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Building a shot such as this, pouring "champagne" into a glass, is simply a matter of building your lighting components to achieve a desired effect. Each light is adds a certain element to the shot. The sum of all these elements is your final lighting solution.
(Click on any image below for an enlarged view.) |
Topics Covered:
- Prepping the set
- Setting the lights
- Experimenting with light positions
Equipment Used:
Lighting Equipment
- Photoflex Halfdome2 Kit
- Photoflex SilverDome nxt
- Photoflex Starlite Kit Small
 Figure 1 |
We poured the contents of a bottle of sparkling cider into a pitcher. Then we cut the bottom from the empty cider bottle. |
 Figure 2 |
The bottle was secured to a LiteDisc Holder on a LiteStand using gaffers tape. |
 Figure 3 |
The champagne flute was secured to the tabletop with funtac, a clay-like semi-adhesive used by many product photographers. |
 Figure 4 |
The image area was framed up. We made any adjustments to the position of the bottle before we began shooting. |
 Figure 5 |
A Small HalfDome Starlite Kit was set up overhead as the set's main light. This kit comes with a LiteStand and Boom to make overhead lighting secure and easily adjustable. |
 Figure 6 |
A Small Starlite Kit was set to the left as a second light source to highlight the glass and shadow side of the bottleneck. |
 Figure 7 |
Louvers were placed on the front of the second light to prevent light from spilling onto the background. |
 Figure 8 |
An extra-small SilverDome and Starlite was set on a background stand (LiteStand 2200) to light the lower half of the background. |
 Figure 9 |
Our first shot shows a good exposure level, however the shutter speed was too slow. We wanted to freeze the motion of the pour. |
 Figure 10 |
The shutter speed was increased to freeze the pour into the flute. The aperture was opened to retain the same exposure level. |
 Figure 11 |
To brighten the pouring liquid and the lip of the bottle, we added a "kicker" light. We fashioned a snoot of tin foil to narrow the light output to fall only on the "pour" area. |
 Figure 12 |
This shows the "kicker" light's position in relation to the set. |
 Figure 13 |
By adding this "kicker" light, you can brighten your pour and add a bright highlight to the lip of the bottle. Notice how this light helps to draw your attention to the pour |
 Figure 14 |
To experiment, we re-directed the background light to fall higher on the background. The new gradation's direction is opposite the previous result. |
 Figure 15 |
To further experiment, we removed the background light. The result is a darker background that adds more separation between the background and the foreground objects. |
 Figure 16 |
We decided the low-positioned background light worked best, so we repositioned the light and took our final shots. |
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Click here to view a more detailed version of this lesson, complete with camera set-up information, on Web Photo School. |
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Related Lessons
Following are Web Photo School lessons related to this topic.
Equipment Used:
Lighting Equipment
- Photoflex Halfdome2 Kit
- Photoflex SilverDome nxt
- Photoflex Starlite Kit Small
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