Just before the Covid-19 virus, I was commissioned by Thrive to photograph a campaign welcoming new members. Thrive is a platform, guiding business leaders in creating effective, powerful and meaningful lives.
Jeremy (Art Director, Thrive.eu) came up with the concept of a champagne tower but instead of using champagne, he wanted to use whiskey. The character of whiskey is more in line with the company’s identity and has a more luxurious feel to it. He briefed a rough drawing of how he saw the tower lined up with the bottle and provided a look & feel for the location (see below):
Before the shoot, Jeremy took reference images from my portfolio to brief the look and feel he wanted to achieve:
The shoot
After a three hour drive, we arrived at this incredible (private) monastery library in the south of the Netherlands. When we first entered the library my team and I were stunned by the exceptional quality of light that was falling into the room. We quickly began unloading the van and started setting up the camera equipment in the right position. Once the client and I agreed upon how the setup of the shot was going to be, my assistants carefully started building the whiskey tower, filling up the glasses, and setting up the lights.
The camera I use for almost all of my work (including this shot) is my Phase One XF with a Leaf Credo 50 digital back. The lens for this image was a Schneider 28mm F4.5 LS set at F4.5 with a shutter speed of 1/100 and ISO 400. The reason I didn’t use a faster shutter speed is that I wanted the sunlight to really enhance the light in the room. In order to freeze the whiskey that was being poured into the glass, we used multiple Broncolor Siros 800 flash heads which have a very short flash duration even at high powered settings. That makes these strobes perfect in freezing action such as liquid or fast-moving objects.
As soon as all the lights were in place, we started shooting. It took us about 50 tries to get the bottle, hand, and liquid in the place we were aiming for. Note: no good whiskey was harmed during the making of these images.
As you can see in the final image compared to the behind the scenes you see the direction of sunlight is different. Prior to the shoot the client made a rough sketch in Photoshop (see below) and draw the light beams coming through the windows behind the whiskey tower. During this shoot, the camera stayed on the tripod at exactly the same position. This made it possible to use different parts of the background while the direction of sunlight rapidly changed during the shoot.
Back at the studio, we selected different images for the client to review and make a final decision. Beside different positions of the bottle, hand, and liquid we also shared multiple images of how the sun rays filled up the room. Because everything was shot on a tripod that didn’t move during the shoot we could combine the best of both the whiskey tower and the background in Photoshop. Jeremy and my team agreed that with the sun rays behind the tower it was simply too heroic/fake/epic/perfect, you name it.
Jeroen Nieuwhuis is a commercial portrait photographer based in the Netherlands. Shooting professionally since the age of 17 (now 28) he continuously works for clients all across the globe and has worked with some of the largest advertising companies such as Heineken, JBL, Harman Kardon, Shimano, Johnnie Walker. His work gained international attention when his image was awarded first prize at the Red Bull Illume 2013 in the category close-up. Besides his advertising work, Jeroen also works on numerous personal projects that take him all over the globe. His most recent project, about the life of the American Mountain Men, is a photography documentation shot over a three year period showcases some of the most beautiful but also extreme conditions these men are putting themselves in every day.
Instagram: @jeroennieuwhuis
Photographer: Jeroen Nieuwhuis - www.jeroennieuwhuis.com
Client: Thrive
Art director: Jeremy van Bedijk
Assistants: Thijs Wijdeveld - Jesse Bosch - Ramon Olthof
