Why water droplets are not visible on my beer photographs?

<p>I tried to photograph a beer with the lighting setup you can see on the first picture.<br>

<img src="http://www.thephotoforum.com/attachments/beer-jpg.121978/" alt="" width="417" height="286" /><br>

I tried white and black background (second picture). How is it possible that the droplets are so clearly visible on the photo above and almost invisible on my photographs (the photos are awful, i know, they are straight out of the camera, i was just experimenting).<br /><br /><img src="http://www.thephotoforum.com/attachments/beer1-jpg.121979/" alt="" width="421" height="318" /><br>

The droplets are partly visible only when I add some side light (third picture), but there is no side light on the first picture (its only a back light). <br /><br /><img src="http://www.thephotoforum.com/attachments/beer3-jpg.121980/" alt="" width="464" height="338" /><br /><br />So what am i missing? Thanks for any tips!</p>

In the set up at the top of your post (I assume it is a screen grab from some tutorial?) the light source is behind the bottle

and the droplets are refracting rather than reflecting light.

 

Also your beer looks lije it is a lot more opaque than the beverage or liquid in the first screengrab.

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<p>So what am i missing?</p>

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<p>Notice how dark the backlit beer bottle is compared to the lighting setup inset in your reference pic? Why are all your shots so much brighter?</p>

<p>There's too many variances in what you're attempting that it might just boil down to you adjusting the angle of the back light to the subject and the angle of the lens, then post process to make the bottle much darker along the sides as in the reference pic in order to enhance the water droplets. Notice there's no side lighting in that reference pic?</p>

<p>I know. My setup was similar.<br>

Its actually not a beer. Its a water with syrup :)</p>

<p>Tim, you are right. The issue was the opacity. I didnt think of that. I tried the same setup with mineral water and real beer. And the result is just fine.</p>

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<p>I know. My setup was similar.</p>

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<p>I'm not seeing that in the catch lights on the side of the glass of the four shots you posted. The inset lighting setup in the reference pic just shows one back light. Even the thumbnails in the reference pic don't even illuminate the product label so there's no side or front lighting.</p>

<p>How do you derive that as similar to your setup?</p>

That may be your problem right there. Try water with a little food coloring. Start with a lityle and gradually add more until

the color in the photograph looks right,

 

Keep the lighting on the background narrowly focused, don't light the entire background.

 

It works even better if use use a translucent slightly diffuse material as the background and put the light behind it. Use

"gobos" (a gobo is a light blocker) to keep the light only where you want it.

<p>Whoops! We cross posted. It's good you resolved your issue, Mi Ki.</p>

<p>So the issue with coloring the water may be diffusing the back light and preventing rim lighting the surround edges of the individual water droplets? That I didn't consider. Clarifying the water just might be the answer as well.</p>

<p>The image at the bottom is of bubbles in clear water which are back/rim lit by sunlight diffused by my kitchen window blinds with available dim ambient surround from overhead kitchen light. </p><div></div>

Another thing to be aware of: when you backlight a glass bottle or vial etc. or a solid transparent piece of glass, that

object becomes a simple lens. Distance between what is in the container and the background inconjunction with the

distance between the container and the camera determines how the background is rendered. The droplets on the outside

of the container act as additional tiny lenses adding their own refractive qualities based on their shape.

Has anyone mentioned _Light: Science and Magic_ yet?

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<p>...that object becomes a simple lens.</p>

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<p>Which explains why the bubbles in the shot of the glass of water has tiny highlights/dark landscapes from the diffused window and shelf the glass was setting on.</p>

<p>Here's the actual amount of diffused light in that shot. The glass I no longer have so, I've substituted the beer mug. There was more surround light than I thought. Most of the dark contrast came from post processing.</p><div></div>