Critique Vino Noir

[CraigDHD]

Inspired by all the recent bottle and glass threads and after watching a couple of Karl Taylor videos on lighting black on black I've had an idea for a red wine product shot for a wee while. Had the lights out for some portraits today so spent 20mins at the end trying to test light. I plan to redo this later but thought I'd throw up this first attempt for c&c to see if I can get some tips before I reshoot when I have more time.

Vino Noir by Craig Dawson, on Flickr

It's a composite of three shots using reflectors to fill in the label and neck, text for fun.

 

[Mondo74]

Great shot. If I had to be picky I think the base is just a little lost but that is being picky!!

 

[cargo]

Hi Craig. I really wish I knew enough to give crit. I see youve got those really diffused highlights that you were trying to teach me about.
If a bottle could look sexy i'd say this was one such bottle

Mind you if this is just a test photo it will be great to see a final image.

Like the text too.

Gaz

 

[sirch]

Complete noob to lighting so I can't critique but the way you have defined the black bottle against a black background is IMHO excellent, all the details, the cap, the label the edges are there. The text is a bit in-your-face for me but I don't know what the brief was.

 

[CraigDHD]

Thanks guys, sounds like I'm hopefully on the right track with it.

Great shot. If I had to be picky I think the base is just a little lost but that is being picky!!

Cheers Ray, yeah the bottom of the bottle is definitely something I need to find a solution to. I don't mind it going to black as much as I thought it would as the reflection I think kinda anchors it but it's wasn't a deliberate choice. I need to find some way to elevate the whole shot though I think if I want to get light all the way round but then I suspect that will give me a reflection of the light on the background may need to cheat and do some kind of composite to get the bottom lit in the short term but definitely something I want to work out. If anyone has any tips for this I'm happy to accept all advice I can.

Hi Craig. I really wish I knew enough to give crit. I see youve got those really diffused highlights that you were trying to teach me about.
If a bottle could look sexy i'd say this was one such bottle

Mind you if this is just a test photo it will be great to see a final image.

Like the text too.

Gaz

Happy for anyone to give crit but you're definitely qualified Gaz, your stuff is getting awesome. Yeah using the Karl Taylor side light technique I showed you, it's not quite as smooth as I wanted, this had a bit of a retouch with the brush tool to clean up the reflection, but it's getting there. This was a really quick setup and I didn't have much space so hopefully can get it cleaner though I suspect my 60x60 softbox isn't really big enough for this.

Complete noob to lighting so I can't critique but the way you have defined the black bottle against a black background is IMHO excellent, all the details, the cap, the label the edges are there. The text is a bit in-your-face for me but I don't know what the brief was.

Thanks Chris no brief here. just me playing and learning but yeah the text is definitely a bit cheesy to say the least, I plan to have a couple of wine glasses in the final but just wanted something to fill space and it's always fun having a play with new tools in photoshop.