1st attempt at small products

[Worm324]

Michele was asked by her friend if we could shoot these for them. I guess there going to make some kind of promotional item for the store. Basically the wanted us to model the bottles and get a few angles. The also wanted the recycle symbol on the bottom captured which was kinda tuff to make look good.

These are Right off the camera with NO post processing or even color correction so keep that in mind. There is some dust spots on the bottles here and there that I'll fix when they choose the pics.

Any thoughts that you could share good, bad, lighting, reflections, modeling, ect.. would be Greatly appreciated!

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Best,
Jay

[swampler]

I like the way #2 and #5 are modeled the best. Is it possible to change the angle of the lighting so it doesn't reflect in the bottle? This would be my main negative.

One other thing, you might do one with the bottom of the bottle combined with the other type of shot, so you can see the bottle and the recycle symbol in the same shot.

[Brooks]

Jay,

I think your client will like these.

They might have an issue with the specular shadows underneath the bottles (reflections of the bottles on the table surface). Sometimes those reflections are distracting and take attention away from the subjects.

If they do like those reflections you could use a glossy printer paper instead of the tile board or plexi that you're using now. With a glossy paper you can make a sweep and avoid that horizon line which would be a cleaner look. While you're looking at printer papers there are several choices from glossy to semi-glossy and matte. For larger arrangements you can buy 4'x8' formica sheets in white (or any color) and often in both glossy or matte which can be used as a vertical sweep.

Another option concerning the lighting is to position the bottles very close to the edge of the table where the side light is located. Then by lowering the position of your side light you can create a smooth specular reflection that travels the entire length, from top to bottom, of the bottle. That might be a look they like or not. Right now there's just a small highlight on the left shoulder of the bottles though that might be preferred by the client. Just mentioning this because there are other interesting options available when creating specular highlights on shiny things like these bottles. A controlled reflection in the bottle surface can really hekp define the shape and surface texture of the bottle. Trying to eliminate all reflections is often not the best choice. It's better to create defining reflections to help describe the subject.

Positioning black cards just out of the right and left crop and slightly behind the bottles will eliminate the bounce back from your lit background and better define the vertical edges and shoulders of the bottles, especially in your close-ups.

Oh and be sure to center labels as accurately as possible.

Anyway, your client might not care about any of this so carry on. Good job!