Bottle in a box: BTS

This week I decided I would share a behind-the-scenes look at how I tackle a bit of product photography. This is purely for fun…something I decided I wanted to tackle. Everytime you take on something you haven’t done before it should be a learning experience.

I knew I had a special bottle on its way to me and I decided it would make a good subject.

 I had a pretty good idea on how I was going to tackle it…but best laid plans…

The bottle arrived…very attractive and SQUARE!...possibly adding to the lighting challenge…I have never tried shooting a square bottle before. But even more tricky…the square bottle is in a presentation box…a special bottle in a special box…they realy should be shot together…let’s ramp up the degree of difficulty…

So here is the final image...and now I'll step you through the process.

Apart from a crop there is no post processing or Photoshop in this image. 

I'll start off with a shot of what it looks like with just ambient light.

Now the challenge starts.

Every shoot, even though you may have a specific end result in mind, has to start somewhere.

A single light.

One of my least favourite things is flash on plane with the camera...but when you are shooting into what is essentially a black box what options do you have? The first problem here is the angle of the light is creating a shadow in the top of the box.

Still a single light, but by changing the angle the illumination is much better but it's still quite harsh.

The people at Bundaberg helped by adding a reflective interior to the box but the World's best dark rum still doesn't look that appealing. 

Let's soften things up a bit...added diffusion.

So this is just an opaque shower curtain suspended on a couple of light stands. A hole has been cut for the lens. The power output of the flash has been lifted to compensate. It's better, but I'm still not happy. The liquid needs a lift...it needs an inner glow...a warmth...like the one you get when drinking it.

The problem is how to get extra light into the black box. The only way I could see to do it was to sacrifice the special packaging...after all the contents is more important..

Certainly has an "inner glow"...some refinement required.

The principle looks good...a power reduction, added diffusion and some flagging to cut light spill.

The front flash has been turned off in this shot to better show the effect of the rear lighting.

So, we are really close...just one little finishing touch...the makers' name needs to more prominent. Easily fixed by adding an extra light in front...a bit of trial and error to get the angle right...and voila!

This shows the "label light" (front left)...the next image shows the effect.

The change is subtle...but important.

There you have it...bottle in a box.