How I shot my 2nd Favorite Soviet Souvenir

I don't usually bring home souvenirs from my travels... in my mind my photos are the memory jog of the times we had.  (Besides, after awhile your house gets just too cluttered.)  But I made a small exception with my trip to the Soviet Union back in 1988, to document a cultural exchange between Soviet and American High Schools Students.  (You can see my work on that project here.)

This Russian Pepsi bottle is symbolic of that era - back then, the Soviet Union's Ruble was a closed currency; it couldn't be traded in the open market and therefore large Western companies couldn't sell their goods to this large market.  The mangers at Pepsi had a work-around for that - they would barter Pepsi Cola for Russian Vodka, and then sell it abroad.  Brilliant business practice.  I've kept that bottle all these years, and decided to memorialize it with a proper photo for the archives.

But photographing clear objects is hard.  You can't just take a picture of it with a flash and have it come out looking impressive.  You need to have the glass refract some light in order for the shape of the bottle to be visible, yet otherwise perfectly clear.

To make this shot I used one wireless flash, a white wall, and a black book.  It works because of a technique I described 11 years ago in my blog (have I been blogging for that long?)  You can read it here.

The unassuming setup looked like this:

One wireless flash, a white wall, and a black book.

Further proof that you don't necessarily need line-of-sight in order for optical Wireless Flash to work.

And here's the first shot straight from the camera:

I then cropped, straightened, and played with the curves to increase contrast.  The label was exposed separately and blended in Photoshop:

I also had to play around with the light placement to get the bottom of the bottle to show.  That was blended in via Photoshop as well.

Voila!  (Read on to learn what my 1st favorite Soviet souvenir was...)

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(Cool cover shot, eh?)

The "Best of the Blog" series has proven popular with readers who tell me how much they enjoy the blog, and they like having all the best parts available to them without having to sift through 12 years of posts.  "Best of the Blog 3" will be ready shortly, and you can get your .pdf copy for FREE - just be a subscriber to CameraCraft Magazine, send me your receipt, and I'll send it to you when it's finished.

In the Pipeline

Sony A7R IV ebook - .epub and .azw3 versions are now available, as is the printed edition.
The Spanish edition of the A7R IV book is being translated now.

Sony RX-10 IV (the world's most underloved camera) update covering new features of Firmware v2

Fujifilm X-Pro3 by Tony Phillips is being worked on now.  Let me know if you'd like to be put on the waiting list.

Books on the Sony A9 II, A6600, and A6100 are all in the pipeline.  Email for waiting list.


Next Time in Cameracraft

I profile David Crewe, head contributor at SLRLounge.com and official photographer for many Comic-Cons throughout the U.S.

Parting Shot

Four years ago I took this composite image of the grandkids, and only now have I gotten (that's a word!) around to making an enlargement for the office.  This kind of silhouette portraiture makes for great family heirlooms, and I explain how you can do it too in this blog post.

Until next time,

Yours Truly, Gary Friedman

In case you're wondering, THIS is my #1 favorite souvenir from the Soviet Union.  The Zenit ET was state-of-the-art in 1988.  I was a bit smug back then, having the world's best camera (the Minolta Maxxum 9000) with me, but the Russians had the last laugh because their cameras would work in Siberia in the wintertime (whereas camera batteries and then the electronics stop working in low temperatures).