New Photography Set-Up Results & Details

[MountainMan304]

I made this in case anyone is interested in taking high quality pictures of their bottles without the (very expensive) trial-and-error of figuring all this out.

Roxa-Kola, Rock, W.Va.

W.F. Riley, Clendenin, W.Va.

Clifton Dairy, Quart, Pratt, W.Va.

Crawford Bottling Works, Leewood, W.Va.

West's Bottling Works, Quart, Baltimore-Loop, Charleston, W.Va.
Still having some trouble properly composing bottles with dark ambers or paper labels:

Top Rock Ginger Ale, Quart, Paper Label, Charleston, W.Va.; Problems:

• Bright streak from front light across label
• Unevenly backlit glass, with the brightest spot centered above the label

Coca-Cola, amber, earliest known variant, Charleston, W.Va.; Problems:

• Extremely bright background to get a fairly balanced light through the dark amber
  • This washed out the embossing, as the "Coca-Cola" toward the bottom is difficult to see, perhaps also due to the darkness of the foreground
• Reflection of the front light on the upper portion of the bottle, as well as a long white streak on the right side
  • May need to diffuse the light more from the front.

General Issues:

• Differently lit backgrounds (in brightness)--should I just change all backgrounds to white? Or is the white too harsh?
• Different foregrounds, due to bottles needing me be elevated to different heights for even backlighting.

Gear & Materials:

• Canon EOS Rebel SL3 DSLR camera
• EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens
• Adobe Photoshop
• Data cable for connecting Mac and camera
• Canon LiveShoot (in the EOS Utility application)
• (2) Godox 600 W strobe lights w/ stands
  • NOTE: You will NEED powerful lighting for crisp pictures with lots of detail and faithful color reproduction (this is also in the "CRI" rating of the lights). ONLY BACKLIGHTING PULLS CONTRAST IN GLASS! This is an extremely important note. Even with a phone camera, you can get decent pictures if you just use strong backlighting (daylight works in a pinch)
  • The most contrast comes out of glass as you move the bottle away from the lighting source, closer to the camera.
• Hotshoe trigger
• Backdrop (white bed top sheet, folded such that there is four layers of fabric between the light and subject)
• Pedestal (a black hardcover book)
• Tripod (don't skimp out if you get a DSLR)
• 6 ft folding table
• White canvas cloth for table
• Bottles!

Set-Up:

1. General room set-up
   1. Reduce as much ambient light as possible; use a dark room with no windows if at all possible
   2. Cover up any reflective or bright surfaces, if possible
   3. Have about a 10x6 ft space to do all of this in
2. Set up your lights
   1. One behind the bottle aiming directly to where it will be
   2. One directly in front of the bottle, elevated behind you + the camera so that you don't get in the way of the flash
3. Backdrop set-up
   1. I just fold a King size top sheet into four layers, which I found to be a better diffuser than an actual diffuser with my budget
   2. Keep this consistent for consistent lighting; also, put the ends at the top so that the weight of the folded sheet will prevent movement due to AC/wind/etc.
4. Table set-up
   1. Center the table with the back light, lay down a thick white cloth (iron it out to prevent wavy foregrounds)
   2. If needed to properly elevate your bottle such that its middle is directly in front of the light, use some sort of dark pedestal; I'm using a book for now.
   3. Make sure everything is centered in front of the light. This is very important, otherwise you get wonky results with just the neck super lit-up or half the bottle being light and the other half being a reflection of the lit half
5. Technical Specs
   1. I will leave the lighting level up to you, as this changes by the bottle; I presume if you have read this far, you know how setting up the software and such works--if you're really wanting to do this, just message me and I'll be happy to help
   2. Important: Use the SAME settings on the camera if you want consistent results. Different apertures will produce different perspectives. For my lens, I set the aperture to f/7.1, ISO 100, shutter speed 1/200 seconds, area focus, and auto white balance
   3. Lighting levels will change depending on your bottle. Dark amber bottle with weak embossing? TONS of backlighting, very little front lighting (but still keep front lighting). Paper label with light glass? Make the front and back lighting about even. Normal, aqua blue bottle with strong embossing? Medium amount of backlight, about half the amount of front lighting.
6. Keep lots of batteries and, honestly, just use your computer for storage instead of a memory card.

Conclusions:

• Don't get discouraged if pictures don't come out perfect from the start. Mine were awful, they're still probably awful to a pro photographer, but it's something. It takes time to learn.
• Have fun with it. You might not always have your bottles, but you can always have amazing pictures of them.
• If you're making a guide/website/auction, use very good pictures--I have learned that great pictures makes the biggest difference in final sale values.
• Use Photoshop, but don't lean on it. Almost every single digital picture you see is photoshopped. Everything requires SOME editing to make it perfect. But Photoshop can't fix an awful picture, and any attempts to make it do so will look even worse.
• Enjoy it. Similar to number two, but if you take it too seriously and get frustrated, you will get $1000s in the hole and not even like doing it. Photography is a hobby just like our bottle obsessions.

 

[Canadacan]

Great pointers! It's always tough to get lighting right for embossed bottles, and I agree the glass color changes everything. I lean on edit apps quite a bit myself, but I like to add an artistic flare at times.
Here are a few I've done. And yes the way to learn is to just keep experimenting, I love trying different things. I suppose for me it's easier to photo a lot of my stuff because I have a lot of cans and ACL's. I'm using a Samsung Galaxy S21.
This one I used a brush to reduce the saturation and EV exposure. I had to do this stack in my office and getting a sheet to pin up was too much of a hassle.

This one I just opted for an outdoor backdrop, taken later in the day once the sun was lower.

I love doing my black backdrops!

This Dr. Pepper one I simply used the bench in the front entry.

This was a fave of mine, black backdrop with natural light coming in the side.