WHISKY
SMOKE Five setups. Four products. One campaign.

Primary Light

Godox Large Parabolic — Overhead Boom

A large Godox parabolic reflector (120cm+ diameter) with honeycomb grid is mounted overhead on a boom arm. The parabolic shape concentrates light more directionally than a standard softbox, creating a harder, more specular highlight on the glossy bottle body while still maintaining some diffusion. It also backlights the airborne water mist, making each droplet appear as a bright sparkle against the dark background.

Secondary Light

Godox Strip Softbox — Side Key

A Godox strip softbox with honeycomb grid is positioned camera right, approximately at table height. This provides a thin vertical specular highlight along the body wash bottle's edge — creating the separation between the near-black bottle and the dark background. Without this side strip, the glossy black bottle would vanish entirely against the dark set.

The Water Mist Technique

Pump Sprayer — Mist While Shooting

The operator uses a standard garden pump spray bottle (green bottle visible in BTS) filled with water, sprayed upward into the frame from camera left or above while the camera is firing. The spray is backlit by the overhead parabolic — each individual water droplet is frozen by a fast shutter speed (1/1000s+). Requires continuous shooting burst mode and selecting the best frame from 10–20 spray attempts.

Surface

Black Reflective Acrylic — Mirror Surface

The shooting surface is a large black acrylic or polished black tile sheet creating a mirror-like reflection of the product and props. This doubles the visual information — product + reflection — and adds depth. The reflection of the overhead parabolic also appears as a bright soft oval in the surface, creating a second light source "below" the product. Surface must be kept immaculately clean — every water drop or fingerprint is visible.

Props

Ice Chunks + Wood Bark — Brand Storytelling

Ice chunks are placed camera left; a piece of rough wood bark or driftwood camera right. These props reinforce the "Whisky Smoke Bourbon" brand narrative — ice for the cocktail serve, wood/bark for the smoke and barrel aging. Both props are wet-down before shooting so they catch the overhead light with texture detail. Ice must be shot quickly — 15–20 minute window before it becomes water.

Lighting

Same Parabolic Rig — Overhead

The same Godox large parabolic overhead setup is used. For the coffee bean scene, the light rakes across the textured bean surface, creating depth and shadow between individual beans. The parabolic is positioned slightly more angled (not straight overhead) to achieve a sidelight effect across the bean field, increasing texture drama.

Atmosphere

Fog Machine — Low Ground-Level Smoke

A fog machine or dry ice cooler is used to produce dense, low-lying white smoke that hugs the table surface. The smoke is directed from off-frame toward the product. The overhead parabolic backlights the smoke, creating volumetric wisps visible as a silver/white haze around the base of the product. Smoke is introduced just before shooting — it dissipates in 30–60 seconds.

Surface / Props

Coffee / Peppercorn Beans — Full Coverage

The table surface is completely covered in dark brown beans (appears to be a mix of coffee beans and peppercorns, or possibly roasted coffee beans only). They are spread edge-to-edge with depth — the product sits within the sea of beans, surrounded on all sides. The irregular, organic texture of the beans creates a natural depth-of-field effect at wide apertures — sharp at product level, blurring into abstraction at the edges.

Product Stability

Product Spike — Hidden in Beans

The thin black product spike or pin is pressed into the table surface through the bean layer — the lip balm tube is slid over or held by the spike, keeping it perfectly upright in the unstable bean environment. The spike is invisible in the final shot because it's surrounded by beans. Alternative: a small ring stand or sticky wax (museum putty) under the base.

Platform Rig

Glass / Acrylic Sheet — Clamped Workbench

A large piece of thick glass or clear acrylic (approximately 24"×24") is clamped to a wooden workbench frame using red woodworking F-clamps at each corner. The glass extends past the bench — this overhang allows water poured on the glass to flow and drip off the edge, creating the cascade effect visible in the final shot. The product sits on the glass surface in the center. The transparent glass allows a background light to show through beneath/behind it.

Water Technique

Live Pour — Blue Cup from Off-Frame

Water is poured directly from a blue plastic cup onto the glass platform while the camera fires in burst mode. The pour is directed from camera right, slightly behind the product so the cascading water wraps around and drips in front of and to the sides. The operator pours in a controlled arc rather than a single stream — this creates the wide waterfall effect visible in the final shot. The glass edge acts as a natural waterfall lip.

Background Light

Warm Orange / Amber Gel BG — Gradient Sweep

A light source behind the glass platform is gelled with an orange/amber CTO gel, creating the warm gradient background visible in the final shot. The light shines through the glass, reflecting in the water surface, and creates the rich amber-to-dark-brown gradient from top to bottom. This warm BG color is the entire color story of the soap shot — complementing the orange soap bar's color exactly.

Key Light

Snooted LED — Low Front, Raking Across Wood

A snooted or grid-equipped LED panel is positioned at a very low angle (almost floor level), camera left, aimed across the wood surface at the products. This raking light catches every texture grain in the wooden risers and warms the front of the products dramatically. The BTS frame shows a compact LED head on a floor stand aimed across the table at near-horizontal angle. This is the primary separation light in the family shot.

Atmosphere

Fog Machine — Full Scene Haze

A fog machine fills the entire shooting area with atmospheric haze — not just the base, but throughout the whole scene. This is a full-room atmospheric fog, not the ground-level dry ice used in Setup 03. The haze makes the snooted side light visible as volumetric shafts and rays that cut across the scene and are visible in the BTS frame drifting toward the softbox. Adds cinematic depth and a moody, aged atmosphere.

Product Risers

Geometric Wood Riser Set — Height Variation

Multiple geometric wooden risers — cubes, cylinders, wedge shapes, and a large tree-slice/log cross-section — are used to create a three-tier height arrangement. The EDP flacon (hero product) is centered and highest. The body wash is to the right on a mid-height riser. The soap sits at the base level front-center. The lip balm is small and flanks at left on a low riser. This creates a hierarchy of visual importance.

Composition

Front-On Hero — Low Angle, 3/4 Tilt

The camera is at a low 3/4 angle looking slightly up at the product arrangement. This makes the products look imposing and heroic rather than small. The warm wood risers in the foreground fall slightly out of focus at the edges. The black background fades to total darkness. The fog catches the side light, creating depth layers: lit products → dark mid zone → lit haze layer → black background.