This series of images is from my advanced commercial photography final project. For the first image, I lit the bottle with my makeshift snoot, using a long paper towel roll. This created a spotlight with a shadow of the bottle on the background. I also created rim lighting by shooting two speedlights from behind frosted shower curtains on both sides of the bottle. This helped to illuminate it without leaving very harsh reflections.
My second image of the series is of the wine being poured into a glass, with the bottle visible in the background. This one was the most fun to shoot! My key light is behind and to the right of the glass, shooting between the gray background mat board and a black foam core board as a flag. I lit it this way to focus the light on the glass and create shadowing in front and behind it. The light spilled a little bit onto the background, which made a soft gradient from gray to black. My second light is to the left, diffused by a small soft box to illuminate the bottle and the wine being poured, and to accentuate the shape of the glass. My dad stepped in as my assistant to pour the wine! I wasn’t expecting the wine to get so bubbly, but I think it adds some more life to the photo along with the tiny droplets you can see jumping out of the glass and onto the wooden surface.
The final photo of the charcuterie board was the most complicated and most time consuming. My key light is a large soft box angled down directly over the items for soft, even lighting. I used the small soft box as a rim light to the left again as well. I created some fake window lighting with a shadow board I purchased from V Flat World to make it look like a nice evening at home for two.
