Namacho Sake
Product shot....I was going for minimalist but strking. C&C welcome-
More Posts in: Product Photography
Charles Mercier
German contemporary art museum
Just a few shots - not of the art but the building interior!
2
Last: Aug 03, 2026
Bartek M. Wojtkunski
Snowfall, Leon
A stone shepherd's cabin with an orange roof beside a high-altitude lake in the province of Leon during an unexpected late spring snowfall.
2
Last: Aug 03, 2026
Dean Wilson
The Sun and the Moon: Edited to add last photo
I wanted to see how my 50 year old Canon FD 800mm f/5.6 s.s.c. would handle photographing both the Sun and the Moon.
1 - Revealing sunspots. (Square cropped)
5
Last: Aug 02, 2026
Hector Reyes
Sterling in silhouette
I held a lighting workshop recently. Sterling was the model. I rarely shoot silhouettes but I wanted to incorporate that arch into a shot. Backlighting became an obvious choice.
4 Comments
Hi Thadd,
This is a pretty good image. I think there are some refinements that could take it up a tick. I think it is important to identify weather your light for an image is Narrative or not. If it is purely to look cool on the subject, or tell a story. In this case the background light seems a bit like a stage light. Thats fine, but if thats what you are going for I might throw a bit more of a kicker from the angle of the blue spot to motivate it.
Additionally, the composition makes it seem like it was designed for copy/text on the image, but since you are posting as a stand alone product shot, I might re consider having more or less negative space. also, lowering the camera angle a bit, might make the bottle feel a touch more heroic. Imagine the bottle being a high power ceo or something, You likely would shoot up at her/him to make them seem a bit more important.
The quality of light on the bottle is pretty good, but the logo, needs to be clipped out and adjusted so it isn't quite as washed out by the reflection, and I think you could put a spot of light on the top logo to make it stand out a bit.
Keep working at it. The bones are here, but when you do a minimalist photograph, the smallest details matter that much more.
Here are some people you could look at to emulate.
http://www.norimichi.com/overview/66jxex1onpxgxxz42d0ycmtq7pnmtl
https://www.schafrick.com/
Carlton-
Thank you for your comments! Very helpful to get other viewpoints, and advice on issues I'd not considered..
One thing I always struggle with is getting a light on the label. It always creates an unwanted reflection . Is editing in post the solution? Anyone got a suggestion or two?
Hey Thadd,
On a bottle like this, it may require some unwanted post. There are a couple of Robb Grimm tutorials that deal with this issue. One on beer and one where he photographs a sanpalegrino. The easiest way without special equipment would be to use a hard light from up high so that the reflection doesn't show up. Maybe try a snoot w/grid. Rob uses a varispot from vistec. He also uses a polarizing gel in combination with a linear polarizing filter on another image.
Excellent! Good direction to pursue!