retouch contrast variations in bottle shot

[mattp]

All,

I have taken some shots of wine bottles for my photography portfolio but as with most products they require a small amount of touching. The area that I am seeking advice on is how to even out and correct any contrast variations caused by the slight differences in angle of light and bottle thickness.

Would on approach be to turn up the contrast to high, to exasperbate the problem, then dodge and burn where required and when complete, return the contrast back to normal?

Any of tips on smoothing out unwanted variations in contact and saturation?
Cheers Matt

[mistermonday]

Hi Matt, I would definitely not adjust the contrast of the image itself. Instead, add a curves adjustment layer above it and add contrast with a S shape of the curve. When you have finished D&B you can delete that layer.
Attenuating the contrast across the transition can be done effectively with D&B. However depending on the details in that transition region you can also use an inverted high pass layer (also known as bandpass or degrunge layer) as it can be faster than D&B.
You can start with this quick tutorial on RetouchPro to get you started with the concept.
http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=213
Regards, Murray

[mattp]

Thanks for the help, i'll certainly try what you have suggested!