Well thats what we used to call them ... Product photography ... 'mockeries'. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing more satisfying than producing a mock up for a product and it looks fantabulous.
However there is a price to pay, if you are lucky enough to get the job of photographing and mocking up an alcohol product, say a bottle of wine. Look out - you are in for a day of hell. Lets just say that it would be far easier to shoot a mirror. A wine bottle reflects everything it sees for 180 degrees. Ever tried to retouch a tripod leg out of a curved bottle.
This is a game of patience, every light, every highlight is captured and shown in its distorted magnificence. I've tried shooting down a black velvet tunnel, i have tried shooting in full blown sunlight. It's a game of trial and error and most especially small movements - turn, tilt, twitch the bottle - same with the light. Aaaagh.
Every time I touch the bottle I leave a fingerprint, so if I clean the bottle - it moves so somewhere a long the line I learnt to shoot with white gloves on. Because at the beginning of this process I had to clean the bottles with proof alcohol. You also better believe when I say that I had to thin down these variants with water to depict a variance in the liquid colour. Patience - remember. Did you know even in a vacuum-less clean environment - dust particles stick and cling to glass, let alone outside.
If you look at the hazelnut flavoured Liqueur in the pic above - on the right hand side is a reflection of my house. He he. Yip I shot each one of these bottles individually - without labels in the middle of the day. I DIY'd a tilt table and had my tripod tied up and down. All I wanted was simple lines of light. Then individually added the labels - I had the approved artwork that was sent to the printers and incorporated it all in Photoshop CS6, with back up from Illustrator Acrobat and Bridge.
I do remember shooting Whisk(e)y. We had to use various strengths of tea as it gave a better colour and of course spillage was a big problem. Ehhem.
When I finally handed these images - (individual variants as well) over to the client they very kindly invited me up to the Brewery / Distillery for a meal. Well who can refuse that.
Of course I had to photograph it, because look at it. Amazing. Now the cool thing is that everything on this platter is locally sourced. On the left is the smoked mozzarella if posted about already. The meats are smoked out back on a farm about 30km away. The olives and pickled sides are also from a local back yard. Homemade breads and sauces. Look at it - it fills the table. If I remember correctly this fed me for a couple of days. Major doggy-bag.
The beers, well that is going to have to be another post because that was actually what this place was famous for. Cheers!
