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One of my on-going tasks for Identity Media Group (IMG) has been photography for the brands we create for. Typically this involves photography for their websites and marketing materials. Since 2013, I have taken tens of thousands of shots for the a combination of the various companies. There have been many that I was proud of, but the following images are three of my favorites. Each shot was taken for VaVaVape in the IMG photo studio. Camera and lighting details are provided.
Plastic Bottle Photograph
Camera: Nikon D5100 Lens: 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 Focal Length: 52 mm (in 35mm: 78 mm) Exposure: 1/160 sec @ f/18 (manual) ISO: 100
Flash: Neewer C-250 Strobe (x2) Modifiers: 2'x3' Neewer Lightbox (front); None (backdrop) Grip Gear: Black and white foam board reflectors, various size clamps
Assignment Overview
A design project landed on my desk and to pull off the look I wanted, I needed to take my own photo. The photo I wanted was a hero shot of one of the VaVaVape juice bottles. This bottle is transparent, with a golden yellow liquid inside. The bottle is wrapped in a black, white and shiny chrome label and is topped with a black cap. That all sounds great except the shiny chrome. Photographing anything shiny can sometimes lead to issues.
Photo Shoot
By using a combination of black and white cards to help control the light and, more importantly, the reflection of light, I was able to grab a shot with a decent lighting of all text, though certainly not perfect. The cards are located on the table top with two lights providing the exposure. One of the lights is in front of the product and covered with a 2'x3' soft-box. The second is about a foot off the floor under the table; firing up and onto the backdrop. The bottle reflection comes from the black plexiglass its sitting on.
Post Production
In post, I had to remove way too many dust particles, lesson learned, however, modifications were minimal. I added key highlights to the cap side edges, to help separate it from the background, and I made minor tweaks to levels and saturation in Photoshop to help make it 'pop'.
Final Usage
What about the design project? The ad campaign happens to be another one of my portfolio pieces. If you have time, have a look. It consisted of two different ad formats. Both were offset printed in a local publication and displayed digitally on the company's website.
Next Time
If I were to reshoot this product there are certainly things that I would do differently. I would shoot for more consistency in both the brightness of the text and the glow of the liquid inside the bottle. It probably wouldn't hurt to tame those highlights a little. The biggest change of all though would be a different approach. I have always shot for the single shot. That could be a sign of my age. When you shoot film, you don't easily have the magic of Photoshop.
Instead of shooting for the single exposure, that one shot that does it all, I would instead take multiple shots but changing the position of the light and modifier to highlight different elements. Then build a composite of all of the images in Photoshop. This is a popular technique that gives you a lot of control and it would help with the consistency changes as well.
Glass Bottle Photograph
Camera: Nikon D5100 Lens: 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 Focal Length: 35 mm (in 35mm: 52 mm) Exposure: 1/160 sec @ f/18 (manual) ISO: 100
Flash: Neewer C-250 Strobe (x2) Modifiers: 2'x3' Neewer Lightbox (front); None (behind) Grip Gear: White foam board reflectors, a second (empty) bottle, vapor, cardboard cutout
Assignment Overview
They have arrived! The long awaited Drip Line juice bottles had been designed, foil stamped, filled, boxed and delivered to each of the store locations. One of the first boxes hit my desk with the immediate task of letting everyone know our new juice bottles were in. Of course we had to stick with our shiny chrome, so all the text is highly reflective. Luckily, its all on a matte black, which has the exact opposite effect. I was excited to get the shot and jumped right in. Side note, I also designed the bottle in the photo (not the logo).
Photo Shoot
I knew I wanted a similar 'hero' shot, like the plastic bottle shown above, but I decided to change some things up. Instead of using the reflective table top, which I didn't have at the time, I turned a second bottle upside down (without a cap) and balanced the hero bottle on top of it. I also moved the background back, mainly to add room for a strobe between it and the bottle, but it also helped the light fall off completely, eliminating anything from appearing in my background. To block the light from bleeding through the bottle, I cut out a piece of cardboard and taped it to the back of the bottle. A cloud of vapor was blown behind the bottle to diffuse the light and add a little 'character'. I also took a shot without it.
Post Production
Although I was thrilled with the final shot, there were a couple things I wanted to adjust that would make it that much better. First, I had to make a small rotation to the overall image, as my tripod was slightly off level. I tweaked the levels slightly too deepen the blacks and unlike the plastic bottle, dust particles were at a minimum. To help pop the bottle off the background, I added edge highlights to the cap and bottle shoulders.
Final Usage
This image found a home on many different screens. It was used for a slideshow on the home page of the website, in a social media announcement graphic and for a slideshow displayed on the in-store TVs. Unfortunately, I do not have any of them available for show, but the image held its own and the message was heard.
Next Time
I was very pleased with this shot, but unfortunately, it's not perfect. The biggest issue I have is the text at the bottom. It really needs to be more visible. Using the multiple exposure technique mentioned above would help me achieve this. I could have easily changed an angle of a reflector to focus only on the lower text.
Vape Device Photograph
Camera: Nikon D5100 Lens: 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 Focal Length: 48 mm (in 35mm: 72 mm) Exposure: 1/160 sec @ f/8 (manual) ISO: 200
Flash: Neewer C-250 Strobe Modifiers: 2'x3' Neewer Lightbox (front) Grip Gear: White foam board reflectors, home decor rocks
Assignment Overview
Sometimes a good shot isn't really planned. I mean, clearly this isn't a candid street shot and there was plenty of planning that went into the shot, but the shot itself wasn't planned. I had a group of products that I had just taken standard website images for and I had the small rounded rocks that are meant to go into a vase or dish for home decor. I thought why not, lets see what I can come up with. The result wasn't bad.
Photo Shoot
The shoot itself wasn't too complicated. I had one light set up to the left of the frame. It was shooting through a soft-box, which nailed the soft light. I placed a white reflector to the right of the frame to add a little fill light to the right of the device. An unexpected challenge was taking a shot of the screen lit. One, it had a timer, so that was fun, but exposing properly for the device and the screen was a bit of a challenge when trying to do it in one exposure. So, I took two shots, one for the device, one for the screen and merged them in post.
Post Production
As I mentioned the final image is a composite of two different images. The black screen surround made the merge as easy as it could be. I did have to clean up some dust particles on the screen and a few on the rocks, but only handful in total. To wrap up the processing, I made a few tweaks to the levels to add a little depth to the shadow.
Final Usage
Sadly, this shot didn't see much real use. It did go one the product page on the website, as a break from the typical product on white background we typically see online. It would have been nice to have seen this shine on an add or slideshow somewhere, but never the less, I enjoyed making it.
Next Time
Not sure there would be a next time on this shot. I mean all shots could probably use a bit of improving and I feel in this chase the improvement would be to do something different. Having a project it was meant to be used for would have also been nice, but guess we shouldn't get crazy. I hope you enjoyed.