All language subtitles for 02-03-Stumpys-Preparing Bottles.mp4

The first brand that we're going to
work with is called stumpies.

And they're local.

And I really like this story.

It's a husband and wife that have owned
this farm.

It's actually the 8th generation in
this family to own the farm, so they're

ingrained there's history there.

But they were kind of evaluating their
life and where they really wanted to

be.

And they decided they wanted to be in
the Bourbon game, that they wanted to

grow their own grain, mashed their own
mash and make their own whiskey from

grain to glass.

They could control the process.

So they bought their first distillery,
had it shipped out from Colorado,

pieced it together, and just began this
journey.

So I love the story from that from that
point of view.

We also took a look at their images
when we first found out about them, and

they really need some help.

This is a great example of how someone
just grabs some images for them, kind

of shine among them on gray, and they
live on the website in both black and

white.

And it just doesn't work.

It really truly Falls apart.

So we want to solve that problem for
them.

We're going to shoot these bottles on
black and then reverse it, and quickly

shoot it on white

and give them heroic,

great images that are going to help
drive the brand.

Before we even get into that, though,
we have

some issues we need to work around with
with stumpies.

And that is the fact that the labels

are not where I want them to be.

They're

put on in a manner, first of all,

where it's not exactly where it should
be.

The seam on this bottle

is going right down behind the label

and in back that's not where I want it.

I always want the seams to be on the
sides

so I can hide them a lot easier.

In the right dead middle.

It really causes some problems, not
only in retouching, but you get a weird

gradient because the glass

has a variance as it comes into that
molded.

So the gradients just get a little bit
more difficult to deal with.

That's why I like to put them on the
side to make it cleaner.

So let's start with my typical process,
which is to get a good razor blade

and go ahead and remove the back label.

Because remember, if I'm lighting this
bottle and I've got light coming from

behind, that back label is doing
nothing but casting a big shadow, just

an absolute black spot with no light.

That completely tanks.

The bottle that's one of the things
that drives me

up the wall when I see images where
people have not removed the back label.

And you can see all that junk it's
terrible.

So you've got to do that first.

Now there are a couple ways to go about
dealing with labels on the back.

So in this particular case, I actually
want to remove all the labeling.

I want to get the front label off.

I want to get the back label off,

even the neck label, because I want to
reposition everything so the seams are

on the side.

That's something to absolutely look for.

I also want to show you a trick.

If you've got to work with only the
front label.

If the client hasn't given you a set of
hero labels and you're stuck,

there's a way to get the back label off
without ruining the front.

It's a really good little trick.

But first

we're going to try to actually go ahead
and take this label off.

Now I have done some experimenting with
this, and this label is really, really difficult.

If you look,

I am actually

really struggling

to get this label off.

The glue is tough.

It's really on there.

Sometimes you can get a corner and you
can just start to peel.

But in this case,

the label's going to shred, it's going
to completely come off, and I'm going

to have nothing but tears.

There are a couple things that I'd like
to do.

If the label's coming off in a decent
fashion.

I want to start from the bottom up.

I want to actually scrape towards myself

that slows me down, and make sure that
I'm doing it in a clean fashion.

When I go the opposite way,

I tend to actually apply more pressure.

And you can go faster.

You can wind up hitting the razor blade
down on your desk, and it can turn into

your hand and can really cause
bleeding.

Not good.

So if you can kind of scrape towards
yourself

with a label like this, it is just not
going to come off at all.

Every little corner is going to peel.

It's going to completely gum up my
razor blade.

It's going to be a problem.

So there's a trick.

Before I get to that,

notice that I've kept the plastic on
the top.

If I have to retain this front label
and the top label, I'm going to do

everything I can to protect that so I
don't ruin it.

I don't want water.

I don't want anything to get on this
front label as I'm trying to remove it.

But I am going to put it in water.

So I have this really shallow

baking pan here, and I'm letting the
back of the bottle rest in it.

I don't want that water to get on the
front, because if I get the water in

the front, I've ruined the label.

I've got to get a new bottle.

I've got to start over.

And now remember, this happens in the
case where you cannot get hero labels,

right?

When you don't have the ability to
place new labels, and you have to use

existing, this is the way to do it.

So I'm going to soak that back label,
and I'm going to let it sit for a few minutes.

I'm just going to roll it ever so
gently,

and I'm also resting it against the
edge.

I'm trying to prevent it from rolling.

I don't want that go whoop.

And then cover the front label, because
then I'm a mess.

It's not going to work,

ok?

While that bottle is resting in the
water, let's go to one that I've

actually already prepared.

And you can see what a difference this
makes.

The back is completely clean.

We've gotten off all the residue.

All the label it's nice and clean,
which means I'm not going to have

anything blocking light coming through.

I'm going to have a good glow that's
coming through my liquid.

I have a new label on the front.

I've lined it up so that the seams, the
edges, are on the side.

That's going to give me a nice clean
face to put the new label on.

And we've put a new neck label on.

Now, again, I've tried to line
everything up nice and straight.

If I didn't get it perfect, when I'm on
set, I can actually shoot for the main

body of the bottle, and I can do a
slight rotation to get the neck label.

And then in post, we can just merge
those two together, and we'll have a

nice straight line between the two
labels, which is what we want to do.

We want to present this in its best

most clean fashion.

These things are hand applied, so we
try to get imperfect, but

there's always room for a little bit of
human air.

So that's going to be our hero bottle.

And we've gone ahead and taken off the
plastic, as not something I ever want

to have on a photograph.

Every once in a while see somebody
photograph it with the plastic on.

Thanks me.

Nuts.

Let's see how this guy's doing.

Now,

that should have soaked up a good
amount of water, and it should be

significantly easier

to scrape off.

I could use a little bit more time,

but you can see that I'm able to get in
there and dig this out better.

This is just one of those labels.

That's really going to take time.

You can see how it's coming off in just
pieces, and it's kind of gumming up my

razor blade.

So what I want to do, I want to grab
the razor blade,

and I want to pull

away from the edge and get that glue
off, so I can go back at it and

continue to take more off.

It's just a process.

It's much better down here,

you can see I'm getting through that
much, much better to take it off,

and it's a lot easier.

I also tend to pull hunks off, keep it
out of the way,

and just take a little time to go at it.

I try to get as much glue off as I can
with the razor blade.

I'm going to have to go back at this
with goof off to get the residue off.

But

goof off

kind of breaks down that glue makes it
kind of gummy and almost spreads it

around.

So the more I can get off with the
razor blade,

the cleaner I'm going to have it when I
go to the goof off process.

Ok?

Now, I've gotten as much glue off as I
can with the rage of blood.

You can see there's still a ton of it
just sticking.

There's a bunch of residue left.

So that's when we turn our friend goof
off,

or a citrus cleaner, or anything that
is made to get off glue,

we're going to soak a little on a paper
towel.

Now, again, I don't want to just pour
it onto the bottle, because it's going

to run down onto the front, it's going
to ruin that front label completely.

So I put a little on a paper towel

and just work one section at a time.

It takes a whole time to get it all off.

I think you can already see

how much better that is.

Now this is a point where you really
want to stop and look at it in good

light.

Because if you just look at it's like,
oh, yeah, that looks pretty good.

You want to hold it up to a light and
really let light reflect off of it.

Because as you can see that there's
still a good amount of residue there.

I want to get it all off.

I really don't want that stuff sitting
there.

It's just going to degrade the quality
of my image.

So it's really well worth your time to
just slow down and make sure that it's clean.

So I repeat this process just a few
times until I make sure that it's good

and clean.

I've got everything off,

ok.

So I feel pretty good about where this
is sitting.

The last thing we would need to do is
remove the plastic off the very top.

Then we can build our set and start
working on white line, black line,