August 15, 2014

Behind-The-Scenes | Drake's IPA

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On a a recent business trip to San Francisco I decided to squeeze in a photo shoot. I usually shoot in my studio where I can control the lighting, but for this shoot I wanted to use available light expand my skills. So I packed my luggage with the usual stuff along with some items I would need for the shoot. I brought my Nikon D700, 28-75mm f/2.8, tripod, small light stand, reflector and a flag.

I stayed at the Hilton in Chinatown and luckily got a room with balcony. The balcony was roomy enough for the shoot and it had some interesting outdoor furniture I could use. Walls were made of concrete and the balcony divider was made of glass, as was the sliding door. All that glass will definitely cause me issues with reflections, but the walls will help bounce some light into the scene. Now that I have my location picked out and a shooting surface identified I need to get me some beer. I headed to the closest liquor store I could find and picked up a six-pack of Drake's IPA.



















The next morning I had a couple of free hours prior to my business meeting so I decided to take some test shots to see what I might be up against. First thing I noticed was the reflections in the bottle. As expected, those are going to be a problem but I can fix that during the shoot by using flags. The next thing I noticed was the backside of the label. That's a distraction I can fix by cutting off some of the label. The last thing I noticed was the stripes that are visible through the glass. The beer is light in color and the stripes will likely look a bit strange.



















Much better with a trimmed label. Luckily for me the room had a sewing kit equipped with a small pair of scissors...off to my meeting.



















After my meeting I strolled down Columbus Ave on my way to Coit Liquor. I couldn't visit San Francisco without picking up some of the areas finest brews. I also stopped by the Rogue Alehouse and enjoyed a couple of brews and some tasty tacos and headed back to my room for the shoot.

By the time I got back to my room it was early evening and the sun was fading fast. I had a couple of hours of daylight left so I need to get down to business. The direction of light had changed dramatically since my morning test shots so some rearranging was in order. Once I was happy with the composition I took a test shot to see what issues I would need to eliminate. The first issue to address is the reflection of the sky in the upper portion of the bottle.



















To remove that reflection I clamped a flag (black foamboard) to a small light stand and positioned it to the right of the bottle.


















With that reflection under control, I turned my attention to the glass. I poured enough beer into the glass to reach a predetermined spot. As expected, the gap in the wooden slats causes a strange striped pattern in the body of the beer that while interesting, is an issue I want to eliminate. What SRM is that anyway?


















To remove the stripes I placed a small white reflector (white foamboard) behind the glass. That should remove the stripe and provide a nice beer glow.



















I poured a fresh glass and took another shot. Turns out the reflector was a tad too small and didn't provide an even glow. I also noticed that some new reflections had cropped up. That's what happens when your light source keeps moving. Because of these issues my original plan of capturing this image in one shot has been derailed. I decided to capture multiple images and blend them together in a composite.



















I decided to captured the body with three shots so the beer glow has consistent tones. For the first capture I placed the reflector so I have complete coverage on the right edge on the glass. The next capture the reflector was centered behind the glass and covered most of it. The last capture the reflector was placed to cover the left edge.























































At this point I have all the captures I need for the glass of beer, so I remove it from the scene to facilitate the captures I need for the bottle. I take a test shot to see what issues I need to address. Reflections, as usual. These reflections are bouncing off the sliding glass door to the left of the bottle, a bit off the surface and the balcony divider right behind the camera. It's not all bad news, I can use the label from this shot in the final composite.



















To remove reflections I usually use black flags. Problem is I only have one and it's already being used. Time to improvise. I packed a black t-shirt that should work just fine. I place it on a hanger so it hangs somewhat flat and hand hold it to the left of frame. That took care of some of the reflections, what's left is caused by the wooden surface and the balcony divider behind the camera.



















To remove the surface reflection I placed half the t-shirt on the table and held up the other half to block the reflections from the sliding glass door. I still have more reflections to clean up from behind the camera, but I'm all out of flags and I'm not diggin' the stripes visible in the bottle anyway. I'll fix that by under exposing the shot by one stop.



















That's better. By under exposing I darkened the entire image and managed to reduce the distracting reflections and stripes in the top portion of the bottle. I'll clean up what's left in Photoshop.



















The composite is made of five captures. Three for the glass of beer and two for the bottle. Here's a screenshot of the images layered in Photoshop.



















With the composite built, there is still a little more work to do. Clone out the last of the reflections, add more texture to the head, smooth out beer tones, darken the bottle, lighten the label and add more texture to the surface to emphasize the grain.



















While the final image appears as though I just grabbed my camera and snapped a picture, you can see that it's much more involved than that. Identifying and eliminating distraction isn't easy at first, in fact it will drive you mad! But if you learn to identify and remove them your beertography will improve greatly.

Cheers!


























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