Was playing around with this whiskey shot over the weekend and the highlight on the glass is driving me a little nuts. I'm looking for thoughts on how else to light this to avoid that really harsh highlight from the stripbox.
Was playing around with this whiskey shot over the weekend and the highlight on the glass is driving me a little nuts. I'm looking for thoughts on how else to light this to avoid that really harsh highlight from the stripbox.
One thing I like to do is double diffuse my soft boxes for bottles or reflective surfaces. I will put a layer of large tracing paper about a foot in front of my soft box. Sometimes 2 layers even. Let me know what you think if you decide to give it a whirl.
It may not be a problem with the highlight but the contrast it has with your backdrop. The edges of the glass( particularly on the left) and bottle get lost in the black space and make the reflections seem harsh. I think try out lighting your backdrop or lighting the edges of the glass before playing with those reflections.
As Scott mentioned, if you get some diffusion in front of your boxes, you get a softer highlight (see attached image). You can even control this softness with the distance of the diffusion material and the softbox (closer -> harsher). You can even place de softbox at an angle in relation to the diffusion material, one side touching the diffusion and the other side at a distance, and get this gradient reflection from harsh to soft, this helps getting some volume to your glass (see effect of the reflection on the right).
Thanks for the feedback guys and I'm going to give it another shot this weekend with your tips
Hi Tim, I don't shoot a ton of product stuff, but I saw this and it reminded me of a tutorial I saw on YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIm-SZHKOW4
He uses trace paper, and walks through his technique - definitely worth a watch (Karls amazing with lighting!)!
Thanks Ash, that was a great watch and definitely answered my question