Sancerre: White wine being poured into a glass

[Mike Buckley]

Now that I have concluded my experiment of making a photo of white wine in a glass displayed with a dark background, I decided to make this photo of the wine being poured. The translucent characteristic of the wine is really easy to convey any time bubbles are present throughout the wine. That's because the black background conveys that we are "seeing through" the wine. That translucent characteristic is not nearly so easy to convey when there are no bubbles, as my previous experiment proved.

One advantage of making a photo of wine being poured into the glass, rather than a photo of wine that has already been poured or a photo of an empty glass, is that the viewer has no doubt about which parts of the rim are the near and far parts.

Sancerre is a wine region in France. White wine with that wine region named on the label is always 100% Sauvignon Blanc.

Setup
A speed light is shining from behind the subject through a large circular diffuser and around a background of black felt toward the subject and camera. Another speed light placed to the right side of the camera lights only the foil on the wine bottle because it is fitted with a flag from the Spinlight 360 system. A black card with a rectangular hole is placed immediately in front of the camera to eliminate flare. The tabletop is clear glass.

[Loose Canon]

Now that's the ticket Mike!

Very nice!

[KimC]

That's the white wine I was visualizing! :-)

[mknittle]

I would have to say this is my favorite to date. Super nice Mike

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, folks!

To be clear, the most difficult part of making this photo was ensuring in nearly total darkness that the entire name, Sancerre, was displayed on the bottle of wine. The second most difficult part, I kid you not, was ensuring that all of the wine went inside the glass. Yes, my makeshift sutdio was that dark by design. One time I missed!

[Loose Canon]

Why work in the dark?

You should be able to have at least a little bit of "room light" working with speed lights.

[Mike Buckley]

Why work in the dark?

The total working space is so small -- 6 x 9 feet -- and packed full of lots of objects on the perimeter walls and in the ceiling, that my chosen way to prevent unwanted reflections in the glass is to create essentially a black tent that is only 4 x 6 x 6 feet. I can't use the more typical technique of lighting the subject and letting the light from the light sources fall off in the distance. There's not enough distance to allow that to happen without producing the unwanted reflections. I also can't add a light to my 4 x 6 foot area, even though my speed lights would overpower it, because there is not enough space to accommodate another light stand or other mechanism. Additionally, if I did figure out how to add that other light, it would invariably be reflected undesirably in the glass subject.

[Rita]

Now this one looks like a glass of white wine.

[D L]

Love it.
I am getting slightly concerned about the wine wastage
Alka-Seltzer, spilling in the dark, what next?

[NorthernFocus]

Nicely done.

[bnnrcn]

Yes, here is a really really white wine photo. Great !

[Donald]

Indeed, that's an excellent image Mike. Hope the Sancerre tasted as good as it looks.

When we were in France last year we styed over one night in Chinon, in the Loire Valley. But then we cut south-east heading for Burgundy, so didn't go into the Sancerre area.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[Dave Humphries]

I'll just say this one works for me Mike

(wouldn't want to go on and on and on, would I?)

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, everyone!

I'm glad to see that David is concerned about the wasted wine, not the wasted Alka-Seltzer; that my image didn't compel Dave to write another long post; that Donald is hoping the wine actually tastes good (it does); and -- oh my! -- that everyone seems to like that the liquid actually looks like wine (it is).

[James G]

Mike , my favourite of the whites and I think I could be very contented sitting in a darkened room, savouring the wine and contemplating your image.

Paradise on earth

[Rebel]

Awesome shot Mike, I'll actually be indulging in some white wine later tonight

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to James and Matt!

[Marie Hass]

Really, really nice image, Mike.

The light appears carefully controlled.

Beautiful transparency on the wine.

Lovely silhouette.

Marie

[Bobobird]

To make that perfect shot Mike will have turn himself into a AA candidate...

Good work as usual. Can't wait to see how his next couple of experiments work out.