Hotwire-Digital :: Get the Best from the Experts

The Assignment

Client wanted an image described as a long pour of beer originating from a bottle at the top of the frame and traveling roughly 50 inches into a beer glass with a perfect logo visible. A layout was provided for matching the point-of-purchase target of store cooler doors.

Technical Analysis

The shot was split into four parts: 

1. Beer bottle with a controllable “POUR,” shot full-frame. 
   It was important to get a natural-looking curve of the beer coming out of the bottle.
2. Two sections of a real pour. 
   We poured fresh beer from a pitcher, into a bucket, shooting a section of about 24 inches each.
   The first series was shot of the top 24 inches of the pour...
3. ...then the bottom.
4. Series of a beautiful beer in a pristine beer glass with natural beer foam, and a small amount of foam rolling off the right rim of the glass.
   This shot also includes the stream of the pour coming into the glass.
   
   

   
   

   

   
   

I used hi-speed strobes to stop the motion of the pour and we determined that if you stop the motion fully the liquid looks plastic.  We chose to use a slightly slower strobe to allow some movement on the lower part of the pour.

This job would have been a nightmare shooting with film.I am sure there would have been a whole trash bin filled with polaroid and beer, I am so happy with the way this shoot worked.  

Phocus is a fantastic program.  The ability to shoot tethered and to shoot from the computer is very conversational with an art director.  They love the overlay feature and the approval buttons.  The camera controls:  shutter, focus, firing that are controlled by the computer allow precise registration and facilitate adjustments and fine-tuning.

This shoot took 2.5 hours to shoot the elements.  The client left with a thrilled, confident feeling.  And, the whole process, including revisions was 1 day and a half; the production department at the agency said the color was perfect.

Key points about this shoot and the Hasselblad workflow

• The client needed the higher resolution of medium-format for the life-size application
• The color was correct from the capture - significantly reducing post-production work and delivery to client did not require overnight production
• Tethered shooting allowed creative control for the technical aspects of the production

The transition from film

The whole question about film versus digital has been answered for a long time now.  I have been doing digital photography since the onset of the first small megapixel cameras that had firewire ports. Very quickly the software came up to a level of acceptance and as soon as Hasselblad came into the fray, I have not even considered film.

The last year that I shot film, I spent tens of thousands of dollars on film stock and processing.  The costs of expensive digital photography equipment was immediately justifiable.  Don’t get me too wrong, I really enjoyed the social part of going to the lab, but I really hated the piles of polaroid on my floor during a beer shoot, then the hours of waiting for the E6 run, hoping there were several good images.

I am sure that you guys that shoot catalog work had experiences of film color not matching throughout a shoot and subsequently having to reshoot, or shooting beverages and food with critical layout requirements.  We all know how beautiful this new era of digital photography can be, right?