How to Add Splashes to Your Product Photography With Exposure Blending

Depending on your project or assignment, commercial photography can allow for some creativity to be added to the photo. Creating splashing in the background or even having the splashes hit the product or subject can be one way to add some interesting factors to the shot. How would you set up the shot?

Getting the lighting and the splash exactly the way you want it can be done in one shot, but requires more lighting gear and some luck for the splash. Another way that may be more practical for many photographers with limited gear is to merge multiple exposures into one final shot. Not sure how to set it all up or even merge the photos together? In this video coming from Workphlo, Dustin Dolby shows his complete process from setup to post-processing and how he uses blending modes to merge the multiple exposures together.

Above is a shot of the bottle with the splash and another shot of the bottle where the front label is targeted with the flash to superimpose in post.

There are multiple ways to merge multiple photos together, but using the method shown in Dolby’s process allows for a less precise masking. Which method do you use to merge multiple exposures together?

Images used with permission of Dustin Dolby.

Alex Ventura's picture

Staff writer Alex Ventura is a professional photographer based out of the Houston area that specializes in automotive and glamour with the occasional adventures into other genres. He regularly covers automotive related events for Houston Streets & Spekture with some publications in the United States.

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1 Comment

Do I see a reflection of the serial number in the reflection? The number is blurred, but I see a distinct tone difference in the reflection where it should be.