Black on Black

I experienced a moment of serendipity this week, when my “assignments” for the beverages class and from my mentor aligned somewhat to have me shooting bottles against black. For the image above, the only thing I really needed to photograph was the wine bottle with a thin line of illumination around it, but I wanted to push it to see what I could do with a wine glass added, and then, what if the wine were in motion? It’s how I approach my shoot planning and, when I have time, my days in studio as well.

Maybe you start with a great idea, but there’s nothing wrong with taking it further and trying to break new ground and hopefully, end up with something spectacular. I love how the base of the image is static and austere, but the wine looks alive — almost molten — as it crests against the side of the glass.

Then there’s my old friend Baileys Irish Cream. For this image, I wanted to show a beautiful gradient on the edges of the bottle to separate it from the background, plus have the logo and label be the only things illuminated on the front. Unlike the wine image, this one was a composite of two images — one for the edges and one for the logo and label. I’ve photographed bottles and beverages for so long that there weren’t any surprises here, but everything still needed to be carefully considered and tweaked once the broad strokes of lighting and position were set.

But I enjoy the obsessive attention to detail that product and beverage photography demand and have seemingly endless patience in the studio when it comes to lighting. (Just ask any stylist I’ve ever worked with!) That moment when it all comes together to create something even greater than I imagined is worth all the painstaking steps required to get there.