# bottle pics



## baltbottles (Sep 24, 2003)

Dose anyone know a way to photograph a bottle and get a good clear pic of all the embossing and to do it with a perfectly white background. I plan to write a book on baltimore sodas and would like to include pics of all the known variations.

 Chris


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## Pontiled (Sep 29, 2003)

What kind of cameras are you using? Are you very experienced with photography?

 You may have to forget a brilliant (pure) white background, especially if you use a digital camera and are photographing a cobalt-blue bottle. Most of mine are photographed with a 20-percent gray background, but, even then, the angle of the camera, embossing, and lights will make the difference between a nice clear photo and one that is not acceptable to readers. A clear bottle, on the other hand, can be photographed on a white background with the proper angles of lights and embossing. You'll have to experiment a bit, but you'll get it right, but there is no real correct answer in general.

 Good luck with the book!


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## baltbottles (Oct 3, 2003)

Hi, Thanks everyone for the help i managed to get some better results but I am still having trouble with lighter colored and aqua bottles. Here are links to a few sample pics. I use a Sony DSC-D770 digital camera it has many features including a white balance. I use two 100 watt spot lights in the front of the bottle I move them around until I can get the embossing to show and a have a 500 watt painters light positioned above the bottle slightly behind it to provide back lighting. This setup seems to work great for darker bottles but washes out the lighter examples. Any more ideas

 Chris


 http://www.geocities.com/baltbottles/soda1.jpg
 http://www.geocities.com/baltbottles/soda2.jpg
 http://www.geocities.com/baltbottles/soda3.jpg
 http://www.geocities.com/baltbottles/soda4.jpg
 http://www.geocities.com/baltbottles/soda5.jpg
 http://www.geocities.com/baltbottles/soda6.jpg
 http://www.geocities.com/baltbottles/med1.jpg
 http://www.geocities.com/baltbottles/med2.jpg


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## Pontiled (Oct 3, 2003)

Chris, 

 I took the image of the Couley's Fountain of Health and "tweaked" it a bit with Microsoft's Photo Editor and could improve it a bit by increasing the brightness and going up one click with the contrast. These are typical aqua bottles from that period of time and won't usually come up much better. On this particular bottle, I would use a background that is a bit lighter and focus the light at the same angle but on the fountain design as long as you don't get any light flash on the fountain. Take a look at your image and mine and you will see the difference.

 I'll comment more a bit later (dinner's on the table).

 Mike


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## Pontiled (Oct 3, 2003)

Hi Chris,

 Now, to continue...

 In the image produced from yours, with some "tweaking," notice that the image is lighter and more like the real bootle would like if it were in front of you. It is still aqua, of course, but the image is a brighter image now. By increasing the contrast a little, the letters and design are also more crisp. Note the design (fountain) now has the lines in the center and more lettering begins to show. If  it had more contrast, the image would begin to break up with sharp lettering and it would no longer look like the actual bottle.

 Remember, the image I produced was *from* your image. That tells you that you can do it by simply playing with the image you would get from your camera. No magic was involved! The sharper image you can get, the better image you can get after working with Microsofts program or most others that will work on improving an image. Microsoft's program is inexpensive. I have other photo/design software, but I chose to go with Microsoft's for simplicity's sake. These images will all come out a bit better, but, as you indicated, the darker ones are better because of the more discerable contrast on the bottle itself. That also is why I chose to use the aqua bottle (it is more difficult to tweak).

 With only a little work, these images will be useful for even the most contrary publisher you can find!

 Mike


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## Pontiled (Oct 9, 2003)

You're welcome


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## Harry Pristis (Oct 13, 2003)

Hello, Mike . . .

 Now I understand your other post about manners.

 But, your advice is useful for lots of readers.  Thanks you!  

 Besides the mechanics of good lighting (diffused, color-balanced light, and back-lighting), I think pix of clear bottles are improved with more aggressive use of image-processing software.  I use 500w incandescent photo lamps and my x-ray film-viewer for back-lighting.  Even so, the soft-ware tweeking is crucial.

 My first move is to jack up the "brightness" until the background is blanked out (the bottle may appear slightly washed out at this point).  Then I crank up the "contrast" until the bottle image is sharp.  It's hard to quantify this tweeking, it just has to be done by eye.  The majority of the posted pix on this forum would benefit from this basic "brightness/contrast tweeking."

 If there is a shadow or other distraction in the image, I may just "erase" it.  If there is a distracting flare on the bottle, this can be touched up using the "brush tool" or the "cloning tool."

 You just have to learn how to use these tools by practice.  This is time-consuming at first, and not something everyone will enjoy doing.  But try it, see how you like it.

 ----------Harry Pristis


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## Pontiled (Oct 15, 2003)

Hi Harry (and all). First, my comments posted elsewhere were *general* comments and not specifically aimed at anyone. Just an observation.

 I  think your approach to photographing bottles is right on the nose, especially where you mentioned that it's not something you can get a set of specific instructions for (paraphrasing). You do have to experiment a bit and one set of "experimentations" will not necessarily work on the next bottle. For most anyone with a digital  camera, it's not costly to experiment, but for someone with a 35-mm camera, my sympathies go to you.

 What I had mentioned before about a 15-20% gray background will work, and, if you experiment, it will produce a nice background or none at all (white), depending on the contrast / brightness found during experimenting.

 I'd love to see a few more pictures from the people who are reading this post.


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## Harry Pristis (Oct 16, 2003)

Nice bottle, Roger!

 What did you do to get that nice image?  Lighting?  Software tweeking?  Background?

 -------------Harry Pristis


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## Pontiled (Oct 16, 2003)

Harry, at this rate, I'll have to hire him to take my next pictures!


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## Harry Pristis (Oct 16, 2003)

Mike, 

 Have you substituted pictures for line-drawings in your new edition of "...Civil War Era Bottles..." or are you using the images somewhere else?  Got a website with a description of your books?

 -----------Harry Pristis


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## Pontiled (Oct 17, 2003)

Harry, we're still using the same line drawings since most of the readers said they showed better detail. The last edition had quite a number of new entries, updated price ranges, and a bit more text. The third edition will be the final edition as I'm getting a bit too old now to continue and there are fewer new entries now.

 We just installed a new computer here, so we haven't gotten around to getting a new Web site yet. I'll let you all know when we have it. Business systems are a bit more complicated, but they certainly are powerful! You have to remember that the first computer system I worked on was very primitive! The printer room was as big as the average size of a modern kitchen and everything was transferred to storage tapes for printing. When I was teaching, I was one of the "old guys" who could bring in some of the vacuum tubes and components from the old systems for the classes to actually see!

 I'm sure glad that we progressed!


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## baltbottles (Oct 20, 2003)

Hi,

 I want to thank everyone that has mad suggestions on my photo issues. It seams that the consensus is that you can't get perfect pictures directly from the camera. But you must use the digital darkroom of a good photo editor program to tweak the pictures.

 Chris


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## Pontiled (Oct 20, 2003)

That's right Chris, the photo is just the beginning of the process. The better the photo, the better you will end up after *processing* it.

 Good luck!


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## lost marble (Oct 20, 2003)

To avoid reflections there's a spray available in good photographic stores that'll give anything a temporary matt finish.  Here in the UK it's called 'dulling spray'! http://www.speedgraphic.co.uk/pdfiles/p84-85.pdf


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## mercabago55 (Jan 4, 2004)

[8|]Hello Out there
 I am the new guy (mercabago55)
 I have several Warners Bottles that I have had for 25 years plus.We dug most of them up,
 (my wife and I), in upstate N.Y. in the mid seventies. We now live in upstate South Carolina.
 Want to know how to show pictures on these forums. We have a digital camcorder(new).
 That has a memory card and I am able to load still pictures on my computer.But that is as far as Ive got. Have not taken pictures of the bottles yet. My wife has a large collection of fruit jars also. We are planning on selling these collections but want to do it so they get into the hands of collectors and not dealers.
     Well thats it for now hope to hear from any body with good suggestions etc.
                                  Thanks John (Jack) Curtis


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## mercabago55 (Jan 5, 2004)

[]Thank You kawdog
 Got the info. Will try it and let you know. Jack
 mercabago55


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## David E Dearden (Jan 18, 2004)

Hello I will be getting a new computor and diginol camera. Does anyone have any suggestion, Such as easy way to load picture to site. Do some new computors come with new ports or what every just for loading phots, also  advise on which Diginol camera to buy
 Thanks
 David Dearden


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## woody (Jan 18, 2004)

With all the digital cameras out there it would be hard to pick out one specific model to buy.
 The prices are really coming down alot and the quality is getting better.
 I say get the best you can afford.
 When you buy it it will have instructions that will tell you how to load pictures to your computer.
 I just got a handy cam digital camcorder that connects to a USB port on the back of my computer.
 My digital camera uses a floppy disc to upload to my computer.
 I have a Sony Mavica digital camera.
 The more mega pixels the better the quality of the photos.


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## Harry Pristis (Jan 18, 2004)

*RE: bottle pics - digital cameras*

For info and recommendations on buying a digital camera, check out 
 www.ConsumerReports.org

 Consumer Reports top-rated 3-megapixel camera is the Fujifilm FinePix 3800 at list price $340.

 Their "Best Buy" is the 3-megapixel Fujifilm FinePix A303 at list price $220. 

 More than 3 megapixels is only useful if you want to print really big, high-quality pix, or if you want to do sophisticated manipulations of your images.

 Me?  I am limping along with a 1.3 megapixel camera.

 Hope this helps.

 --------------Harry Pristis


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