Wine bottle in warm light

[Mike Buckley]

Even though I have never tasted this wine, which is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Malbec, I had four reasons to buy it: It is highly rated. It was on sale. The same winery makes a very respectable Malbec. And the bottle has a great label worth photographing. Naturally, that last criterion sealed the deal!

Setup
The tabletop and background are a single sheet of copper-colored art paper that has small, metallic-like flecks in the surface. A small continuous-light lamp on the left faced away from the scene though a small amount of light fell directly onto it. The light was also reflected onto the scene by the black fabric that encloses my makeshift studio. A reflector on the right side made of the same art paper adds the warm reflection to that side of the label. A lot of the warmth was caused by light bouncing off the tabletop onto the bottle.

[NorthernFocus]

Nicely planned and executed, Mike. Yes it is a great looking label, isn't it? Well done.

[Shadowman]

Very elegant composition.

[Digital]

Mike, I like this photo a lot.



Bruce

[Wavelength]

You know this business very well; really well done

[billtils]

Very nice Mike, and thank you for giving us the detail on how you set it up.

[mugge]

Mike, the light on the label is perfect and the warm colours does it for me. I think this is one of your best for some reason.
Cheers Ole

[madcrow]

Great image, love the lighting and soft colour.

[bnnrcn]

I like the BG and the tabletop very much.They go very well with the label. The image makes me feel as if I'm on a big armchair in a warmly lit sitting room and I'm sipping my glass of wine. Very nice

[joebranko]

Very nicely done, as usual. The lighting is great and the label very attractive. How was the wine?

[bje07]

As usual, clear, net ant precise. + good explanations. Thank you Mike.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you everyone!

Joe: I haven't tried the wine yet.

[bje07]

Joe: I haven't tried the wine yet.

You are right. I've already read you must keep the bottle unopened, even if you show a glass with same beverage

[Mike Buckley]

I've already read you must keep the bottle unopened, even if you show a glass with same beverage

Hogwash! It doesn't make sense to me to display a glass of wine in a scene that includes one or more bottles when all of them are shown to be unopened. That's just bad story telling in my mind. I've done it in the past but probably never again.

I could have included a glass of wine in this scene (I actually tried several options and didn't like the look) because there is no information indicating whether the bottle is open. If a glass of wine had been included, the bottle could have been presumed to be open even if the bottle is full and ready for the next pour. Add to that that in this lighting, even if some of the wine had been poured out of the bottle you probably would not be able to determine that, especially if the bottle is made of glass that is particularly dark and/or thick.

[Kaye Leggett]

Another beautiful image, but I do prefer the crispness (if that's the right word) of the previous Carnivor Cab. But isn't it interesting how the lighting changes the thought of the wine, when you set up do you consider when you may drink it, what with, who with ?

[Mike Buckley]

when you set up do you consider when you may drink it, what with, who with ?

Nope. I'm not that deep.

I do prefer the crispness (if that's the right word) of the previous Carnivor Cab

The magnification of that label is far greater, allowing so much more detail in the label to be fully appreciated. I wonder if that's what you mean by crispness. If so, that makes sense to me.

[John 2]

My admiration is I suppose, in the fact that you have found a way to combine three hobbies into one, drinking the wine not being the same as collecting it. Very satisfying. Very nice image but I'm sure you do all of them equally well.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, John!

you have found a way to combine three hobbies into one, drinking the wine not being the same as collecting it.

Thanks especially for that observation. The three hobbies as I see them are photographing wine, photographing glass (because wine is almost always stored and consumed in glass objects, which have unique, unintuitive requirements for photographing them), and drinking the wine. Combining those three hobbies has been so much more fun than even I could have imagined. As an example, my local art store recently had a wonderful sale that allowed me to buy at 30% to 50% off a lot of potential tabletop and background materials. I felt like I was a kid in a candy store!

I've never become a true collector of wine, as it's rare that I keep any wine for more than five years and almost all of the wine is kept for no more than six months.

I'll soon be photographing food a lot more often than in the past, so I'll be combining my cooking hobby with photography as well.