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Bud Light, With a Splash of Lime
Bud Light, With a Splash of Lime
Shutter-For-Hire


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Beer or Soft Drink Advertisement II (Advanced Editing VII)
Camera: Nikon D40
Lens: Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Date: Oct 31, 2009
Aperture: f/5
ISO: 200
Shutter: 1/1250 sec
Galleries: Advertisement, Food and Drink
Date Uploaded: Oct 31, 2009

 [Nov. 3rd, 2009 07:42:42 PM]

this was a long...long...long... process... it took me all week to get the supplies... I work late so I had to stop at a different store each night to grab each part of the setup... beer store one night for beer, Ikea another to buy a frame to use the glass from, grocery store to get limes, and art store to get green paper...

it took about an hour to do the basic setup, then another hour to get the lighting just right, then about 2 more hours to get the water splash just right...

it's pretty simple... green paper with sheet of glass on top of it (glass gives nice faint reflection) and green paper for backdrop... you can see how i assembled in the setup pics below...

the lighting was very tricky... liquid looks good when it is backlit... so the only way to do the back lighting for this shot was to hide a Alienbees B800 with a 10 degree grid behind the green back paper and cut a hold in the paper the size of the bottle behind the bottle for teh light to come through (see pic) the reason for the 10 degree grid was to ensure that the high power strobe ONLY hit the bottle and didn't flaire around and effect the lens... trust me... it helped =)

I also had another B800 strobe from the back left with a 10 degree grid to light the bottle a bit more, but mainly to backlight the water splash... you can actually see part of the strobe in the frame of the original un-cropped shot... it is clear why I needed a grid for this shot... without a grid, the strobe would have caused huge flare issues on the lens...

[Nov. 3rd, 2009 07:54:29 PM]

there is also a Alienbees B400 with a 24x36 softbox to the left of the camera from above to light the bottle and mainly to light the background...

now... the tricky thing with flashes and strobes, well, and cameras, is that you have issues with flash sync speeds...

this may arise the question... "Eric, why did you use your D40 in your studio if you have a D90 laying around?" well, the D90 has a max flash sync speed of like 1/200 (about) so if you try to go faster than that, you will end up taking a pic of your shutter cutrain... try it =) it's crazy! (well.. if you turn on Auto FP you can sync reight up to 1/4000 with nikon speedlights, but ONLY with Nikon brand speedlights, not strobes)

Buuuuttt the D40 has an electronic shutter, so it will sync at ANY speed with strobes... =)

I needed a REALLY fast shutter speed because I was practically Throwing that water at the bottle!

[Nov. 3rd, 2009 07:58:13 PM]

This arises yet another problem... if your shutter is too fast, the strobe you are using can NOT flash fast enough... that's why for studio portraits, you should really only use a max speed of 1/125 for strobes... this will ensure the strobe will work perfectly... with my trial and error (incomes the many hours spent on the pic) I needed a minimum of 1/1250 sec to freeze the water... i had to fiddle with the strobe intensity (on all three strobes) but luckily I was able to get away with this fast sync speed... I tried to pump it up to 1/1600 sec but that was just over the limit... the camera shutter didn't get the stobes light... the pic was ok at 1/1250, but at 1/1600 the pic was VERY dark...

[Nov. 3rd, 2009 08:08:50 PM]

hahaha man, this is LONG!!! hahaha


anywho... now that setup was all done and the lighting was just right... it's time to deal with that pesky splash... basically just fill up a small margerine cup with water and splash it on the bottle... easy right? hahaha... it takes many tries to get this right... about 30 to be exact... the problem is that each time you splash the water and take yous shot, you have to go check it... if you missed the water in the frame, or if it hit the whong spot on the bottle, ect... then you have to do it again...

this is the fun part... =)

first, you have to swap the bottle for a new one from the cooler and breather hot air on it so it gets covered with condensation, then wipe up all the water off the glass sheet, re-align the ice and lime slices, then get out the blow drier and dry off any drips of water that wet the backdrop... this takes about 5 minutes... ... now, do that 30 times... =)

eventually you run out of ice cold beer, and, well run out of ice, so I had to take a break, get some more ice and let the beer get cold again..


and there we go...


for shots like this, I suggest setting the camera back, and cropping later... you can see my original shot... this way you are safe to rotate and if teh water goes a bit further than intended you cna always do a wider crop...

editing was pretty simple... one layer for the limes, one for the bottle, one for the water splash... some levels, saturation, dodge here, burn there... ect...

pretty straight forward...


I'm not expecting to end up on the front page, but I think it came out pretty good... I always wanted to try out my skills at a beer add because I always liked the way they look on billboards and in magazines... so this was a perfect chance,,,

as a side note... I have never tried bud light lime... i'll save it for when the results come in.. =) my scores are usually off, so I have no idea how my pic is doing... but there are 12 comments so far and they are all wonderful! thanks everyone!!!

[Nov. 3rd, 2009 08:11:04 PM]

Here are the setup pics and the original image for those interested... please don't hesitate to ask any questions =).
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sooooooooooo close to a ribbon!!!! =) thanks for all the comments =)

Statistics
Place: 4 out of 69
Avg (all users): 6.9481
Avg (commenters): 7.4667
Avg (participants): 6.3571
Avg (non-participants): 7.0794
Views since voting: 7839
Views during voting: 439
Votes: 154
Comments: 37
Favorites: 9 (view)

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AuthorThread
 03/24/2011 10:22:51 AM
I have a Nikon D40 and was worried that it was not a sufficient camera to do some quality photos. I did a search for photos taken with the D40 and came across this one. I have seen this on an earlier date and love this photo. Thank you for your detailed description, this is a great shot and gives me faith in my camera!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/10/2009 09:11:08 PM
Great read on how you made this shot. This is a tutorial in itself. Thanks for posting the info and the additional pics.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/10/2009 05:05:22 PM
I really enjoyed your write-up on this one... very informative! The idea of cutting out the hole in the background to backlight the water is really impressive. I wish everyone were as detailed in their set-ups -- this is the kind of thing that helps us learn!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/10/2009 02:04:47 PM
wow, you deserve a ribbon for your explanation about the set up alone! It's a great shot and I'm glad you chose to use the D40 because that kept one of my photos on the D90 homepage a little longer.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/10/2009 12:06:05 PM
Congrats! Strong finish!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/10/2009 10:55:38 AM
Thanks for showing the setup and the explanation. It's amazing.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/09/2009 09:36:45 PM
Great score buddy! Keep it up!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/09/2009 07:02:27 PM
Excellent info about your set-up. Thanks
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/09/2009 04:52:20 PM
Great photo and finish. Thanks for sharing all the information on your set-up, especially the lighting. I'm just learning photography right now and information like this is so incredibly helpful. Just wanted to say thanks!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/09/2009 01:37:03 PM
Many congrats Eric !!! Super super shot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/09/2009 08:59:24 AM
Excellent picture. Thanks for putting all the diff. steps on there. Very cool.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/09/2009 06:57:22 AM
Excellent finish Eric, congrats on the HM.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/09/2009 05:10:24 AM
my highest vote was for your shot, i like it very very much! for me this is the blue ribbon! many compliments.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/09/2009 04:22:10 AM
Great image and thanks for the detailed write up, very interesting to see everything that went into making this image.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/09/2009 01:15:44 AM
Wow, you went to a lot of trouble to get your shot, Eric. I'm SO pleased that it did so well for you because it's excellent. Congrats on the HM.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/09/2009 12:27:14 AM
Congrats on the HM! Really appreciate the set-up info.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/09/2009 12:19:33 AM
im actually drinking one (or six) right now, i guess your ad worked. congrats
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/09/2009 12:19:33 AM
im actually drinking one (or six) right now, i guess your ad worked. congrats
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/09/2009 12:13:53 AM
wow, you did well with that shot! congratulations
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/09/2009 12:09:52 AM
Congrats on the HM, Eric! Great execution.

Raj
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/09/2009 12:04:50 AM
Congrats on finishing above the 5+ range :P

Nice job :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
11/08/2009 10:22:44 PM
Very refreshing, well done!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/07/2009 10:31:23 AM
This must have been a fun mess to mop up lol. The splash is awesome and I love the complementary green background.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/06/2009 09:29:21 PM
the ice cubes wreck it
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/06/2009 04:50:50 PM
Brilliant attempt to stop motion and freeze the water. Great results.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/06/2009 11:39:44 AM
Great comp that allows for text. Would prefer bottle without cap and some sondensation to make the product more attractive.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/06/2009 09:15:46 AM
very refreshing. very well executed
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/03/2009 01:48:27 AM
very good capture!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/02/2009 10:34:18 PM
nice capture
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/02/2009 07:24:04 PM
Perfect background and wonderful lighting. Super.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/02/2009 06:22:09 PM
With all the splash and water drop ad's in this challenge you really have to WOW someone if you choose to do one. You my friend have WOW'ed me the most out of all others. See you on the front page. 9

If I could make one small critique of this amazing shot it would be that the ice seems out of place in this setup. Probably just me though.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/02/2009 03:05:18 PM
Good colors and great splash! Nice setup!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/02/2009 02:26:38 PM
looks great!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/02/2009 12:17:15 PM
Excellent choice, I like the colors, the action and the composition of this image. Keep the amazing work, I am sure we will see this one on the home page soon.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/02/2009 11:12:49 AM
Cool shot. Hope you got this on the first shot. Clean-up and setting back up would be a pain! Nice choice of colors.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/02/2009 09:09:35 AM
Awesome work!10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/02/2009 03:06:56 AM
good stop-action. had preferred a tighter crop at right side
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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