Hey, first time posting :) found this bottle in the woods in MA, looks relatively new, but I can't find anything about the makers mark and it's driving me nuts, so any help would be greatly appreciated! Seam goes to the lip, says "not to be refilled", "no deposit ⭐ no return" and on the bottom, looks to be "1B" and "3" and a logo of 3 lines in a mountain shape with an oval superimposed on it? TIA and sorry for poor pic quality, I cracked a lens :(

All of them was on the surface or visible from the surface.

I have been looking for the old dump behind my moms place off and on. These was found because of an old mine runoff. The mason jar is a pat 1906 along with some misc jars and bottles. The little green one is a 70s 80s mini Mt Dew bottle for sure.

Thinking I found the dump 😂.

Anyway, any help with suggestions to remove the buildup on them? I have a couple of them soaking at the moment in some warm dish water.

🤷‍♂️

Sa

Hi everyone. In this post, I plan to provide advice for taking pictures of your wonderful bottles in two ways: the "professional" way with a DSLR camera and your phone camera. Most times, if you want to control your background so that you get consistent images, the key will be to have a studio setup with a DSLR or mirrorless camera (the latter being the fancy new wave of digital cameras). If you don't care that much and just want to take good pictures on the fly, then you don't need to shell out a grand or two.

I dunno for whom or if this will be helpful, but I've had some people ask and there are no guides online.

Studio Bottle Photography

Here are some examples of my current pics using a "studio." This studio includes:

• Canon EOS Rebel SL3 camera
• Macro 100mm f/2.8 lens
• A good tripod (do not cheap out on these...)
• Two GODOX strobe lights w/ light modifiers, one set directly behind/above the camera and one behind the translucent backdrop
• A hotshoe that is compatible with both the lights and the camera
• A folding table
• A backdrop (honestly, just a stand with clips and a white sheet)
• A white tablecloth (I use the opaque backdrop that came with the set)
• Some "flags"

All in all, with trial-and-error included, I probably spent around $2000. I do this as another hobby, but also I write books about the bottles in my state so I need high quality, consistent images without my grubby hands holding the bottle.

The most important part of bottle photography is light! You need to know how to get contrast in the embossing and edges. The way that you can do that is by having a diffuse, bright light source directly behind your bottle, but make sure that the backdrop is a few feet behind from the bottle. Strobes are effective because they get incredibly bright for the fraction of a second your camera shutter opens and closes. Like, brighter than daylight. This is incredibly helpful for amber bottles.

For those who have cameras, I usually use these settings to prevent the bottle from getting blown out in brightness:

• f/10 @ 1/200 shutter speed
• Embossed bottles: the front strobe I keep off (or at 1/32) for embossed bottles, with the strobe behind the bottle at 1/16.7-1/8 (front strobe is at the front of the bottle, rear strobe behind it)
• ACL or pyro bottles: the front strobe is set to 1/8-1/4, the rear one at 1/16-1/16.7
• Paper labeled bottles: Depends. If it's a shiny label, treat it like an ACL, if it's an old medicine label, go 1/4 on the front to start. Either way, only use 1/16.7 for the rear.

And you will want the physical setup to be such that the lens is level with the bottle. You will need around a 10x10' area to do photography of most bottles. Starting with the strobe that is behind the bottle, I use a light cone with a diffuser over it, then place that 3-4' behind the backdrop. That will give it time to widen the light, since light widens from its source at a 1/d^2 rate. Then the backdrop diffuses the light even more. Have the bottle on the table 3-4' in front of the backdrop (important! this draws contrast), level with the strobe behind the backdrop. You then setup your camera on a good tripod, level with the bottle. The distance will vary, but you want the bottle to take up the entire height of the view in the camera. Setup the final strobe behind the camera, but higher than it, with a lightbox diffuser on it. Use the settings I listed above to start with, but you're ready to shoot! Make sure the bottle is facing the camera of course.

All of this is subject to change depending on your camera and lens which kind of sucks, but this is at least what I do.

Phone Photography

Remember, the most important part is the light. Use a bright light source behind the bottle, preferably diffuse, like the sun behind some light blinds. Otherwise you will get weird, unbalanced light with hard to read embossing and the color of your bottle won't be well-represented. Keep your mitts off the bottle if possible. Try to set it on a table or window sill. You want the bottle to make up most of the frame.

What is nice about bottle photography is that you can have the bottle in more environments. You can have a cool shoot outside, or you can take pictures while digging, or just on the fly in an antique store. A digital camera is fragile and expensive, so you don't want to risk it breaking. Phone photography gives you a lot more flexibility in that way. I see the two as compliments of each other, but you can obviously get away with just phone pictures.

But really, that's all you need for phone photography of bottles.

Went to my spot today and it don’t disappoint. My first mostly intact Clorox jug (chipped spout) and some cool non-bottle trinkets (cast iron horse and headless Mickey Mouse figurine).