Absolute mockery

Well thats what we used to call them ... Product photography ... 'mockeries'. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing more satisfying than producing a mock up for a product and it looks fantabulous.
However there is a price to pay, if you are lucky enough to get the job of photographing and mocking up an alcohol product, say a bottle of wine. Look out - you are in for a day of hell. Lets just say that it would be far easier to shoot a mirror. A wine bottle reflects everything it sees for 180 degrees. Ever tried to retouch a tripod leg out of a curved bottle.
This is a game of patience, every light, every highlight is captured and shown in its distorted magnificence. I've tried shooting down a black velvet tunnel, i have tried shooting in full blown sunlight. It's a game of trial and error and most especially small movements - turn, tilt, twitch the bottle - same with the light. Aaaagh.

Every time I touch the bottle I leave a fingerprint, so if I clean the bottle - it moves so somewhere a long the line I learnt to shoot with white gloves on. Because at the beginning of this process I had to clean the bottles with proof alcohol. You also better believe when I say that I had to thin down these variants with water to depict a variance in the liquid colour. Patience - remember. Did you know even in a vacuum-less clean environment - dust particles stick and cling to glass, let alone outside.

If you look at the hazelnut flavoured Liqueur in the pic above - on the right hand side is a reflection of my house. He he. Yip I shot each one of these bottles individually - without labels in the middle of the day. I DIY'd a tilt table and had my tripod tied up and down. All I wanted was simple lines of light. Then individually added the labels - I had the approved artwork that was sent to the printers and incorporated it all in Photoshop CS6, with back up from Illustrator Acrobat and Bridge.

I do remember shooting Whisk(e)y. We had to use various strengths of tea as it gave a better colour and of course spillage was a big problem. Ehhem.

When I finally handed these images - (individual variants as well) over to the client they very kindly invited me up to the Brewery / Distillery for a meal. Well who can refuse that.