Having never really shot still life or product shots in the past, I was eager to get in some practice. With this shoot, I'm using a north facing window as my key light. I tend to associate still life and product photography with highly controllable studio lights so was interested in how this shoot would go with ambient light only. The advantage of still life photography is the subject will only move if you move it, with ambient light, this means you can draw out your shutter speed to let in more light as the intensity of the light cannot always be controlled.

Going into this shoot I knew I wanted to rely on an interesting set and props as I would be restricted with light both due to using ambient and lack of experience. With it being autumn/winter time I thought connotations of the season would work well with warming colours of fires and and comfort and indulgence being key to the theme. I chose to photograph alcohol, characteristic with the time of year and the glass bottles would result in some lighting challenges and interest.

I began with building the set up one step at a time.

Not worrying too much about exposure at first, I arrange my primary products first and took a frame adjusting each time to try and find the best composition.

I noticed immediately that the light wasn't directly hitting the front of the bottle, the most important part of the image.

I then noticed, due the tripod i was using, a light a portable one, shooting at 1/8 second due to the lighting conditions produced camera wobble as the tripod was not steady enough. And I opted for a more heavy duty and robust tripod. Changing composition each frame and then adding decoration.

Once I was satisfied with my set design, I decided to work on exposure. I wanted a dark background and for the Jack Daniels bottle to be clear and well lit.

From the first image above you can see the background is too light and the small logo of a bee which is gold foil is over exposed. I remedied this by softening the light with a scrim which changes the exposure slightly and allows the bee to stand out without being blown out. I then make slight changes to the expose in 3rd stop increments until i achieved the desired exposure. However with a new exposure to compensate for the bee logo and make the background darker, the side of the bottle is not thrown into a dark shadow.

Adding a gold reflector, to warm the light and fitting in with the desired theme, I changed the angle until achieving the desired effect of adding shape to the bottle,filling in the shadows and, as a bonus, casting a nice warm reflection onto the copper muddler.

ISO 100    f/8     1/3    70mm — ISO 100 f/8 1/3 70mm

Here is my final image.
The light from the window is being diffused to help blown out highlights while a golden reflector is filling in shadows and giving the picture ambiance and the feel there may be a fire to sit by off to camera left.

The set dressing matches the warm colour tones and a cozy winter feel. Post processing involved toning the image given it a warmer and almost oaky feel to it. I've also darkened the background slightly with a brush adjustment underexposing a bit more and cropping to ensure a straight image.

Changing subject, I also shot a prosecco bottle scene with grapes. I wanted the same winter warming feel and tones of decadence and indulgence. I began with building the set.

I liked the final image here, however as we've not places a skrim over the window yet there are quite hard and sharp lines where the light transitions to shadow.

The bottle is also casting a shadow onto the chopping board and the light falloff from the window causes the left side of the grapes to be slightly underexposed.

You can see very obvious and clear reflections you couldn't before due to the glasswares design and both bottle and glass having a round, tapered shape.

In this image I've jumped straight to the set-up I had previously with the Jack Daniels set. I've diffused the window and added the reflector to provide a side light which casts an interesting shine on the bottle and helps with the light fall off with the grapes.

The skrim has helped someone with the reflections however you can now see the curved glass is still reflecting everything within the room.

I sort out advice from Holly on the issue, we tried experimenting with several different ways of rearranging the scrim material, doubling it up and moving it closer to and further from the window.

However, the issue remained and, though a north facing wall was used, the sun was setting and we lost light before solving the problem.

Here is what I feel is the best image of the day.

The reflections remain and I noticed a fingerprint is present on the bottle. I do overall like the image, the tone and theme fit my plan and I learned a lot about how controlling ambient light can be difficult for particularly when photographing reflective surfaces.

I posted this image on social media along with my final Jack Daniels image and received advice from Richy Leeson regarding the shadows. He suggesting placing the scrim from backdrop to camera to wrap around the glass.

I didn't have the studio time, but asked to use the studio alongside someone else and quickly was able to try this out and capture the following image the next day.

The result, after polishing the glassware, is a less distracting reflection however there wasn't enough scrim material to completely surround the set to remove all of them. By this time also, the decorations had been handled so much they look messy and uneven. However I feel if shooting this again, I would be more successful.

Here's a link to a gallery to see all the images regarding this shoot: https://adobe.ly/2ECr0OX