Exercise 4.2: Artificial Light – Whisky Bottle

Brief

Capture ‘the beauty of artificial light’ in a short sequence of shots (‘beauty’ is, of course, a subjective term). The correct white balance setting will be important; this can get tricky – but interesting – if there are mixed light sources of different colour temperatures in the same shot. You can shoot indoors or outside and the light can be ambient or handheld flash. 

Add the sequence to your learning log. In your notes try to describe the difference in the quality of light from the daylight shots in Exercise 4.1. 

Thought Process

Artificial light, especially controlled light, is something that I haven’t had much of a chance to work with earlier and have always wanted to be able to understand, experiment and explore it. Hence, my approach to this exercise is a bit different as am choosing controlled studio lighting to be the central theme for my final assignment and I need all the practice in it. Therefore, instead of photographing artificial light simply, that I have attempted several times earlier as well as in FiP, which can be found here and here, I am concentrating towards learning of complex lighting set-ups for this exercise, that will be added learning for me to be used as a stepping stone towards my final assignment.

Ideation

For a while now, I have been wanting to do a coffee table book for a friend who is a collector of rare whiskies. I had also contemplated shooting that for Assignment two-Collecting as well, but my extremely limited knowledge about controlled lighting at that time restricted my ambition to do so. Looking for a difficult product to shoot in order for me to understand complex lighting arrangements, I decided that whisky bottles would just be perfect for this exercise. Eventually, I will also be taking this further with portraits, so this was an ideal product choice for the moment.

With that in mind, I have chosen to photograph whisky as a product with the usage of a single and a multiple light set-up for this exercise.

Inspiration

While looking for some tips and tricks for how to photograph a whisky bottle successfully, I stumbled upon a tutorial by Karl Taylor, a professional advertising, beauty and fashion photographer with over 25 years of experience. His exquisite control of light and attention to detail has made him an industry expert and he is a global ambassador for Hasselblad and Broncolor lighting solutions. When I pressed to go on to that tutorial it took me to his education website, which is by far the best I have learnt from anyone. His ability to clearly explain complex subjects and step-by-step lighting set-ups combined with his unique teaching methodology, has led him to training and teaching at top universities and education providers worldwide. Wow! His tutorials about the whisky bottle shoot were sources of tremendous learning for me and even if I could achieve half of what he had explained so thoroughly, it would be so worthwhile.

Karl Taylor, thus, became my main source of inspiration and learning for the remainder of this section. I have seen and learnt tremendously from his vast range of tutorials including all kinds of lights, studio photography and portraits set-up tutorials. I attribute all my success with lighting in this completely to him.

Approach

It has been a conscious attempt on my part to begin with a simple one-light set-up and then move on to a more complex set-up with multiple lights to firstly understand lighting techniques step-by-step and secondly to eventually reach the outcome that I want to in the final product set-up. Next I want to do a comparison between the first and the second set-up to understand how shaping and modifying lighting can significantly alter the outcome, by juxtaposing two similar products and understanding what a simple one-light setup and a more complex one can do to alter a product’s look.

One-light set-up

Exif Info:

• Camera– Nikon D6
• Lens- ZEISS Otus 55mm f/1.4 ZF manual Focus Lens
• ISO 100
• Manual Mode
• Temperature- 5500
• Exposure – Normal
• f/8
• 1/125s

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Techniques & Lighting set-up

The product was illuminated with a 1×3′ strip soft box placed quite close to the object from the camera- left, lighting up the front and the left side of the bottle. The first image above was a single light set-up that looked something like this. No additional light source or reflector was used for this. A black card has been used here to cut the light out from spilling on to the backdrop that I consciously wanted to keep dark.

One-light set-up with golden acrylic mirror reflector

The bottles in the images above are dark and not completely transparent. So for the second set-up I have taken a transparent whisky bottle with a hint of another colour in it so I can bring out two colours of the opposite spectrum- warm colours of the liquid along with the blue thick glass at the bottom of the bottle. Still keeping a single light set-up I have re-attempted it but this time around I have used a golden acrylic reflective mirror on the camera-left for bouncing some light on to the right edge of the bottle to add a vertical highlight there.

Exif Info:

• Camera– Nikon D6
• Lens- ZEISS Otus 55mm f/1.4 ZF manual Focus Lens
• ISO 100
• Manual Mode
• Temperature- 5500
• Exposure – Normal
• f/8
• 1/125s

Techniques & Lighting set-up

The product was illuminated with a 1×3′ strip soft box placed quite close to the object from the camera- left lighting up the front and the left of the bottle. A small golden coloured acrylic mirror reflector was placed on the opposite side, the camera right, to allow the light off the soft box to bounce and light up the right edge of the bottle. The set-up looked like this. Again, the black cut-out has been used here avoid the light from spilling on to the backdrop that I wanted to consciously keep dark.

Two-light set-up

Next, I wanted to further bring out the yellow warm tones of the colour of the alcohol out in the picture and to maybe add a prop. In the next set-up I brought in another light source that would add more light into the image than the reflector did.

Exif Info:

• Camera– Nikon D6
• Lens- ZEISS Otus 55mm f/1.4 ZF manual Focus Lens
• ISO 100
• Manual Mode
• Temperature- 5500
• Exposure – Normal
• f/7.1
• 1/125s

Techniques & Lighting set-up

The two-light set-up looks something like this. A grid has been added to both the lights so as to not allow the light to spill off upon the background, keeping it dark. A golden card paper has been cut out and kept behind the whisky bottle and the glass to bring out the colours in this set-up as well as the golden reflective mirror to bounce off some light at the back of the bottle.

Three-light set-up

The last of the set-up in this series is to light up the background as well. To do that, I have added a background light that is placed below on the ground behind the bar-top, that is throwing light upwards on the blinds. This light has a warm amber coloured gel that is placed in front of it to add a warm yellow glow to the light. So this is a three-light set-up along with a golden reflector for added reflections.

Exif Info:

• Camera– Nikon D6
• Lens- ZEISS Otus 55mm f/1.4 ZF manual Focus Lens
• ISO 100
• Manual Mode
• Temperature- 5500
• Exposure – Normal
• f/8
• 1/125s

Below are the same set-up images with different whisky bottles to understand how different labels, different colours and surfaces react to light. The lighting set-up is the same but for the fact that they have been moved or tweaked a bit to allow for the different sizes, materials and reflections desired on the surface of the bottle.

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Techniques & Lighting set-up

I have shot different types of bottles with different materials used in labels, reflective and non-reflective both, and have experimented with subtle movement of the lights and reflectors around to bring out the true colours in every image. The set-up is the similar but the lights have been moved around slightly in each image to add refections where desired or in order to correctly expose each kind of bottle. The lighting set-up in this is closest to what I had wanted to achieve, with a nice warmly-lit backdrop, lights from both sides adding highlights on either side of the product as well as bringing out the warm tones of the liquid inside. The basic set-up looks like this.

Comparative Study

To conclude, I would like to present two sets of images of the same bottle to compare what they look like with a single and multiple-light set-up. Neither one is right or wrong but it simply presents two totally different looks that one can achieve with different lighting set-ups.

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Difference in the quality of light from the daylight shots in Exercise 4.1.  – PART 1 & 2

• There is definitely a difference in the look, feel and the mood of the images compared to the ones shot in natural daylight and artificial light. Whereas the natural light seems luminous, with even and subtle tonalities being a significant quality about them, the artificial lights do appear to be more starker in comparison to the natural light ones.
• The natural light seems more inclusive, allowing an atmospheric feel to the images whereas the controlled lighting appears to be more strict and controlled, lighting up the product as desired.
• The daylight shots have an abundant light source that allows the entire frame or the scene to light up whereas the controlled light looks exactly like it does – artificial.
• A very significant aspect of natural light is that it changes, constantly. From the morning blue light to the warm glow of the early morning light, the harsh highlights of a noon light and gradually fading to a warm glow during the evening time, that can be seen in the 2 part of the daylight exercise, portraits, where one can clearly see the changing light as I take portraits through the day. On the other hand, with artificial light, it remains constant.
• Natural light, depending on the time, weather or location, can produce differing colours and contrast in the resulting image whereas artificial light has no such characteristics – it is a ceaseless light source available at any time of the day and remains constant and unchanged.
• Natural light is easy and simple to shoot with whereas artificial, especially controlled light tends to get a bit more complex during set-up.

Reflections

The learnings were immense and the results extremely satisfying creatively, even though the set-up was complex especially towards the end with multiple lights set-up. The learnings of understanding light from this exercise will definitely help me in the next exercise that I am going to use as a preparatory exercise for my final assignment.

By no means, this is the end result. I am inspired by the results and this is going to be an ongoing project that will carry on to include other colour bottles, settings and locations, props and most importantly different techniques and lighting set-ups over the next year where I will continue to photograph this vast collection of rare whiskies, to be ultimately translated into a collector’s edition coffee table book.

References

Taylor, K. (2020) Karl Taylor. At: https://karltaylor.com/ (Accessed 20/09/2020).

Taylor, K. (2020) The Photography Course Community| Karl Taylor Education. At: https://www.karltayloreducation.com/ (Accessed 20/09/2020).

Taylor, K. (2020) Live Workshop – Whisky Photography | Karl Taylor Education. At: https://www.karltayloreducation.com/class/live-whisky-photography-advertising-shoot/ c

Taylor, K. (2020) Whisky Product Shoot| Karl Taylor Education. At: https://www.karltayloreducation.com/class/whisky-product-shoot/ (Accessed 01/10/2020).