mail time
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now that's one fine-looking bottle of
bourbon from four roses
thank you very much there's a little
letter here hello scatter we hope this
bottle finds you well and inspires more
of your beautiful work well thank you
first off for sending this over and
second I think it might just do that
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all right I've been wanting to do a one
light challenge for a while now because
I know a lot of you don't have a studio
filled with three to four strobes a
bunch of modifiers and all that good
stuff so you might be a little
apprehensive when it comes to making
product photography but if you have one
light a single strobe and a couple of
modifiers I think you can make some
really beautiful look and beverage
photos so I have a nice-looking bottle
here I got my single light in the
background let's do this okay first you
got to get rid of this back label right
here and that will just really allow the
light to come through the bottle and
make it glow and then I'll try my best
to remove all the fingerprints dust and
you know really clean it up and then try
not to touch it
after I place it on the table now I'm
going for a little wooden scene here
something rustic I'm thinking wooden
barrel like you know smokey maybe use
some props to show in an environment but
mainly focused on this nice bottle here
so it's good to have a couple other
props on hand I got some old cutting
boards definitely gonna be using this
fake ice and a glass to pour my bourbon
in yeah you know old a set of binoculars
old compass never know what's gonna work
and what's gonna fit in the frame but
we'll see what goes since I only have a
single light to work with I want to make
sure I have a nice game plan set up
first that way you know I have
everything kind of mapped out in my mind
before I start moving every
around the only thing I really know for
sure right now is that I want to make
sure this bottle bounces off of this
background so I'm gonna drop the bottle
here on the third of the frame with the
label pointed this way then I'm gonna
try to hit this beautiful curved edge of
the bottle right here
the wooden cap and the label all at once
with my very first light then I'm gonna
move the light on over to the right-hand
side and try to capture a nice
reflection on this large flat area now
the light that I'm gonna be using for my
one light challenge is my elinchrom 500
watt studio strobe with large softbox
now to get that curved edge the wooden
cap and the label all at once I think
raising it up above the bottle and an
angling it down a bit will work really
nicely but let's jump over and kick off
the very first image of my one light
challenge just to take a quick look at
this image this very first image I'm
really loving how that light is hitting
the edge and then trickling down the
side of the bottle there it's looking
pretty sweet and I also like the light
on the cap and the label as well
everything's looking pretty awesome you
know there are just a few more things
that I you know want to build up in this
image before I move the light here you
know the reflection on the side of the
bottle it kind of fades off a little too
quickly for me I wish it went all the
way down the edge of the bottle here so
I'm gonna create another reflection with
this white card take another photo and I
think I'll be able to blend those two
nicely together
later on there's just two more things
that I want to do to spice up this nice
bourbon shot before I move that light
and the first one is to apply a little
whiskey styling trick that's just gonna
make that inside of this bottle glow and
that's to use this cheap golden paper
and that's gonna reflect the light
bounce it through the bottle and make it
oh so yummy now to prop it up I'm gonna
use my specialized propping mechanism
here and just place that behind the
bottle and then angle it ever so
slightly towards the light well the
second thing that I want to do is
actually bounce some of that light off
of this large diffuser that I have right
here and this will reflect into the
right-hand side of the bottle giving a
subtle reflection not too much not
enough to take away from our main light
source but enough just to make it really
smooth and blend nicely with this golden
reflector that we have pumping through
the bottle now I've
move the light to the right hand side
here behind the diffuser and I've tilted
it ever so slightly outward that way you
get a nice gradient across the face of
that glass I've gotten the gold
reflector out of there and hey wait for
it we're almost done I think for this
shot I'm really going for the the cap
and this sliver of highlight that really
defines the edge of the bottle shape
okay the last shot is to hit this
background with some beautiful light now
I'm gonna get rid of that softbox and
swapping that out for a gridded snoot
now I'm gonna angle this in from the
left-hand side
just making a sliver a light across that
background personally I like to prop the
scene after I make the image of the
bottle I know it adds a couple of extra
steps you got to move the lights around
again but it really ensures that you
don't have any crazy reflections going
on in your bottle and the last thing
that you want mucking up your fine
bottle of bourbon here is some weird
reflections well the one light challenge
is finished and I'd have to say it was
pretty challenging I mean the big
difference between shooting with 3 to 4
lights and say 1 light is that with one
light you can only see the reflections
on one side of the bottle the other side
of the bottle is completely dark but
with 3 to 4 lights you can see
everything in real time and I would say
that's the major advantage of having
multiple lights with multiple modifiers
but regardless whether you're shooting
with one light or with a studio filled
with lights you're gonna be doing all of
the heavy lifting of putting it all
together inside a Photoshop now I don't
want you to die sitting through the
hours of Photoshop here if you want to
learn more about compositing Beverage
photos then check out my short course
i'll place a link in the description
however I do want to show you a couple
of cool tricks I'll start out with my
very first image here with a nice light
on the edge there now I'm going to blend
this image with the white card image so
that the light continues down the side
of the bottle I'll create a layer mask
and then I'll press command I to invert
this mask this is a nifty little trick
it's nothing that special but it'll save
you a ton of time instead of masking out
the entirety of the image like safe from
this gold reflector image I'm only going
to mask
what I do want with my brush tool'
beyond the keyboard I'll start bringing
in that awesome color if you want to
check out what was in the photo again
you can left-click on the mask and click
disable layer mask just learning out
here you know it's like putting a puzzle
back together again one piece at a time
there are the big areas of the photo
like the gold here but sometimes when
you're five or six or even ten photos
deep there's all these little details
these little surprises in each photo
like the light coming through these
roses I like to jot those little details
on a notepad when I'm shooting that way
I can remember them when I get back to
the computer now the photo with the
light on the right hand side I'm gonna
show you another little layer trick here
because the image is pretty much black
everywhere except for where the light is
hitting the bottle I can turn this layer
mode from normal to lighten and it will
only show my highlights now when I go to
make the mask invert it again I can
brush in this layer without having to
worry about bringing in that dark
background see I'm brushing here but
nothing is happening pretty cool I mean
one to remember especially if you're
shooting on an entirely black background
alright there's our one light bottle
shot we started with the edge added the
white card then the gold oh and and the
diffuser then the light on the right
hand side then the background and it
looks pretty solid it's pretty much the
same process for bringing in the props
brush them in and retouch some of the
dust and smudges on the bottle and I'd
have to say some pretty nice images and
hey I think we rocked this one light
photochallenge
and I'd like to thank for roses for
supplying the beautiful bottle of
bourbon I'll enjoy it a little later and
hey if you make a photo like this please
tag me in it I'd love to check out your
work and if you liked this video give it
a subscribe a thumbs up drop a comment
down below and I'll see you in the next
one
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