How to Shoot Wine on a White Background is a companion piece to my earlier post How to Shoot Whisky on a White Background. The techniques are identical, except for the lighting.

Equipment

• Canon 5D Mk III
• Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM lens
• Elinchrom D-Light RX One Studio lights
• Rosko Diffusion Gel
• Arctic White Colorama
• Capture One 10
• Photoshop CC 2017

The Shoot

Place your table in front of and about a foot away from the Colorama. Pull the paper down across the table creating a gentle curve at the back and leaving enough free at the front to pull up beneath the camera lens. This will reflect light back onto the label.

Direct an overhead light at the curve you have created with the paper. Position the light slightly behind the bottle so that you don't get reflections on the 'shoulder' where the body joins the neck. This light will bounce back from the Colorama, through the wine, creating a soft, expensive glow.

Wine is all about this soft, expensive glow. The lighting needs to create a different look to Whisky, where we are almost creating a light source in the bottle.

Arrange a light at each side of the bottle at a low output, shooting through a large layer of Diffusion Gel. We used a double layer to get the softness we needed.

Use foam core at the front to reflect light from behind the bottle back onto the neck, foil and label revealing the detail.

Improvements

Had this bottle not been intended for sale, I would have removed the label from the back. This would allow the diffused light to spread across the whole bottle.

Post Processing

1. Apply Crop.
2. Separate the image from its background and place in a new layer.
3. Use the Channels to create an image that includes the shadows. Place this in a new layer under the last one so that it will only add the shadow to the image. Done subtly, this prevents it from ‘floating in space’.
4. Add a pure white layer above the original layer.
5. Using a layer mask, add exposure/colour/vibrance correction to the top layer.

Summary

For this wine shoot, we are aiming for an even spread of diffused light. This is white wine and the even spread of light implies cold, a drink that is served chilled. For red wine, the same lighting will illuminate the red. It will create a warmer look, suited to serving a red wine at room temperature.

Check out our drink photography here or on our Instagram feed.

If you’d like us to shoot your products, we’d love to help!  Give us a call on 01743 231 416 or drop us a note via our contact form.