Cheers!

This week's picture is the result of my first "How do they do that?" project.  We all see advertisements in magazines with similar images to what I've captured for this week's post but what you may not know is that it is a lot harder than it looks.  I first thought of the idea of doing this when I stumbled across someone else's attempt for their 52 week photoblog (he stopped after 12 weeks).  Once I was ready to give it a try I searched for more details on the techniques used to make the shot and came across an amazing tutorial video that you should check out if you're interested in how the pros do it.

Same setup as main shot without reflectors.

The main challenge with this type of shot is to get the whiskey to look the way you want it to, with that rich amber color that makes you want a drink right now.  This is actually achieved by placing gold reflecting cutouts behind each container to reflect the light back through the bottle to the camera lens.  Here I show what the picture looks like with no such reflective cards in place (rather boring and uninteresting) and I also have a shot where the reflectors are not placed

Reflectors offset to show what they look like.

appropriately so you can get a better idea.  You may notice that I ended up swapping out the tumbler for my final shot so the one in these "how to" pictures is slightly different.
To get the slight semi-circular glow on the background that adds depth to the picture and defines the horizon line of the table I used my SB800 speedlight.  I placed it under the table with a curve of poster board over it to try and produce the desired effect.  Not perfect but it worked.  The main illumination comes from a single flash to the right of the setup.  In order to fill in the left side of the photo, I stood on that side of the table with a gold reflector to bounce the flash back into the scene while I used a remote trigger for the camera.

Main light with black paper curtain to keep light off the background.

This is the first project for my blog that I actually bought props for.  The table is a sheet of 2' x 4' black acrylic to give the glossy reflective look necessary for this kind of shot.  The other props purchased was a bag of fake ice, a trick used often in photography.  The ice in the tumbler is actually cubes of clear acrylic.  Very realistic looking and doesn't melt while you try to get the right shot.
Some of the other challenges I faced was

Speedlight strobe for the background.

dealing with the glare on the glass from the main strobe.  I have a soft box on it with two layers of diffuser but it was still a bit too harsh.  I decided to put a polarizer on my lens to see if I could reduce the vertical line of glare on the tumbler.  It actually helped some so I kept it in place for the final shot.  Another place where glare was a problem was on the corner of the Jack Daniel's bottle. If you're familiar with a bottle like this (you know you are), it has bevelled corners.  When the bottle was square to the camera the beveled corner on the right caught the flash dead on and produced an undesirable flare.  Simply turning the bottle a few degrees took care of the problem.

Cheers!

 The last problem, which was resolved in Photoshop, was dust.  I do this stuff in my basement which, like most basements, is not dust free.  A glossy black surface with a strobe lighting it from the side shows dust very nicely.  Good thing photoshop has a dust removal filter.

So there you have it.  The next time you see an ad in a magazine for whiskey or some other liquid and it has that certain glow you'll know how its done.

Cheers!