water might do-similar colour but no particles to cloud things up and stop light from shining through-try whatever you have handy to get it right-you want a wine colour but more light coming through the contents so that the backlighting provided by the tent can be fully utilised

food photography appears very demanding! i wish you good luck and perserverence.

greg

Awais Yaqub

nice photo :
my idea
Take shot from top including full bottol and a glass from same angle pleas try it i dont have that bottol and glass :cry

System

neat shot and neat thread-

informative-

also, your idea sounds good, Awais-

george

Dee

black boards
will reflect on the stem of the wine glass to give it definition -- you'd need to remove them in post process.

I read this while looking in google for product photography glass... lost the link, and never tried it myself.

mercphoto

Sushant wrote:

In an improvised light tent.

I've done some crystal and blown glass myself. I've found that clear crystal is hard to photograph against white, it looks much better against black, shows more detail in the glass. That presents a problem, however, because of the dark wine bottle and the dark wine itself. I would pick what you want to stand out and then optimize that. What do you want the viewer to draw his attention to?

Next is the leaning of the glass and bottle. This is unavoidable because you are shooting close and down. This same effect happens when you photograph tall buildings by looking up from the street. This is what tilt-shift lenses are for. I wouldn't be too worried about this. Play the lean to your advantage in some manner (no clues here).

I would actually try an environmental shot. Where would you expect to find a bottle of wine and a glass? Dining table would be one, next to a dinner. But then the shot gets much more difficult. I've never tried anything that complicated though my ex-girlfriend has quite often. Very demanding but well worth the effort.

You'll be able to play with this shot for weeks if you want to.

System

Bill-

re the lean-

does crop perspective not work on that?-

or maybe to a certain extent?-

george

Sushant

Thanks everyone for the excellent comments and suggestions.

I'm still going to work on this particular pic but I'm also going to venture into pictures of orange and lemon slices! woohoo!

MainFragger

Just a few questions...
before I make suggestions..

1. What are you using for backdrop? Is this a tent?

2. What are you using for lighting..where is the light compared to the subjects?

I was thinking that what it may pay to do is to shoot both the glass and bottle further away from eachother so that the bottle doesn't reflect in the glass, and then post process it and remove some space between the two items.

If you don't want to post process, then it might be a good idea to use two different lights to light the objects. That way, if you have a semi-weak light lighting the glass from the left side and the same from the right side for the bottle, a slightly slower exposure and a circular polarizer should ensure no reflections, and should make the glass of wine really stand out without getting blown out.

If you aren't using a tent, then another alternatives is to use one, or set up some screening to soften your light a bit.. Getting away from the white background might help, but if you go to something too dark, it might not bring out the wine..I suggest a very light colored grey.

One last thing. Your bottle is tall, so switch to portrait orientation for the camera, and bring the camera down so that you are looking straight on at the bottle and stem and can see the whole bottle. If possible, I would frame it so that the right and left sides of the image allow you to see maybe a centimeter past the right and left sides of the two objects. But with that type of image, you may find you still may need to do some cropping if the image comes out too long from top to bottom. Another alternative is to pull back a little evenly so that maybe a few inches show to the right and left side, but equally. Then maybe use a third light from the top to put a spotlight on the bottom of your backdrop to highlight the items.. And again, if possible, you want this light to be screened so that it comes through soft..

I might have an opportunity to do something like this this weekend..

Hope this helps...