Wine & Cheese

Another shot I did for the stock library, the great thing about these shots is you can enjoy consuming the props afterwards.

I spent a long time getting the lights placed just right for this shot, I knew exactly where I wanted the highlights to be on the glasses and just kept moving the light until I got what I wanted. In an ideal world you would use what is called a 'swimming pool' for this shot which is a huge diffuser about four feet tall with two flash heads in it. This would give a nice even highlight all the way down the glass and the bottle. Unfortunately I only have small flash heads with umbrellas so I have to work harder to get things right.

The shot was lit with two lights, one to the right beside the camera giving a diffused front 'fill in' light and one to the left of the camera behind the subject giving a key light. It is important to get the balance between these two lights right. This is done by moving them closer or further away. See the inverse square law tutorial for a more detailed explanation.

Incidentally this shot was turned down by one stock library because you can see 'corporate branding' in the picture. A prize to anyone who can tell me what brand of wine this is.

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