Ideas for Stock Photos – Jan 15 2012

I’m keeping up with my resolution to take and post new images every week!

This first one was a real joy to produce. I saw a video on PhotographyTalk forum which showed how to get a shot of wine flowing from a bottle. His example was one where the wine appeared to shoot straight up out of the bottle, but I thought I would try something a bit harder – make the wine go into a glass! The idea is that you string the bottle of wine up on a frame in front of a white background. You light the background with flash guns so that it is completely washed out and that provides illumination for the wine. Place a large plastic box under the bottle and stand the wine glass on a frame on the top of the box. I then carefully focused on the bottle and glass and set up my remote control. The next step is tricky – remove the stopper and put your thumb in place. Let the bottle hang vertically upside down. Hold the remote control and then remove your thumb. The wine pours out and hopefully goes into the glass while you set off as many shots as you can before the bottle empties. You can then pour the wine back in the bottle and start again! I then took three images that I was happy with – one of the wine in the glass with a flow going straight down. One with a good flow of wine, and a third of the bottle with some nice patterns in the neck. I blended in Photoshop and used Puppet warp to bend the flow a bit to get the final result. This has sold a few times already.The next two are more routine shots – the first being a new use for a chocolate box. I saw something like this in Good Housekeeping and thought it would be a good shot to have online. I wish I had washed out the inner tray – in the original you can still see the specks of chocolate! Image three for this week is a macro shot of the inside of a flash drive. I happened to see it when I was setting up one of the earlier shots and decided to give it the macro treatment.