Making a splash with Champagne

Have you ever had an idea for a shoot lingering in the back of you mind… something you wanted to try but never had the opportunity?  One of mine has always been to shoot a cork popping out of a Champagne bottle.  I can visualize how to make it work.  When the assignment came up for the Saturday section of the Los Angeles Times, I jumped at the chance to shoot it.

My goal was to convey the energy of the cork blasting out of the bottle. To achieve this, I added a hint of blue light around the cork for more separation. The trick was catching the cork in full flight.  Why not position the cork directly below the bottle upside down? 

Gravity would cause the Champagne would flow from the bottle, hit the cork and create a splash.  (In post-production I would simply rotate the photo 180 degrees and voila!  Instant explosion!)  I left room to crop the image in post in case I wanted to have it tilting at a 30- or 45-degree angle.

Setting up the shot

Both the cork and bottle were clamped to separate light stands so neither would move. I placed the cork, with the cage still attached, pointing straight down for maximum flow potential.  I used a Dremel tool with a glass-cutting blade and cut the bottom off the bottle so liquid could be poured through again and again until I was satisfied with the shot.   (Note: be sure to sand down the sharp edges of the bottle so you do not cut your fingers.  And it might be a good idea to wrap the edge with gaffer’s tape as insurance.)

  I placed a bucket under the cork to collect the run-off and placed towels around that to collect the additional spill.  The pour was achieved by trial and error until I was happy with the energy and pop.

I lit the photograph with a medium bank and a white fill card to achieve the highlights on the bottle and also lit the liquid to get the translucent feel.  I chose a black background to absorb stray light.

Even though the cork is the smallest element in the picture, the image reveals the incredible power of color, because the eye is drawn directly to the color, the movement of the cork and the splash of blue in the background.

The most challenging part of the shoot was keeping my focus with all of the Champagne flowing.