Practising Painting with Light

Yesterday I and two of my friends on my course decided to practice painting with light for our current project. This was to ensure we knew how to light both the product well and also how to effectively paint with the light in the rest of the photograph.

Armed with a torch, Quality Street wrappers, camera, tripod and various bottles, we started to work on how to light the product. In my case this was an aftershave bottle. However, I found it very difficult to light it by painting it in with a torch, and even flash lighting it was difficult as it was a see-through bottle. So I used my friends perfume bottle. I found this was really easy to light with a torch as it was mostly white on the top and only a little be see-through on the bottom creating a glowing orange effect.

I lit the bottle on a black shiny stand in order to see the reflection of the bottle in the Photograph as we need to ensure it looks like an advertisement. After lighting the bottle, I used an orange Quality Street wrapper over the torch and in the background drew a bow shape to represent Christmas presents. I thought at this time of year it would be a really good idea to create a Christmas advertisement. The bow looked more like a pretzel, but I am only practising so I have time to perfect it. I didn't want to do any post production as I am a huge fan of getting things right in camera, but I feel using multiple shots and masks will benefit my work greatly and make it look more professional.

Below are some images I captured of the perfume bottle and also a Vodka bottle I was attempting to draw a Christmas tree around. They are far from perfect and I have a lot of work to do, but thought I would just post some of my first attempts.

© Danny Rowland Photography

© Danny Rowland Photography

© Danny Rowland Photography