bottle pics

baltbottles · Sep 24, 2003

Dose anyone know a way to photograph a bottle and get a good clear pic of all the embossing and to do it with a perfectly white background. I plan to write a book on baltimore sodas and would like to include pics of all the known variations.

Chris

Pontiled · Sep 29, 2003

What kind of cameras are you using? Are you very experienced with photography?

You may have to forget a brilliant (pure) white background, especially if you use a digital camera and are photographing a cobalt-blue bottle. Most of mine are photographed with a 20-percent gray background, but, even then, the angle of the camera, embossing, and lights will make the difference between a nice clear photo and one that is not acceptable to readers. A clear bottle, on the other hand, can be photographed on a white background with the proper angles of lights and embossing. You'll have to experiment a bit, but you'll get it right, but there is no real correct answer in general.

Good luck with the book!

baltbottles · Oct 3, 2003

Hi, Thanks everyone for the help i managed to get some better results but I am still having trouble with lighter colored and aqua bottles. Here are links to a few sample pics. I use a Sony DSC-D770 digital camera it has many features including a white balance. I use two 100 watt spot lights in the front of the bottle I move them around until I can get the embossing to show and a have a 500 watt painters light positioned above the bottle slightly behind it to provide back lighting. This setup seems to work great for darker bottles but washes out the lighter examples. Any more ideas

Chris

http://www.geocities.com/baltbottles/soda1.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/baltbottles/soda2.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/baltbottles/soda3.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/baltbottles/soda4.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/baltbottles/soda5.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/baltbottles/soda6.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/baltbottles/med1.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/baltbottles/med2.jpg

Pontiled · Oct 3, 2003

Chris,

I took the image of the Couley's Fountain of Health and "tweaked" it a bit with Microsoft's Photo Editor and could improve it a bit by increasing the brightness and going up one click with the contrast. These are typical aqua bottles from that period of time and won't usually come up much better. On this particular bottle, I would use a background that is a bit lighter and focus the light at the same angle but on the fountain design as long as you don't get any light flash on the fountain. Take a look at your image and mine and you will see the difference.

I'll comment more a bit later (dinner's on the table).

Mike

Pontiled · Oct 3, 2003

Hi Chris,

Now, to continue...

In the image produced from yours, with some "tweaking," notice that the image is lighter and more like the real bootle would like if it were in front of you. It is still aqua, of course, but the image is a brighter image now. By increasing the contrast a little, the letters and design are also more crisp. Note the design (fountain) now has the lines in the center and more lettering begins to show. If it had more contrast, the image would begin to break up with sharp lettering and it would no longer look like the actual bottle.

Remember, the image I produced was from your image. That tells you that you can do it by simply playing with the image you would get from your camera. No magic was involved! The sharper image you can get, the better image you can get after working with Microsofts program or most others that will work on improving an image. Microsoft's program is inexpensive. I have other photo/design software, but I chose to go with Microsoft's for simplicity's sake. These images will all come out a bit better, but, as you indicated, the darker ones are better because of the more discerable contrast on the bottle itself. That also is why I chose to use the aqua bottle (it is more difficult to tweak).

With only a little work, these images will be useful for even the most contrary publisher you can find!

Mike

Pontiled · Oct 9, 2003

You're welcome

Harry Pristis · Oct 13, 2003

Hello, Mike . . .

Now I understand your other post about manners.

But, your advice is useful for lots of readers. Thanks you!

Besides the mechanics of good lighting (diffused, color-balanced light, and back-lighting), I think pix of clear bottles are improved with more aggressive use of image-processing software. I use 500w incandescent photo lamps and my x-ray film-viewer for back-lighting. Even so, the soft-ware tweeking is crucial.

My first move is to jack up the "brightness" until the background is blanked out (the bottle may appear slightly washed out at this point). Then I crank up the "contrast" until the bottle image is sharp. It's hard to quantify this tweeking, it just has to be done by eye. The majority of the posted pix on this forum would benefit from this basic "brightness/contrast tweeking."

If there is a shadow or other distraction in the image, I may just "erase" it. If there is a distracting flare on the bottle, this can be touched up using the "brush tool" or the "cloning tool."

You just have to learn how to use these tools by practice. This is time-consuming at first, and not something everyone will enjoy doing. But try it, see how you like it.

----------Harry Pristis

Pontiled · Oct 15, 2003

Hi Harry (and all). First, my comments posted elsewhere were general comments and not specifically aimed at anyone. Just an observation.

I think your approach to photographing bottles is right on the nose, especially where you mentioned that it's not something you can get a set of specific instructions for (paraphrasing). You do have to experiment a bit and one set of "experimentations" will not necessarily work on the next bottle. For most anyone with a digital camera, it's not costly to experiment, but for someone with a 35-mm camera, my sympathies go to you.

What I had mentioned before about a 15-20% gray background will work, and, if you experiment, it will produce a nice background or none at all (white), depending on the contrast / brightness found during experimenting.

I'd love to see a few more pictures from the people who are reading this post.

Harry Pristis · Oct 16, 2003

Nice bottle, Roger!

What did you do to get that nice image? Lighting? Software tweeking? Background?

-------------Harry Pristis

Pontiled · Oct 16, 2003

Harry, at this rate, I'll have to hire him to take my next pictures!

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