It can take a lot of time and effort to set up studio lighting to achieve the exact wine bottle specular highlights or reflections you desire. However, Photoshop makes it easy to add highlights in post. So, tip #2 includes:
- Take multiple photos of the wine bottle; expose fthe glass, for the label and for the cap.
- Combine the properly exposed parts of the bottle in post using Photoshop
However when doing this, getting the light reflections correct can become complicated. Therefore, illuminate the parts of the bottle evenly, from the front. Note that you will always have some reflection in the glass, but they can be removed in post. Then, just add the highlights using Photoshop! This method yields multiple benefits:
- Easy to change lighting direction when adding bottle image to other schemes.
- Any lighting modification can be done without having to re-photograph the wine bottle image.
- Lighting / highlights can be exactly replicated between bottles within one photography session and also from session to session.
So the workflow follows:
- Take separate images of each part of your wine bottle subject
- Use Photoshop to combine the parts into a properly exposed whole
- Remove any reflections and dust from the glass
- Add speculation highlights using Photoshop.
Note: future blog entries will cover methods of adding highlights in post. So, please check back often. Also, if you have any thoughts or ideas, please include in the comments.
