Expert: Kevin Stohlmeyer - 1/25/2012

Question
Hi Kevin,

I am attempting to photograph different products for an e-commerce website.  All of the products are sold in the same type of bottle, but would have different labels on each, coinciding with the contents of each product.  I would like to keep a consistency in the image of the bottle by having one source image of the bottle, and then incorporating layers which would indicate different labels for the differing products.  One of my main obstacles as well is that the bottle is round, so the text on the label would be warped.

I understand my explanation is a bit confusing...some examples of what I'm trying to achieve can be seen with websites that sell sunglasses in a variety of colors.  It appears to be one source image, but the color of the sunglasses (or the lens) change from one thumbnail to the next.  

However, I'm attempting to take this one step further and alter the text within the label. Please let me know if I can provide a clearer explanation.  Any advice/suggestions/instructions would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

Answer
Hi Philip,

You have to be very careful how you proceed with this. When it comes to products that are sold, altering electronically could land you in some trouble if it does not match the actual product. It may look like they altered the shots electronically, but they were actually just all shot the same way with the same lighting, etc.

My first suggestion is to just shoot all the products consistently - when you take photos of the products, set up a "template": position the first shot in a dedicated space with a white background, and then mark the camera location and bottle location so each time you shoot, they are all the same.

However, if you do wish to use Photoshop to edit the labels, first you will need a shot of a bottle and a flattened unwarped label image. Any edits you make to the copy of the label should be made prior to warping it to match the bottle.

After you have altered the labels, select the layer and go to Edit>Transform>Warp. You can then either manually adjust the image to match the curvature of the bottle or using the pulldown menu in the options bar as a starting point, choose "arch" and modify from there.

Hope this helps!

Kevin