When Aspects Beauty commisioned us to shoot their high-end hamper collections, we jumped at the chance. Collaborating as they do with brands such as Versace, Moschino, Salvatore Ferragano and D’orsay, we knew we had a challenge on our hands doing justice to some of the beautiful bottles and packaging they sent through.
Opting for eye-catching, geometric arrangements which inferred the wonderfully balanced nature of these luxury frangrances and lotions, a clean, glossy look was also a given. The real challenge was not simply balancing these shining totems of beauty long enough to snap them, but ensuring each component product within the shot was represented as well as it could be. Anyone who’s shot glass before will know it can be a cruel mistress, and shooting different relective materials, especially curved ones, can also cause all manner of headaches. Therefore, we decided we could get the best results by shooting some items solo, thus optimising the lighting for their particular qualities. We then used layer masks in Photoshop to comp products together into the arrangements you see below. Of course, we had to pay particular attention to the angles from which we photographed the solitary items so they only appeared to be defying gravity and not the other laws of physics when placed together. Shot planning and decisions on composition preceeeded lighting optimisation and shot execution for the various items, when possible together, but frequently alone. As detailed in our previous blog, Don’t stress, Post Process, complex problems frequently have lo-fi solutions, so we used various supports and stoppers to hold our products where we wanted them, then removed them where necessary in post.
Where one curved bottle appears teetering impossibly on the equally curved edge of another in our finished shot, the reality in-camera may well have been just one bottle and a large lump of concealed blue-tac. Similarly, we frequently shot mutliple images for the visible liquids and comped these together for the best results. We’re sure we’re not bursting any bubbles when we say commercial photography often calls for a little studio and photoshop sleight-of-hand to achieve those ultra-desirable results. We hope you agree these shots are testament to this thorough approach.
For relevant shooting tips, you may find our other blogs useful: The Secret to Photographing Glass and An Introduction to Layer Masks in Photoshop
