Product photography: lighting, layering and collaboration.

One of our favorite graphic designers, Al Marschall asked us to photograph one of his package designs: a beer bottle.  Seems he had shot this a while back, and wasn't happy with his first attempt.  "Kinda flat," were his words, I think.

Since I'd learned how to shoot bottles with liquid (and any container with liquid) a few years ago, I said sure.  I explained to Al (and my assistant, Hassan Pitts) that the key is to light the object from behind.  The only way to get a glass or bottle of beer to look like something you want to drink is to get some light coming through the liquid itself.

Another thing we and graphic designers do with still life/product photography is uses several layers of exposures using editing software like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator.  That way the artist can isolate different areas of he object with light, and then blend them all together for the final image.

Here's one of our "out of the camera" shots to the right.

Hassan & I set up lights at 45-degree angles to the right and left sides of the bottle to give it a "rim light" or light around the edges.  Those lights also illuminated the "bounce light" behind the bottle.  Notice the shadows falling on the paper behind the bottle, those shadows were caused by a small piece of foil paper placed behind the bottle. That acted as mirror, and causes the "fire" you see coming fro inside the bottle.  Simple trick, and so effective.  I would ask Hassan to wiggle the foil to get different effects.  I'd fire the shutter and capture those variations without moving the camera or the bottle. That process gave Al several different "glows" he could choose from.

Below is the full set from the front showing a small mirrors used to "open up" (give more light) the front of the label.

Ok, now this is what the master artist, Al Marschall did with the several files we delivered. Pretty sexy I'd say.  The bottles look like a chorus line of Windy City Ale Rockettes.