Tequila in a beautiful bottle

[Mike Buckley]

This photo is a belated Christmas present that I will give to a good friend this weekend. It's a good thing he really likes tequila. That's because I don't appreciate it and it would have been a shame to buy the bottle just to photograph it...which I would have done.

The product is Milagro Tequila Reposado Select Barrel Reserve. The hand crafted glass is reminiscent of the agave plant from which tequila is made. The round cut glass in the bottom is actually a punt; you can insert your finger into that part of the bottom of the bottle. This particular tequila is gold, which partly explains the overall look of the photo.

The tabletop and background are a single sheet of gold semi-gloss material much like heavy poster board. (I like the reflection it produces that lacks the detail of the source.) The sheet is lit by a continuous-light lamp on each side fitted with a diffusion sock. The lamps are behind the bottle pointed toward the rear, simultaneously lighting the background and white wall behind it. The light being reflected by the white wall toward the subject and camera defines the edges of the glass as bright light. A flag for each lamp prevents the lamps from being reflected in the bottle. The tabletop is lit by light bouncing off the white wall and the background. A second capture was made using reflectors in front of the subject on the left and right sides to light the neck of the bottle. The two captures were combined into one image file.

[Andrew1]

Deja Vu. My daughter was unable to get my "usual" at Christmas so the Milagro was a fallback. If you have the inclination I'd be interested in seeing what you could do with this shot with the addition of a single small light source below the center of the bottle. I just tried a 5 light LED below the one I have but it wasn't as neat as I thought it would be.

[Shadowman]

Nice image.

[NorthernFocus]

You sure can make glass and liquid look extaordinary. Nicely done.

[Marie Hass]

Just beatiful, Mike.

'rie

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, everyone!

Andrew: My guess is that placing a light underneath the bottle and doing nothing else produced a punt that probably lacked definition of the edges. Am I right? I'll try a different setup that lights the bottle from underneath. If the initial results are promising, I'll get back to you.

[Loose Canon]

That is one awesome looking bottle Mike!

Very nice work with it.

Your background/tabletop rocks and is perfect for the bottle.

[Mike Buckley]

Your background/tabletop rocks and is perfect for the bottle.

Thanks, Terry! It was my first time using that material. (I also bought a silver sheet that so far has gone unused.) Some of the sheet's characteristics were a lot easier than I planned and some were a lot more difficult.

By the way, you mentioned a long time ago that you often have to remove labels from the rear of bottles. Prior to making this photo, I had never had to do that when photographing a complete product as opposed to an empty bottle with no adornments. This time I had to remove a small paper label from the bottom front and a small clear label from the middle rear. I recorded all of the information displayed on those labels in a nice presentation so my friend who receives the gift will have the information I removed.

[Manfred M]

Mike - Your choice of tabletop and background really worked well. Everything just seems to compliment the other elements in the image.

I like your skilled planning as well; buy something to photograph and then give it away as a gift when you are done with it. I'll have to try that sometime...

[Rita]

Spectacular.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks to Manfred and Rita!

buy something to photograph and then give it away as a gift when you are done with it.

I did that twice this holiday season. Works like a charm especially because the recipient also enjoys seeing the photo and appreciates the giver's personal involvement.

[mknittle]

Deja Vu. My daughter was unable to get my "usual" at Christmas so the Milagro was a fallback. If you have the inclination I'd be interested in seeing what you could do with this shot with the addition of a single small light source below the center of the bottle. I just tried a 5 light LED below the one I have but it wasn't as neat as I thought it would be.

I tried something like that with the same results I used a colored light through a small hole at the bottom of a wine glass.

[mknittle]

Very nice Mike, thanks for the description of the lighting.

[Loose Canon]

Wow Mike!

I’m not a Tequila aficionado so I didn’t at first understand! So a quick trip around the webbernet…

One of the labels you removed contained a hand lettered bottle/batch issue number?

I see now why you did a presentation thing!

It’ll probably take your friend a couple of sips to forgive you for that! And a few more to confirm forgiveness!

Right in line with the “whatever it takes to get the shot” Theory! Awesome!

That's some high falutin' Tequila right there!

At least the label wasn’t painted on! That’s when it gets fun!

By the way? I ran into a good number of images of this bottle but none equal to this shot.

[Mike Buckley]

Glad you like it, Mark!

One of the labels you removed contained a hand lettered bottle/batch issue number?

Machine-lettered, not hand-lettered. One of the numbers is identified as the bottle number, in this case #173. The other number is "3756BR." Perhaps that's a batch number but I have no idea.

[Brownbear]

Absolutely gorgeous! Milagro means miracle in Spanish...

When you have this shot in your gallery please let me know as I would like to share the link with some friends in Mexico who truly appreciate tequila, who have never seen a bottle of it captured so beautifully.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, Christina. Click here to see the photo displayed at my website.

[Ndukes]

Nice photo Mike.
By the way, I'll have a large one please!

[bnnrcn]

Great and extraordinary, I also love the colors and light

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to Neville and Binnur!

Andrew,

I placed the bottle on a clear glass tabletop and placed a light source underneath the bottle. It became immediately apparent that a very nice effect can be produced. It would have taken considerable time to properly balance the light on the background, the light in the upper two-thirds of the clear part of the bottle and the light in the lower third. Considering that that set up produces dark tones to define the edges of the glass rather than the bright tones as used in my photo, the mood would have been very different and not as much to my liking. So, I didn't spend any more time on it.