Steve DeMott Loc: St. Louis, Missouri (Oakville area)

Part 2 of my experiments.
There's still some reflections on both glasses that I haven't been able to remove. Might try using a linear polarizer on the speedlights and a circular one on the camera. Had some luck with them before.
OK!! Majority wins on straightening the glass.

Thanks for stopping by by & as always comments are welcome

Next up the Green goblin

(Download)

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

The composite is extremely nice! My light suggestion is to use a simplestripling type strip-ligtt type soft box or just mask off a regular square or rectangular softbox and fill in with white reflecotrs. With this basic method, you can better unify lighting direction and not have multiple highs coming in from 2 differet directions. It's OK to have reflections in the bottle and the glass if they both come in from the same direction.

I am no wine expert but is that wine that dark in colour? Sometimes a small aluminum foil tab-like reflector can transilluminate lixqueds to show their true colour.

Steve DeMott Loc: St. Louis, Missouri (Oakville area)

Thanks Ed. I used two 9x35 softboxes with grid. One behind and to the left the other right and a little in front. also a spot direct over the wine glass.

it's not wine, water & food coloring.

NJFrank Loc: New Jersey

I was going to say the reflections didn’t bother me. But Ed gave you suggestions that I would not have occurred to me to get rid of them. But that comes with his vast experience. Kudos to you for the redo, and not digging in and not take meaningful suggestions to heart.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

I do think this is better (because it's straight!). The only niggle I have left is the bright white spot on the second glass. That glass is so OOF that one can hardly discern its presence - except for that bright white dot!

Steve DeMott Loc: St. Louis, Missouri (Oakville area)

Thanks for the comment. If one gets upset with suggestions or comments then it's not a learning experience.

Steve DeMott Loc: St. Louis, Missouri (Oakville area)

Thank you. The spot was one of the reflections I couldn't figure out, yet anyway.

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

Here's the theory. Since here on Earth, we only have one SUN, and we naturally view things in nature with the light coming from one direction- overhead or sideways, depen on the time of day. ligh commg in from multiple directions confuses things in our brain. Now you see why I didn't qualify for medical school on my aptitude test but that is the basic theory without all the mu neurological technobabble.

Reflection in glass bottles and glasses is natural and should not be avoided or negated but if these specular and diffuse highlights are uni-directional and elegantly outline the shape of the bottle and/or glass you get an impactful image.

So, if you want to take the experiment to stage three, use on soft box for starters at an angle that outlines the bottle and the glass and fills in gently with reflector only- white Foam-Cor or somethg like that. If the main light in the softbox is between 90 and 135 degrees to the camer/subject axis, yo shod get a nice diffuse outline and go on from there. Someof the light will strike the fruit and you may pick up more transillumination in the wine.


If yoy have difficulty with too much contrast and total lack of shadow detail, use your second light far away and very low power perhaps bounced off the ceiling to create a wink of splash ligh- 3 or more ti ops below the main.

As for unwanted reflections, observe the angle of incidence. Lights placed at an oblique and on the glass surfaces may not cause those unwanted reflections.

If this is a product shot, turn the bottle to show more of the label- product identification is important.

Funny story- I have too many lights in my studio. They tend to accumulate over the years. I have enough lights to ligh up Radio City Music Hall, yet someof my best shots usually result from the use of one light and a pile of cardboard.

Steve DeMott Loc: St. Louis, Missouri (Oakville area)

Thanks Ed. I love the cartoon.

tcthome Loc: NJ

Never done it before. Wouldn't a polarizer on the lens do the job?

tcthome Loc: NJ

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

A polarizer will negate or mitigate certain reflections. Problem is, that some of the good highlights that give shape and separation be eliminated with unwanted ones. The polarizer will not change the direction of lighting or the angle o incense.