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Graded Unit - Output As my project is based on commercial imagery I think its fitting to see examples of how images like mine can be used within the industry as the reality is they wouldn't be shown in a gallery setting. When shooting the images I had in the back of my mind where thy could fit in e.g as a poster or website, and the three shown above are just a small example of this. This being said, ordinary this project would have been printed as an end of year showcase, however because I planed this shooting knowing this I never planned for it to be shown in that setting, it just quite simply wouldn't fit , it's not what it's designed for. If it did have to get printed for display however I would print big to maximise visual impact, with either my bottle shot or my glencairn image taking the centre spot with smaller images around it. I would most likely get prints from my usual printers Deadly Digital, and would probably get them full bleed. I'm not sure about paper without having test prints but from instinct I would go more glossy than Matt to help enhance the silky nature of the bottle and whisky.

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Graded Unit Final Images

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Graded Unit - Glencairn Glass

For the final of my shoots for my graded unit I chose to shoot a Glencairn Glass, one of the staple forms of glassware for drinking whisky. I envisage this image being the last in my project and also being quite a high spec studio shot.

Like my main bottle I knew this image was going to be a composite image, when shooting I took a few different images firstly using dark field illumination to give me the hi light down the side, I then put white card behind it in order to light the whisky effectively.

Final Image;

I am quite happy with how this image turned out, I love the symmetry in it and I think this adds a lot to its visual impact. I also angled my camera up slightly to help give it some dominance and impact in the frame. Unfortunately the top rim of the glass was lost in the black of the background due to how thin and delicate it was, to get around this I added an ellipse in photoshop with a slight feather which I feel works really well and looks almost identical to what the top of the glass would be if I had better lighting equipment to make sure it was lit properly in camera.

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Graded Unit - Cork

For the second of my images relating to the experience of drinking whisky I wanted to photograph the bottle cork. 

I started out shooting this image with just the cork sitting alone, however I quickly realised that this lacked visual interest and I wasn't happy with it. When thinking about what to include with the cork a glass made logical sense.

Final Image;

I like how this turned out, the glass in the background adds interest but also helps to form a story and a picture of drinking whisky. This is further echoed by the lighting I chose, I wanted it to be quite direct from above which I think gives the feeling that its a candid shot taken in the moment. I also particularly like how the logo looks in this image in that it combines a shot that would just show the whisky drinking experience with a shot that works as am advertising image, the bright white cap and jet black logo stands out in the image and draws your attention to it before noticing the whisky in the background.

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Graded Unit - Branded Glass

For my final three images I wanted to shoot images which related to the experience of drinking whisky but with subtle hints to the brand. For the first of these images I wanted to shoot a small Laphroaig branded glass I had.

Going into this shoot I had a brief idea in what I wanted to capture, I didn't want any whisky in the glass as I wanted it to be quite elegant with simply the outline of it in light. I tried a couple of different positions for the glass with my initial idea being to shoot it on a slight angle however I ended up shooting it flat on the table.

Final Image;

Overall I am very happy with the way this image turned out, to light the glass I used the dark field illumination technique which gave me the really nice hi light down the right hand side. The big benefit of this technique is it leaves me with a black background whilst also giving be a pleasing soft light. To get the logo to stand out I composited in a second image which had a harsh direct light on the logo. 

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Graded Unit - Main Bottle

Moving on from the images of flavours and ingredients I wanted to produce a product shot of the Laphroaig Bottle. Looking at my research images I really liked the image of the Ardbeg bottle sitting amongst the rocks, to try and do something similar I shoot this image as a flat lay with black sand making up the background.

Like a lot of my other contact sheets this is just a fraction of the images I took for this shoot, however show a wide range of options for the images that made up my final image. Quite early on after shooting my test images of the Haig Club bottle I knew this image would need to be quite a large composite to produce especially with my current lighting equipment. I done about 5 different shoots for this image after producing my first comp with the aim to get a cleaner edge in the bottle and have a better and softer glass that showcases the whisky more effectively. To do this I planned to shoot the bottle on a white background and comp it in, However due to my limited equipment it wasn't possible as I kept getting the white card casting onto the bottle, not to mention the whole host of other issues I kept encountering. In the end I decided with much reluctance to go with my first shoot.

Final Image;

This image is a composite of about 10 different image which allowed be to achieve the background texture and have all of the different areas lit properly with my minimal lighting equipment. Im not entirely happy with this shot, most likely down to my own perfectionist attitude to my work, however without proper studio equipment I am happy with what I managed to achieve, and think that it clearly displays my concept well although lacking a slight amount of polish. 

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Graded Unit - Peat

For the last of my images depicting ingredients and flavour profiles I wanted to shoot peat as it is the smoke from this that plays a major part in the production of Laphroaig. As I said in an earlier post I managed to get some hand cut peat from a family member that I was able to photograph.

I cut quite a few test images out of this contact sheet simply because there would have been pages and pages of images. I experimented extensively with this image first with lighting and getting the balance of texture and overall light, and then secondly with composition. After shooting my first few image I started to get something I was happy with however after getting feedback I decided to reshoot and try a few compositions with two pieces together.

Final Image;

I really like how this image turned out. To light the scene and get a mix of both the texture and just general overall light I used a longer shutter and used the light painting technique. This gave me quite a painterly look which I feel suits this image quite well. In post I added a very small amount of smoke to the right hand side and although subtle I feel its adds quite nicely to the final composition.

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Graded Unit - Fire

Moving on from the water whilst still sticking to the raw ingredients and flavours I wanted to try shooting fire. Because the malted barley is dried with a peat fire, this is a huge part of the process and I feel could make a good addition to my project as it tells a big part of not only production but also flavour. 

To shoot these images I built a small contained fire outside and placed my background behind it. The main difficulty I had was to get the flames looking the way I wanted, however once my settings were right I just kept shooting until I got an image I was happy with. In terms of lighting I didn't use anything other than the fire itself, and although it was dark where I was shooting I didn't have to go over 100iso due to the intense light from the fire.

Final Image;

Due to the fire being so bright my background was lost in darkness, to get around this I dodged select areas in photoshop to bring back some detail to add some subtle interest to the areas of negative space. Having my camera slightly elevated and looking down also allowed me to see the embers which I feel add a nice touch and give some interest to the lower half of the frame.

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Graded Unit - Water

My shoot of water was something that I thought about for a long time. As it is used throughout the process from manufacturing to tasting there was many ways I could show it. I first experimented with shooting a small bottle of water with a label I made and aged, I had planned to comp these together, however I decided I warn happy with my image

After shooting the bottle I comped it together but I wasn't happy with how it sat with the other images I have taken so far. I had also considered shooting a small puddle of water with the bottle being reflected into it however after thinking about it I went away from this idea as the label would have been upside down and back to front, not ideal for an advertising image.

Final Image;

For my final image I instead shot a small fountain in my garden. I am really happy with how this turned out because of its links to my project and the whisky industry. Firstly I love how it links to my image of the smoke, it flows across the frame in much a similar way was the smoke does. Also having the water flowing in this way it's reminiscent of a stream, or the way the distillate flows through the spirit safe during production. To light the image I used the same torch ive used for all of my images and placed it above the water which I feel really hi lights it and separates it from the background.

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Graded Unit - Salt

Another main flavour in Laphroaig as well as smoke is salt. Being such a big characteristic I wanted to include this in my project. To shoot this I got corse sea salt and shot it against the same wooden background featured in my other images which I feel helps to tie them together.

Again like the barley I had quite a good idea going into this shoot with what I wanted to capture. I knew I most likely wanted to shoot top down looking onto the salt, however I did briefly experiment with some side on and macro images towards the end of the shoot. My main issue with shooting this was lighting it. Because the salt was bright white and my background was jet black I found it very difficult to find the happy middle ground between having background texture and not over exposing my salt.

Final Image;

Although quite simple in terms of composition, I feel that having it dead centre shooting from above creates a sense of drama that ties in really well with my other images. In post I just done some burning on the main area of salt to bring back some of the shadows. If I was to do this again with more equipment I would like to experiment with having a direct light firing low down across the image as well as a top light. This is something I began to try but to achieve the full effect I would've had to comp two images together, something I didn't want to do too much.

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Graded Unit - Barley

When setting out my goal for this reinvented personal project and I knew I was shooting things to do with whisky, barley came straight to my mind. Being one of the main ingredients in Laphroaig it seems an obvious choice to include in the project. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get Un-Hulled barley however I feel what I ended up shooting still gives a good enough representation.

I didn't want to do anything to fancy with this shoot, I knew I wanted the barley front and centre with the orientation and camera height being the main two things I was experimenting with. In addition to this I also played with the exposure quite a bit to get it right, mostly due to the fact I had to light it with a torch.

Final Image;

above is my final image from this shoot. I am quite happy with this, I think the texture of the barley comes through quite well in the photo. In addition to this I like the slightly soft grains in the foreground which I feel help to draw you into the frame. If I was to do this in a studio however I would like to experiment more with quality of light and how this influences upon the final image.

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Catch Me if you Can - Covid-19 Update

Earlier this year I had planned a day shooting with Glasgow City FC, however due to the Covid-19 outbreak I was unable to shoot this. Here are some emails I exchanged when setting this up,

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Graded Unit- Smoke Shoot

These are my contact sheets for my shoot of the smoke, I had some difficulty at first with getting the smoke to show up on camera clearly however I ended up using an old speed light I had, although not being able to have it fire with the shutter off camera I got around this by having a long shutter speed and firing the flash using its test function. Although not ideal it gave me the results I was looking for. If I was to do this in the studio I would have liked more control over my lighting. Here is my final optimised shot;

I am really happy with this given the circumstances. I love the way how the black wood comes through in the background, how it almost looks like burnt wood. This background is something I hope to use in all my images with the idea that it will link them together subtly. As I talked about in my plan I used an incsnce stick to create the smoke for this image, I love how its silky smooth as it enters the frame, and quickly becomes more sporadic towards the top.

Here is a mock up I produced in photoshop using Laphroaig’s logo, and shows  how this could be used in an advertising setting;

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Graded Unit Shoot Plan

Looking at my research images and considering how I want the final project to look I have decided on a list of items and objects I want to shoot to help convey the culture and experience associated with the whisky industry. My main bottle will be Laphroaig, an Islay Single Malt with the very forward and complex flavour profile, each of the other shots will relate to this. Each of the bellow shoots will hopefully form one of my final images.

1- Main Bottle, 

This will form a centre piece for my project and will introduce the themes and tones the rest of the images will follow. Looking at my research images I want to shoot this as a flat flay with grey sand forming the background. This gives the subconscious notion of both the sea and a volcano which relates to the smoky nature of Laphroaig.

2- Smoke, 

Leading on from that I want to shoot smoke as its one of the main flavour characteristics of the whisky I am shooting. To accomplish this I am going to use an incense stick to give me a silky plume of smoke to shoot, I will also most likely have to use a speed-light or similar bright light off to the side to capture it.

3- Peat,

As the malted barley in Laphroaig is dried using smoke from a peat fire this is something I also want to capture. Fortunately my families ancestry is from Co. Donegal Ireland, and I know my aunt has some peat she collected from there, so I plan to get this from her to shoot.

4- Fire

Leading on from the above fire is also a very big part of the production process, as its the peat fire that dries and flavours the malted barley. However it also has connotations of the stereotype made popular in movies of someone drinking whisky by a fire, so this image will also remotely link to the experience of whisky.

5- Salt, 

One of the first things that hits you on the nose when you taste Laphroaig is a big dose of salt, therefore I want to capture this. Although not as complex as the image of the bottle will be, I feel that its important to capture as its a huge part of the flavour profile.

6- Barley, 

Barley is one of the biggest ingredients in whisky and therefore I want to incorporate it into my project. Like the salt I don't envisage this as being a highly complex image, however I feel its a vital part of the story. The hardest part is sourcing un-hulled barley in a small quantity as most places only sell bulk. Ive managed to find somewhere selling hulled wholegrain barley so this might be my best option.

7- Water, 

Leading on from the barley, water also plays a huge part in whisky production as it is used throughout the manufacturing process. in addition to this a small drop of water in Laphroaig opens up the profile of the whisky was it releases the flavours contained within the oils. By shooting this it both represents this vital ingredient but also leads to the experience of drinking it.

8- Glencairn Glass

Moving on from the production side I want to focus my last three images on the culture and experience surrounding whisky drinking. For the first of these I want to shoot my Glencairn glass, one of the most widely excepted forms of glassware in the whisky tasting industry. I feel this will work really well to show this side of whisky drinking. 

9- Laphroaig Branded Glass,

I also have a set of small branded Laphroaig glasses with the logo etched into them, I want to shoot a detail image of the logo. To do this ill probably use some sort of back lighting to catch the logo in addition to a macro lens.

10- I am undecided on my final image, I know I want something that again shows  the whisky culture but am unsure at present what that needs to be. I like the idea of leaving this image blank for the time being and shooting it at the end .

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Graded Unit Inspiration

Originally when I first changed my project idea due to cover-19 I started researching into the work of product photographers, most notably one of my biggest inspirations Karl Taylor. This style of image is highly polished and often created with numerous lights and modifiers although very effective it doesn't suit my current situation without any type of studio lighting. Because of this I have looked into other product images of whisky which show the bottle in an environment. Although some of these are also relatively hi-spec shots I feel I can still take some ideas from them.

-Warren Ryley

This first image uses a really interesting technique by letting the light shine through the bottle and glass casting a coloured pool of light on the table. I like this as its a unique approach to shooting it that I haven't really seen before and it captures the tones of the product really well. It showcases the two sides of it, the bottle on the left and the glass which represents the experience of it. This is something I want to try and capture in my images, I do want to shoot the bottle but I also want to shoot other objects that show the experience of drinking it.

-Jonathan Knowles

This is a much more polished image, I really like the silky smooth feel of the bottle in this image, and how clean it looks. Like the first the images I also like how the glasses add that insight to the experience associated with the product. In this image in particular I also like how the background helps to convey more about the product. Having the cask behind the bottle makes you think about how it was produced and stirs up emotions and memories relating to that. Although I may not be able to have the same cask in my image I will look into the possibility of a wooden board which would link the product to the wood of the cask and the raw and earthy nature of the product. 

-Mark Zawila

Again like the previous image I admire the use of a wooden background and how this links into the production of the product. I also like the fact its rather dark apart from the whisky its self. Im my view this does two things, first more technically it draws the eye to the centre of the frame and untimely the bottle. However I also feel that the darkness also references the almost dark and mysterious atmosphere surrounding the whisky industry. Lastly and most importantly however with this image I love how the low angle really conveys a sense of power and dominance in the bottle. Its sitting price of place in the centre of the frame, and us the viewer are looking up at it.

-Alen Kirn

The last of my research Images is one that I've always been fascinated with, I love how this image represents the whisky. The dark black and grey rocks give a raw and earthy feeling to the shot, you can almost visualise it washing up on a beach although it's not actually shown in the image. This is defiantly something I want to try and capture in my image, I could possibly do this by using dark gravel or rocks in the foreground or background.

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Illuminate First Shoot

Following on from the revised plan I posted here is my first attempt at shooting for this brief. I am happy with my result how ever I want to experiment more with composition, although not technically required as part of course work anymore I may still work more on this.

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Illuminate Plan

My original plan for illuminate was to photograph a ww2 bunker I knew of however due to the covid-19 outbreak this has not been possible. My new plan is to photograph my grandfathers accordion in my loft. I think this subject suits the technique of painting with light well due to the large variety of different textures and items which could be incorporated into the scene