Title: The Shape of an Icon

"This is a photograph of red paint poured into water and shaped into the silhouette of the iconic Heinz ketchup bottle, with labels and cap added to complete the effect. The image was created in a series of lessons for my photography student, Ian Bianco. The first lesson involved shooting red acrylic paint being poured into a fish tank of water which required a fast studio flash and careful timing to capture the pour at the best moment.

The second lesson was shooting the classic Heinz glass ketchup bottle for it's labels, cap and overall shape. The third lesson was compositing the elements together in Photoshop, which involved stripping out the labels and cap using the pen tool, creating a guide outline of the bottle shape also using the pen tool, and then finally pushing the pixels of the best paint pour to fit within the boundaries of the outline guide using the liquify tool. I left the lower sides and bottom of the pour in its naturally captured state to add an organic randomness to the overall image."