Same Subject but Different.

Working as a commercial photographer can be many things. It could be that photographing architecture, weddings, food or family portraits is your speciality. It is true that all these subjects take a certain skill set, and aptitude. For me shooting weddings is not something I have ever enjoyed, for me that is like trying to juggle eels. My passion for commercial image making challenges lays elsewhere.

I like shooting many subjects, both inanimate and human, what I like the most about commercial photography is the challenge and lighting. Recently I was invited to look at creating images for advertising use by La Gritona Tequila here in Taiwan. The bottle is a gritty rustic feeling moulded glass with a traditional style ceramic rubber bung top. There is no label as the text is a relief style part of the bottle itself. I had two images to produce, one was on a clean white and going to be used for large free standing display boards at events, the other more atmospheric for promotion cards in bars and restaurants. So two quite different lighting studies of the same product, one totally controlled in a studio environment and the other a location shoot with all the variants in light that go with that.

The first puzzle to solve was the location shoot. This took place in a restaurant in Taipei. I arrived and looked at the situation, I am familiar with this location but not really to create images there. I spotted the potential of a warm toned vintage light and decided this would make a nice atmospheric and inviting background for our subject. The owner broke out some felt tip pens and simply coloured the bulb more orange to accentuate the warm tone even further. Finding an interesting surface to put the bottle on was not so difficult as tables they use outside were being stored handily close by, so it was just a case of rotating them until the lines pleased me. Using what you have to hand and understanding how this will look is key here. Placing a strobe off camera to the right behind the bottle and slightly above to create some back lighting and separation and a white board making a reflection in the bottle built the scene further and we started to shoot. The final touches came as we played with the shot glasses and liquids adding a little to the composition until we were both happy, and most importantly my client was smiling and already visualising the final product printed in his mind.

The second part was in my studio, you can see the results above, this was more controlled as all my tools, lights, modifiers etc are to hand. It asked a few interesting questions, but I am happy with how it came together.

I am now looking at the bottle in my studio and thinking of getting down to the beach to create the third shot using this bottle, mixing the light with natural and artificial. In my mind I know what I want to do, will I be able to create it? I am confident that I will.

Same subject, different. What do you think? Do you have a project to talk to me about producing for you, I am always happy to discuss any needs either photography or film. Feel free to reach me here, through my website www.duncanlongden.com or email [email protected].

I look forward to hearing from you, and working together.