User ID

online swipe of bottle referenced by OP

(Download)

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Fortunately, the chef did a great job, aesthetically speaking, and the food did not need any cosmetic treatment that would render it unreadable. So, between myself, my assistant, and the chef, we gobbled it up! YUMMY!

Charlie157 Loc: San Diego, CA

In the late 60’s early 70’s Linhoff had an ad in one of the photo magazines that discusses this problem. The goal of the photographer was to take a photo of a long dining table that was parallel to a fire place and a wall. On the wall was a large mirror. The problem was were ever he set up his equipment the equipment and self reflected in the mirror.
To solve this problem Linhof used a tilt and shift lens along with a swing back to get a photo of the table and mirror without the reflection of the photographer or equipment

gwilliams6

R.G. Loc: Scotland

My guess is that with a bottle you'd be better going vertically, either up or down. One possibility may be to get the reflection of the lens/camera to coincide with a label on the bottle.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

That is my thinking too. Main new piece of equipment: A large enough Soft-Box.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

For many years I have used 4x5 and 8x10 view cameras for all my commercial work, These cameras dad a full complement of movements- swings, tilts, vertical rise and fall controls, and lenses that had a circle of coverage that could accommodate all of these movements. This goes way beyond the scope of a tilt and shift lens for a digital (full frame 35mm) camera. When my business transitioned to digital, I had a custom build bellows and a Phase I back installed on a Mamiya RZ medium format camera. This system had some of the capabilities of the view camers but not quite as much.

I have never had problems with mirrors or mirrored walls in interior architectural photography. I might have used a shift on two occasions but mostly, the mirror issues were solved with lighting and camera positioning strategies. I have never had to employ a shift to successfully control unwanted reflection on a product shot. With full control of lighting, unwanted reflections on glass bottles and similar objects are easily negated. Certain items such as chrome plated and other highly polished and reflective metals require careful tenting. CPL filers, even with polarized lig sources do not work well on metallic surfaces. They will not eliminate a specular reflection but it might "gray it down" or shift its color which is not desirable. Some beverage bottles have metallic foil labels and a CPL filter that causes graying down and/or color shifts.

Well-placed highlights on dark glass bottles define the shape and lend modelig and dimension to product shots of these items.With clear glass bottles, a side of the back ligt will transilluminate the contents and the shape and any facets or designs on glassware.

All of this is not "rocket science" or requires highly sophisticated camera gear or lenses. It has to do with a diffused light source placed at the approprait angles of incidence to accommodate the camera position. The camera position usually has to be maintained in order to properly represent the product without distortion. Any good camera with a normal or somewhat longer focal length lens will do the job.

In this thread, I assumed the OP wants to solve his issue with his existg equipment. If he was undertaking a career in commercial photoghay, perhaps I would advise him to obtain specialized lenses. The shot in question here could be easily and successfully done with one light in a softbox and a reflector with his present camera and lens.

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

You're talking about controlling the reflections of lights and light sources on shiny objects. That's not what the OP was asking about.

Look at the photo below. The canister lid is reflective enough to show the camera that is taking the photo. The OP is asking about how to remove that reflection. That can't be done with adjustments to the lighting. One solution to that problem is a shift lens.

MJPerini

You are correct, my answer was poorly phrased, I mentioned a mirror in my architectural example but the original question was about a bottle . I should have made that clearer, and in the same way t/s lenses don’t eliminate reflections , but may allow you to avoid them by using a different part of the lens’ image circle.
My point was more that there is a cost no matter how you do it.

Real Nikon Lover Loc: Simi Valley, CA

Hmmm. I couldn't agree more. What he said.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

QUOTE REPLY Aug 5, 2023 13:38:26 #
"Ysarex (a regular here) (online) Joined: May 7, 2019 Posts: 5332 Loc: St. Louis

E.L.. Shapiro wrote:
For many years I have used 4x5 and 8x10 view camer... (show quote)

You're talking about controlling the reflections of lights and light sources on shiny objects. That's not what the OP was asking about.

Look at the photo below. The canister lid is reflective enough to show the camera that is taking the photo. The OP is asking about how to remove that reflection. That can't be done with adjustments to the lighting. One solution to that problem is a shift lens."

I do not wish to engage in a protracted argument- those are fruitless!

The OP posted an image of a beverage bottle and a few shot glasses and complained about an unwanted reflection. I assume he shot that with controlled lighting and the subject was NOT a highly polished and morro-like canaster lid that was picking up reflections for multiple directions under available light conditions. I advised him as to how I would shoot the subject he posted. I did mention, somewhere in the conversation, that cerain subjects would require tenting or the use of a shift lens. The shot he posted did not show a reflection of his camera- just a specular highlight at the top of the bottle.

Last I looked, this forum is not a paid and personally directed customer consultation service. Folks will offer different answers to the same question it is up to the OP, of any question, to sort out the various answers and apply whatever they feel is best. In this case, the OP has a choice of revising his lighting, considering alternative methods to shoot reflective surfaces, or going out and purchasing a costly specialized lens. That will be up to him! I did not post misleading or impractical remedies to his issues.

Any method I describe is not a carved-in-stone rule. These are simply suggestions based on my experience. I shoot all kinds of products on a daily basis. I can't afford to go out and invest in more gear every time I run into a tricky situation and have to come up with a practical or improvised remedy- I can usually figure it out.

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

He did not. I posted that photo.

Here is the OP's question: "if a shiny object, like a mirrored bottle (bottega as an example) could be photographed better with a tilt shift so that the dark lens reflection would be way off to one side." [my bold] The unwanted reflection the OP is complaining about is not a light source reflection. So you're not addressing the OP's question.

Charles 46277 Loc: Fulton County, KY

Wallen, I have not used a T/S lens on my Canon, but I have used the Canon attached to the back of a 4x5 camera--which gives even more control for plane of focus and for shape of the subject, with far more tilt and shift. If a large format lens is used, the huge image allows radical tilt and shift, plus rise and fall.

Your question interests me and I will follow the answers, because I have not tried the 4x5 on my new mirrorless full frame Canon, which ought to be even better than my previous attempts with the Ti4 cropped image. This method also works well for stitching side-by-side images for panoramas (it moves the lens rather than the sensor...) When I did it before, I really liked being able to move the image all around on the sensor for framing as well as corrections.

User ID

Ever more pedantic schpeiling of your resume while (as always) neglecting the OPs actual situation. Over and over and over again. Gets sooooo tiresome :-(

Why dont you just assemble your digital illustrated autobiography and simply post a link to that in answer to every technical query on UHH. You could easily assemble it almost entirely by cut and paste from your archive of repetitive posts on UHH.

User ID

Good plan. A shiftable adapter back on a used 4x5 studio camera should cost less than Canons TS lens while accomplishing much more. A 55mm from a Pentax 6x7 would be ideal up front. As an SLR lens it has an extended flange depth.

Being supremely lazy, Ill just put my EOS 24mm TS lens on a 100MP m4/3 camera and crop a bit. The Canons 11mm of shift is semi-huge on a 13x17mm sensor.