Glass of Whiskey with Ice
Graphic Representation with colored ice
Playing around in the studio and Photoshop
Playing around in the studio and Photoshop
Same bottle as the previous shot of the Stella Artois beer bottle but I was playing with a color burst background which was created in Photoshop using colors pulled from the bottle and a burst was hand drawn on a new layer this layer was taken into the the radial blur filter > blur method was switched to Zoom and the amount was 80. This filter setting was added multiple times to get the look I wanted. I didn’t like the first attempt at the background so I just painted some more on the same layer and applied the filter again.
A new tutorial offering from Photigy.com and Ilya and Max Plotnikov of Doberman Studios. Two brothers that are producing incredible images in Russia. I think this world wide community of product photography and photographers that Photigy.com brings together is just incredible.
This tutorial on beer bottle photography takes you through selecting the most common focal length lenses for commercial work to lighting all the way through post processing in Photoshop. They walk you through four complete images both in the studio and in photoshop. Each image has different looks which require different techniques. The use minimal equipment in the studio and are masters at the post processing side of the image production workflow. If you have any interest in beverage, bottle or beer photography this is one of the best and most complete workflow tutorials I’ve been able to find to date. While you’re at Photigy.com checking out the beer photography tutorial also check out their Studio Basics course and if your a little more advanced in your product photography shooting check out Proclub.
A couple of my images you have already seen but they are based on some of Ilya Plotnikov techniques.
Bottle of Stella Artios photographed with a Canon 5D MarkIII and a Canon 24 – 70mm 2.8L. I also used a single Paul C. Buff Einstein with a small strip box attached. The light was moved around the bottle and shots where taken on both the right and left side as well as directly behind the bottle. These images where taken into Photoshop and combined and cleaned up to produce the image you see here.
Close up of the neck and cap of a bottle of Angry Orchard cider
This is another Photoshop composite image made up of the front bottle 2 images, one of the back light, one with the lid and label lit properly. Then this front bottle image was added to the image of the background bottles. The background image was blurred a bit and a warm tone radial gradient was added to give it some ambiance and finally a vignette was added to finish it off.
Beverage photography, black bottle on black background.
This image was produced using a single Paul C. Buff Einstein monolight with a large strip light. The light was moved around the bottle and an exposure was taken on the left side to rim light that side and then the same light was moved to the right side to get the same rim light and then a diffusion panel was placed in front of the strip box to produce the diffused hightlight on the left front side of the bottle and then moved to light up the cap area. These 4 exposures where taken into Photoshop and combined into the single image you see here. Some retouching and sharpening was also added in Photoshop.
Photographing a watch with a black body, black straps, a black face, black numbers and finally very dark grey hands was an exercise in controlling highlights to show the shape and details of the watch while keeping it black. This image is made up of three exposures that where brought together in Photoshop so that I could light individual elements and control them in Photoshop of the watch.
When you are photographing something as small as a watch you start to see all the imperfections that need to be corrected when you do your post processing. Retouching on this watch took up sometime. Everything that’s wrong jumps out at you when you’re working close up on a smaller item. All the imperfections in the product show up and need to be fixed as well as and handling marks, finger prints, scratches etc. Highlights need to be smoothed out, reduced, or enlarged to make everything look perfect. Perfection is always the goal when we are trying to show the product at it’s best.
Building the product image of Dripping Lipstick involved producing multiple images in the studio. One of the upside down lipstick, one of the standing lipstick case, another of a drip of nail polish, and then the one of the nail polish dripping down the lipstick case and puddling on the table. There was also a large amount of Photoshop done to clean up the elements and change the colors of all the elements to match.
A studio image of a small decorated perfume bottle done as a single exposure and then a seprate exposures of the smoke where taken and added to the perfume bottle. The humming bird was created in Photoshop by taking images of smoke and shaping them into the humming bird shape. Photoshop was also used to retouch the bottle to get rid of imperfections and dust and to create the reflection.
A single exposure using action stopping short flash duration to freeze the motion of the make up powder exploding off the lower brush. With the black background you can easily extend it to make room for marketing text and contact information.
Kurt A. Moore
Product Photographer
A composite of 6 images make up the image posted below. I shot each element separate so that I could control every element during the photographic process as well as the Post Processing in Photoshop. Product (studio) photography is all about control and being able to produce the images that the clients bring into the studio. There was also a element of motion stopping using high speed flash.
This image was produced in the studio with a single speedlight (on camera type flash) shot thru a double layer of tracing paper that was placed behind the subject and then light was bounced around with a couple silver cards to fill in the front of the products as well as some photoshop retouching to clean up the product.
Product photograph of a perfume bottle
In the studio I place this small perfume bottle on a post to allow me to light it from all directions. 3 lights with strip or soft boxes and some reflectors where used to light the bottle. Then a bit of retouching was done in photoshop to clean up the image and finish it off.
Yellow dress purse or clutch light painted on black slate. The process used to record this image was to use a small LED flashlight with a PVC light modifier to brush light across the texture of the purse in multiple exposures. The seprate images (a total of 5) where combined in Photoshop using layer masking to bring all the images together, The final work was done in Lightroom 5.