Lighting, Layers, and Pinot Noir: Behind the Scenes of a Portfolio Build

I’ve always loved clean commercial photography — the crisp lines, the graphic polish, the challenge of making glass behave. There’s a satisfying precision to it, especially when you’re working with reflective surfaces like wine bottles. Everything has to be intentional: the highlights, the shadows, the angles. You can’t fake it — the image either works or it doesn’t.

But lately, I’ve been chasing something more layered: light that breathes, props with meaning, scenes that feel lived-in. I want my work to say more than “here is a product.” I want it to hint at place, memory, and mood — without losing the clarity and structure I’ve always admired.

This shoot with Bread & Butter’s 2023 Pinot Noir became the perfect intersection of both — part product study, part moody still life, part quiet nod to the wine’s flavor profile. A little commercial, a little cinematic, and fully aligned with the new direction my portfolio is taking.

---

From Precision to Presence: Lighting the Scene

I started with a MagMod stripbox behind a scrim to carve out clean highlights on the bottle edges. The stripbox gave me directional, controlled light, and the scrim softened it just enough to keep the glass looking elegant instead of harsh. Without the scrim, the rim light would have been sharper and more reflective, which can be great for some products — but for wine, I wanted a smoother, more painterly transition from light to shadow.

On the opposite side, I placed a white fill card camera right. Its job was to gently lift the shadows and keep the labels readable without flattening the image. Without the fill, the shadows would have been deeper, moodier, and more dramatic — but they also might have hidden important label details. This balance of contrast and clarity is where commercial precision meets editorial mood.

I LOVE my MagMod gear for this type of setup. It’s super quick and easy to use, and it gives me the precision I need without slowing me down. I’ve tried plenty of modifiers over the years, but MagMod is the one system I keep reaching for — especially when I want lighting that’s both precise and intuitive. The magnetic system is fast, solid, and lets me adapt on the fly so the lighting feels custom to the scene, not dictated by the gear.

At the end of the shoot, I gradually pulled pieces back to study the light: first the fill card, then the scrim, then the flash altogether — returning to natural light to feel the difference. It’s wild how mood shifts with the smallest tweaks. Check out how the light changes in each image below.

---

---

Grounding the Glass: Flavor Notes as Visual Cues

I didn’t want this to feel sterile — too clean, and it turns into a catalog shot. I wanted polish, yes, but with presence. So I pulled from the wine’s tasting notes to build a subtle visual narrative: the earthiness of mushroom, the warmth of cinnamon, the brightness of blackberry. Not overt. Just enough to suggest a place, a season, a feeling. Something grounded. Something you might not notice at first, but that settles in once you look a little longer.

Tasting Note	Prop Choice	Visual Effect
Earthy mushroom	Foraged mushroom	Grounds the scene, seasonal cue
Cinnamon spice	Cinnamon stick	Warmth + subtle movement in shape
Blackberry fruit	Fresh blackberries	Adds color pop + tactile texture

---

Beyond the Scroll: How Brands Can Use Editorial-Commercial Imagery

It’s easy to think of food and beverage photography as something that lives and dies on Instagram — a quick hit of attention before the algorithm buries it. But when you approach photography with intention, it becomes so much more than a fleeting post.

Images like the ones from this shoot are versatile assets that can work hard for a brand long after they’ve been posted. A clean, polished product shot might live on your website’s shop page or in your press kit for years. An editorial still life with props can headline a seasonal email campaign, a print ad, or a point-of-sale display. Detail shots can be used for blog posts, brochures, or wine club inserts.

This is the value of blending polish with story: you’re not just creating a pretty picture for social media, you’re building a visual library that tells your brand’s story across platforms — and across time. The return on investment isn’t measured in likes; it’s measured in how well the imagery works for you in every place your customer encounters your brand.

Where these images could live:

📌 Website — product pages, homepage hero banners, “about” sections.

🛍 E-commerce listings — clean bottle shots for online retailers or wine marketplaces.

📰 Press kits & media features — high-res imagery for journalists and publications.

✉ Email campaigns — seasonal promotions, new product announcements, wine club updates.

🖨 Print ads & flyers — magazines, brochures, and event programs.

🏷 Point-of-sale materials — table tents, shelf talkers, tasting menus.

📢 Paid advertising — digital banners, social ad campaigns, billboards.

📓 Editorial features — lifestyle imagery for blog posts or brand storytelling pieces.

---

What I Learned From This Wine Bottle Photography Shoot

1. Clean product light doesn’t have to feel cold.
I used to think commercial lighting meant you had to strip out mood, but the scrim taught me otherwise. By softening the stripbox light just enough, I kept the crisp rim highlights on the bottles while letting the shadows stay rich. That balance meant the shot felt premium without losing warmth — the kind of lighting that works for a brand’s e-commerce and their storytelling campaigns.

2. Editorial styling works in commercial projects when it’s tied to brand or product truth.
Instead of filling the frame with generic props, I pulled directly from the wine’s tasting notes: mushroom for earthiness, cinnamon for spice, blackberry for fruit. That choice kept the styling simple but relevant, which is exactly what makes it easy for brands to use across multiple channels without it looking out of place.

3. Simplicity creates flexibility.
This wasn’t an overbuilt set. A wood table, staggered bottles, and one glass in the background gave me a clean hero shot, a detail frame, and a wide lifestyle image all from the same arrangement. Brands love this because it gives them multiple assets in one shoot; photographers love it because it keeps the focus where it belongs — on the product.

4. Always take the BTS shot.
It’s more than marketing content — it’s a record of your process. Being able to show exactly how light and modifiers shaped a scene builds trust with clients and offers transparency for other creatives. Plus, six months from now, you’ll be glad you can look back and see exactly what worked.

---

More Light. More Story.

I’m in the middle of rebuilding — not just my portfolio, but my entire approach to how I photograph food, products, and the everyday objects that hold meaning. Shoots like this are part experiment, part study, part love letter to light and detail.

I’ll be sharing more behind-the-scenes builds like this as I refine this new direction: slower, more intentional, and deeply rooted in story. Some will be moody product studies. Others might be messy kitchen scenes or quiet portraits of ingredients before they become a meal.

If you’re a brand looking for elevated, storytelling-rich visuals that blend polish with soul — or a photographer curious about using off-camera flash to create moody, cinematic imagery — you’re in the right place.

Stick around. There’s a lot more to come.

---