HOW TO: Photograph a perfume bottle.

This guide will show you how to photograph a perfume bottle done right. If you followed my previous HOW TO, the same concept applies. The lighting will be based on the subject matter, is it transparent, non-transparent or reflective. In this case, my perfume bottle is transparent. The key to photograph transparent object it to light up the background, because the transparent element of the bottle will light up the inside of the bottle. The new twist to this one, we want to achieve the toning effect, where it is not useful when you use a square softbox because the edge is too straight and the line will appear sharp. If you refer back to my previous HOW TO photograph bottle, check the highlights on the bottle. It is perfectly sharp and straight. We dont want that here, we want a perfectly diffused tone from highlights to shadow.

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Now, how do we want to achieve that toning effect between the highlights and the shadows? by incorporating a large diffuser such as a piece of mahjong paper, or a big ass white cloth. The major advantage of using a mahjong paper, that the light quality will be the same as a normal soft box but without the sharp edges. My lecturer demonstrate by putting a snoot while holding a mahjong paper in front of it so you can have full control where the light you want it to fall on. Narrow, and diffused. There is a major difference in highlights based on the angle and distance of the mahjong paper relation to the subject. Try to get the best possible results by experimenting this. See the contact prints below on how we experiment with the angle and distance.

We did not use any flash what so ever, we used the modeling light so we can see where and how the light behave in real time.