In Vino Veritas...

Glass is always an interesting subject in that it is very unforgiving regarding lighting... and reflections of said lighting... and of just about everything else in a 5 mile radius of your location...

Now take that glass and bend it around so that it is curved and contoured...

And then shape it into a vessel capable of containing liquid...

Then try to photograph it with specific highlights and lines - and not others...

And now we come to In Vino Veritas...

Because in your endeavor to control all light and reflections while photographing said glass vessel of liquid you will become suddenly and painfully aware that the truth is that you need a wine... stat... in great volume!

Which reminds me, I need to restock my wine rack.

Okay, so it's not THAT bad... but it can be challenging...

While also quite a bit of fun and a tremendous learning experience...

Recently, I had a bit of a go around with a camera, some strobes, a few modifiers, and a bottle (or few) of wine...

My first shot... literally, the first shot of the day...

Notice in this shot that the light/reflection is patterned... That's because it is a large strip box off to camera left (directly left - that will become more relevant shortly) wearing a grid - inside sits a Godox ad200... and, for this shot, that was the only lighting...

The backdrop is a black v-flat while the bottle and glass are both sitting on my oak table... hence the light surface and dark background...

This image is just the first shot with a little Photoshop 'smart fill' to extend the table and backdrop across the entire left half of the frame...

Next, to smooth out the contour light, I removed the grid... and then added a projected window, via a GOBO, to add a little interest to the background... In the image below, the GOBO is just off to camera right - basically right next to the camera - up over the bottle and glass aimed down a bit to get the projected image behind the bottle and glass...

Now I had expanded the contour reflection to the options of textured or smooth became a bit of a debate in my little photo brain but I also wanted to play with angles and composition...

Notice that, so far, the contour light is a bit forward - a percentage into the label... I adjusted that by moving the strip box as far back as I could so that it was basically behind the bottle - this moved that contour line further back on the bottle...

This necessitated adding a strobe and reflector up front to right the label - basically a strobe to the right and in front of the camera almost right next to the bottle, and pointed back at the camera (no diffusion) with a reflector catching the light and bouncing it back up to the label...

Next I moved to white wine so that I could get a little glow through the bottle... achieved by placing a small LED light behind the bottle and pointed straight up... and a strip of glossy white paper leaned against the light and neck of the bottle - so it created a bottle height reflector for that light it was catching - pushing said light forward through the bottle/wine...

Then back to playing with angles and composition...

And, finally, a little GOBO fun... for some 'drama'...

No LED/Reflector behind this one - 100%% lit by the projector/GOBO from behind with a little help from that bare light and reflector up front for the label...

Now, off to the wine shop to restock!