(c) Roger Overall 2009 - www.rogeroverall.net
It was the best assignment that I ever had.
The client flew me to Italy, along with the art director, and we stayed three nights at a wine estate about 20 miles south of Genoa. The flights were business class, of course.
The plan was to spend two days shooting an advertising photograph of a new salad dressing the client was releasing into the Irish market. The estate was the ideal setting, as the client was keen to get a picture with lots of sunshine in a Mediterranean outdoor location.
Into the bargain, we were able to use some of the estate’s superb Italian Chablis in the photograph. And once opened, the bottle had to be finished. That’s the rule.
The client …
Sorry?
“20 miles south of Genoa?”
Er … well … y’know …
“Chablis” in Italy?
Erm … It was a progressive vineyard?
Okay, you got me.
It never happened.
The picture above was taken inside a delicatessen in Rathcormac, Co. Cork, on a wet Monday afternoon.
Here’s the proof:
(c) Roger Overall 2009 - www.rogeroverall.net
So, what’s going on here?
First there’s the set up. The furniture is usually outside the delicatessen (Posh Nosh), but stowed inside as it was Monday, when the shop is closed.
The flowers behind the table there are in fact one of the shop’s hanging baskets, plucked from the wall outside. All the other bits and pieces, including the lettuce, bread and wine were culled from the shop’s inventory.
Here’s how we built it up from scratch.
The bare bones:
(c) Roger Overall 2009 - www.rogeroverall.net
Bringing in the hanging basket in the background:
(c) Roger Overall 2009 - www.rogeroverall.net
Time to look at the lighting.
The lighting scheme was very simple. Two lights. One bounced off the ceiling to give a general ambient. The other coming in from the left with an orange gel on it to suggest golden sunlight.
(c) Roger Overall 2009 - www.rogeroverall.net
This doesn’t work at all. The low light suggests evening rather than lunch time, a more appropriate salad time of day. So we shifted the light up higher.
(c) Roger Overall 2009 - www.rogeroverall.net
A bit better directionally, but far too warm for a lunch time sun. Using the camera’s white balance setting, I cooled the image somewhat.
At this stage we also dressed the set up a bit more:
(c) Roger Overall 2009 - www.rogeroverall.net
The next step was to rig a “tree” using gaffer tape and tissue to cast shadows across the table, as if it were set up in the shade.
And as a last tweak, I put up a reflector to the right to fill in the shadow side of the bottle.
Final result:
(c) Roger Overall 2009 - www.rogeroverall.net
