It's been over a year since Profoto interviewed Martin Wonnacott about his amazing beverage photography. Now the man dubbed "the master of liquids" has released a behind the scenes video of his work for us all to drool over and try to dissect. There isn't anything to guide you through it either, just press pause a lot. Martin definitely knows how to make a beverage look it's best and although there is certainly a fair bit of retouching in the final shots this is a guy that gets it right in the camera first. A few things to keep in mind if you go to experiment with creating images like these. You'll want to use a polarizer to help handle your reflections as well as fill cards, they are your friends. Keep your lighting simple and remember that ice is much easier to control when it's fake. Go out and buy some acrylic ice. It's cheap, comes in all sorts of nifty shapes...and your life will be much easier.
Thanks to Martin Wonnacott for putting this out there for us. I'm changing your nickname from "master of liquids" to "Poseidon."
You can check out the original interview on ProFoto's blog.
Also be sure to take a look at his website for more amazing images.
Via ISO1200
Wow, these images are so atmospheric for such simple object.
Nice, but they didn't show us the making of the 'pouring picture'... which I think is the most challenging one to make.
Yeah i was a bit disappointed with that as well, but with the extensive use of boom arms for supporting the bottles you can get a bit of a feel for how it was done.
That's exactly what I was thinking. Though it's safe to bet it was a composite.
Really nice, you can take a lot out of this video for shooting reflective products. Looking to get more into product and food photography so this is fantastic! Thanks for the post David.
Nice vid. The company that used to do all Jameson photography was based in Dublin. Unfortunately they went bust about four years ago. The advertising industry here has been dying a slow death since the beginning of the recession.