Perfume Bottle

One of the continuous struggles to make an image. One of my wife's perfume bottle. Shot as is. No photoshopping whatsoever.

Perfume Bottle 2


Sweetened with candy colors. Again no photoshopping. Picture displayed as shot.

Prateek,

A great topic. Two variants go best together so I merged your two threads.

Prateek,

I think you got it right the first time.
However, I am a little distracted by the odd tilt of the perfume inside the bottle.

One of the continuous struggles to make an image. One of my wife's perfume bottle. Shot as is. No photoshopping whatsoever.[/QUOTE]

Prateek Dubey said:

Perfume Bottle : Prateek Dubey​

Prateek,

I, too, prefer this first image. Elegance! Unlike the second image, this photograph seems to be "genuine". It relies on the essence of the objects, not the added lighting which simply seems, well, "added"!

To the question of the level I'd like to add your decision to cut off the shadow on the left. Why make a great shadow and then not use it fully?

Asher

Click to expand...

How do you like this one?

Joachim Bolte said:

How do you like this one?

Click to expand...

Joey,

Yours seems much bolder, better defined and dimensional. Yes, that's true. Still, isn't there there supposed to be magic and mystery about the ways of women. The softer focus seems to work best. Although sometimes the bottles are like crystal. Also one has to beware the colors further accentuating the already yellowish-brown hue, as that, IMHO, gets the glass to be more fitting with an old stlye lantern.

Asher

Prateek Dubey said:

Perfume Bottle : Prateek Dubey​

One of the continuous struggles to make an image. One of my wife's perfume bottle. Shot as is. No photoshopping whatsoever.

Click to expand...

Pateek,

I guess I can only add that I would like to see more of the shadow - mabye re done in landscape? Nice bottle - i think the lighting is fine... Dont you love struggles !

cheers

The image is a bit noisy, so you'll have to excuse the noise. With a higher resolution image, you might be able to eliminate the noise more readily.

I just threw some curves at your picture. It's not for everyone's taste.

Kevin Stecyk said:

The image is a bit noisy, so you'll have to excuse the noise. With a higher resolution image, you might be able to eliminate the noise more readily.

I just threw some curves at your picture. It's not for everyone's taste.

Click to expand...

Hi Kevin,

You go for bold colors! Perhaps this is built into our genes as a lot of apes only get signals to mate when the females bottom gets colors like this in the ripe part of their estrous cycle. The picture's value is no longer not centered around the bottle, rather the bold color bands descending from left to right. Not the most "up" signal one could give the world! The stopper is a stationary object that has no indication to the eye that it would ever even dare to move. The lines do suggest movement and the stopper ends that nicely.

The bottle now becomes an extra, the least important part of the composition. Certainly your design is impactful, but it has nothing in common with the ethereal original. The latter suggests the mystery of a woman's delicate and yet alluring charm.

BTW, my wife did really admire your creation, and even the dark matt, so you have one fan at least, LOL!

I like the original two; good bokeh, nice lighting. Don't change a thing.

Rachel Foster said:

I like the original two; good bokeh, nice lighting. Don't change a thing.

Click to expand...

Really Rachel? You wouldn't change a thing? That's a pretty definitive idea. It can't be improved or it can't be helped or it's perfect?

Winston Mitchell said:

Prateek,

I think you got it right the first time.
However, I am a little distracted by the odd tilt of the perfume inside the bottle.

Click to expand...

The tilt is mystifying me. The bottom and top are aligned, yet the liquid is tending to fall on the right. I think the bottle is not horizontal and I composed according to the bottom level and that left the liquid tending to itself.

Joachim Bolte said:

How do you like this one?

Click to expand...

Thank you Joachim. Yes the warmth is adding a desirable dimension, however I would prefer the colder bottom part. So leaving the top as you processed and the pink at the bottom as in the original. But the whole idea is to reach an image as close to desirable whilst shooting.

Asher Kelman said:

Joey,

Yours seems much bolder, better defined and dimensional. Yes, that's true. Still, isn't there there supposed to be magic and mystery about the ways of women. The softer focus seems to work best. Although sometimes the bottles are like crystal. Also one has to beware the colors further accentuating the already yellowish-brown hue, as that, IMHO, gets the glass to be more fitting with an old stlye lantern.

Asher

Click to expand...

Asher,
My Guru, your interpretation is as usual very informative. I've done nothing to this picture, so that I get to know, what to do with it later. There are some challenges which need to be overcome on my part. For that I need a process of understanding from you.

1.) How does one establish a relationship with the object? Especially on a commercial job. Does one go about instinctively despite being guided by the rest of the art direction team.

2) How the hell does one keep an object like this devoid of finger prints, lint and dust. I was extremely exsperated to see 100% pixel level.

3) How does one achieve a commercially acceptable finish to a picture? Does it entail appropriate noise reduction and then sharpening.?

4) What about presentation?

5) How should one approach specular highlights. Are they considered distracting? Especially for a subject like this.

6) Lastly, must it look like a 'photograph' or just an impression of an object lying about in a perfect world.

Relating to the Subject in Photography

Prateek Dubey said:

Asher,
My Guru, your interpretation is as usual very informative. I've done nothing to this picture, so that I get to know, what to do with it later. There are some challenges which need to be overcome on my part. For that I need a process of understanding from you.

1.) How does one establish a relationship with the object? Especially on a commercial job. Does one go about instinctively despite being guided by the rest of the art direction team.

Click to expand...

Prateek,

If anything, I'm the unguru, LOL! Let me first of all, for now, address just the first question. The rest might be much easier to resolve with this first question of "relating to the subject" understood.

My commercial skills are limited to photographing portraits, artists, performance and spaces. I do not often shoot objects except for my own amusement! My son does and I do work with him. For that we use a light tent of white material and have a number of lights on the outside illuminating everything as the starting point. From that point, one can add tiny spot lights, color gels, silver or gold reflecting material to build the light you want.

To the best of my knowledge, a PR/marketing company would come up with sketches from their artists of how the product should look and then you have to bring that to life in your lighting. If I was going to do this on my own, I'd want to know what the client needed for their own look. What the objects function was, what the tastes of their client base is and so on, to develop a magnetic "look" that would be fitting.

I believe one has to imagine who are the people that one is appealing to and what would fascinate them and make them desire the product. I'd ask the client for names of all the competing products of that class and study how artists represented these in pictures for their own marketing.

Frankly, I think it might be akin to selecting a husband, (if one could do that) for the daughter of a great man. What assumptions could one make? Few really. One would have to study the individual's needs and tastes. That's what photography in a commercial or PR sector must do!

Prateek Dubey said:

The tilt is mystifying me. The bottom and top are aligned, yet the liquid is tending to fall on the right. I think the bottle is not horizontal and I composed according to the bottom level and that left the liquid tending to itself.

Click to expand...

Is it a round bottle, or is it triangular? There could be some perspective effect going on here. Especially when you look at the right side, the fluid seems to 'break' there.

Prateek Dubey said:

...the whole idea is to reach an image as close to desirable whilst shooting.

Click to expand...

I understand. Maybe to get this warm top-side effect while shooting, you coul put a light with a yellow filter in front, lower than your camera or about the same height, lighting it from the front a bit.

The colors you see ARE in the image already, they are just enhanced.

I'm just a hobbyist, but my 2 cents on your questions (if you care for them)

1.) How does one establish a relationship with the object? Especially on a commercial job. Does one go about instinctively despite being guided by the rest of the art direction team.
Maybe by keeping in mind the target group the product is for: For instance, is this perfume for older or younger women? Is it for women of a certain 'class' of people? I think you should try to make the picture as attractive as possible for this target group.

2) How the hell does one keep an object like this devoid of finger prints, lint and dust. I was extremely exsperated to see 100% pixel level.
good one... I suspect it begins with dustgloves and a blow-gun...

3) How does one achieve a commercially acceptable finish to a picture? Does it entail appropriate noise reduction and then sharpening.?
wouldn't know, my experience does not reach there. But you should keep in mind the final output medium. If you print postersize you need other methods than printing glossy magazines.

4) What about presentation?
see point 1.

5) How should one approach specular highlights. Are they considered distracting? Especially for a subject like this.
I think the big one you have is quite harsh now. Could work if you aim for a harsh look, but for a soft look you could maybe use another lighting setup like a softbox or an array of tubes. You could even try a filter that turns your highlights into stars, if you cared for that.

6) Lastly, must it look like a 'photograph' or just an impression of an object lying about in a perfect world.
Depends on what you want the world to see.

Asher Kelman said:

You go for bold colors! Perhaps this is built into our genes as a lot of apes only get signals to mate when the females bottom gets colors like this in the ripe part of their estrous cycle. The picture's value is no longer not centered around the bottle, rather the bold color bands descending from left to right. Not the most "up" signal one could give the world! The stopper is a stationary object that has no indication to the eye that it would ever even dare to move. The lines do suggest movement and the stopper ends that nicely.

The bottle now becomes an extra, the least important part of the composition. Certainly your design is impactful, but it has nothing in common with the ethereal original. The latter suggests the mystery of a woman's delicate and yet alluring charm.

BTW, my wife did really admire your creation, and even the dark matt, so you have one fan at least, LOL!

Click to expand...

I respectfully disagree with your comment that the bottle becomes an extra, the least important part of the composition. It is the composition.

In the original photograph, the bottle and colors are subdued. They are submissive.

In my bold version, the bottle and colors have become assertive. This is meant to appeal to a strong woman who defines her own world.

Perhaps, I'll try my hand at a more subtle version. Just to show you that I am capable.

Nope. I wouldn't change a thing. I liked it as presented.

How's this Asher? More to your liking?

Kevin Stecyk said:

How's this Asher? More to your liking?

Click to expand...

Kevin,

It just has to please you and then if it's commercial, the guys who need it! I do like the two together like this as it shows some sort of maturation. However, what bold vertical text in gold and sliver would bind the two by an idea I can't yet guess. So either alone or with words this is now interesting.

Asher

Joachim Bolte said:

I understand. Maybe to get this warm top-side effect while shooting, you coul put a light with a yellow filter in front, lower than your camera or about the same height, lighting it from the front a bit.

The colors you see ARE in the image already, they are just enhanced.

Click to expand...

Wow, Joachim, I could not imagine all this before the shoot. Now with all your wonderful inputs, a new world seems to be emerging. Thank you all.

Joachim Bolte said:

I'm just a hobbyist, but my 2 cents on your questions (if you care for them)

1.) How does one establish a relationship with the object? Especially on a commercial job. Does one go about instinctively despite being guided by the rest of the art direction team.
Maybe by keeping in mind the target group the product is for: For instance, is this perfume for older or younger women? Is it for women of a certain 'class' of people? I think you should try to make the picture as attractive as possible for this target group.

2) How the hell does one keep an object like this devoid of finger prints, lint and dust. I was extremely exsperated to see 100% pixel level.
good one... I suspect it begins with dustgloves and a blow-gun...

3) How does one achieve a commercially acceptable finish to a picture? Does it entail appropriate noise reduction and then sharpening.?
wouldn't know, my experience does not reach there. But you should keep in mind the final output medium. If you print postersize you need other methods than printing glossy magazines.

4) What about presentation?
see point 1.

5) How should one approach specular highlights. Are they considered distracting? Especially for a subject like this.
I think the big one you have is quite harsh now. Could work if you aim for a harsh look, but for a soft look you could maybe use another lighting setup like a softbox or an array of tubes. You could even try a filter that turns your highlights into stars, if you cared for that.

6) Lastly, must it look like a 'photograph' or just an impression of an object lying about in a perfect world.
Depends on what you want the world to see.

Click to expand...

Well your points of view are more than that of a hobbyist. And definitely more than two cents for me. Gloves and an air bulb apart, it seems that the world is a very very demanding place. How we approach to present our skills and attitude will determine how they accept us. If we're careful, then they'll heed.

In one of the other threads it was already said: You don't merely take a picture, you try to tell (and sell) a story.

What that story will be, and how you tell it, you'll have to decide.

did a little more work on it, to make it a bit 'softer'. It's an edit of my former edit, so resaved JPG. If there's artefacting, we know why...

Joachim Bolte said:

did a little more work on it, to make it a bit 'softer'. It's an edit of my former edit, so resaved JPG. If there's artefacting, we know why...

Click to expand...

That's a lot of ideas. Thank you all.

Prateek,

Let me bring up the level of the fluid once more. Why is it angled? Can we consider either repairing that or else using it to advantage by tilting the image itself. At the same time, why not repair the shadow?

Also, some questions are lingering here as to the role of the image in the first place. Is it to build a portfolio to enable you to

1. Get jobs photographing like product?
   
   
2. Just have fun? That one of the best reasons I know!
   
   
3. Develop an artistic theme?
   

Asher

Hello Asher,
I think the fluid is level but the rest of the image is not. I adjusted the camera angle compensating for the bottom, forgetting the level of the liquid.

At this point I'm trying to get into a habit of understanding objects with regards to their contexts and their commercial selling points. Thus using photography to create a commercial image and later put it into my 'commercial' portfolio.

This is a very deliberate effort to be a 'different' person. So far in all my endeavours I've simply enjoyed the experience of doing things unmindful of the need to make it commercially viable. So even in business, with everything sold before getting completed, I ran into some major losses. My buyers still call me, lamenting the fact that I shut it down.

Now, I wish to 'sell', my photography, my paintings etc.

I know, I know, I'm trying too hard, but the age of innocence is over.