A Panerai Beer Bottle

I came across a great photo of a nicely lit beer bottle on flickr.com and decided to give it a try. I showed a first attempt to a fellow Paneristi and pro photographer - who kindly gave me some lighting tips for this type of shot. I gave it another go today.


Panerai PAM127

There's a Nikon SB800 on its side about 15cm behind the bottle to make the beer inside the bottle appear bright and sparkling. The bottle is positioned on a piece of glass in the middle of some crated ice. I closed down the aperture to f16 to make the background appear as dark as possible. The bottle is lit from the left side with a flash shooting through a softbox, about 50cm away from the subject. I used a piece of black card board to prevent its light from falling on the background. Finally I positioned a white cardboard reflector on the right side - and slightly to the front of the bottle for fill. I sprayed the bottle to get the tiny water bubbles.


Panerai PAM243

Here's a picture without a watch in it. I tried adding a bit of smoke behind the bottle, in an attempt to make it look "colder". You can also see the reflection of the bottle in the black glass underground in this picture.


Click the photos for a larger view

Finally, a photo with two bottles. The lighting setup is the same as described above. The watch on the left is a Panerai PAM000 (aka Zero) with its original OEM calf strap.


PAM000 and PAM127 (right)

In case you want to know more about the straps, the strap in the first picture is a Yugoslavian ammo strap by David Lane Design. The strap on the 243 is a French ammo strap by Septimus Straps.

All photos © 2010 M.Wilmsen - do not use without permission

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