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10 things you can shoot this month, from guitars and wild heather to kestrels and harbours... and yourself

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1 | CREATIVE

Assemble and light product shots

Wendy Evans gets all fragrant with this guide to shooting old perfume and cologne bottles

This month's creative project can be tackled with perfume, cologne, aftershave, eau de toilette, fragrance or whatever name you might care to apply to the stuff that makes everyone smell better in crowded spaces. The idea is to save your empty bottles - this might work better with women's fragrances because, besides having a better aroma, the designs tend to be more interesting.

How you approach this project depends on the kind of lighting equipment you happen to have. For example, one option is to put coloured card behind the bottle and fire a light at it using a modifier, such as a snoot (a cone that produces a spot of light), then light the foreground with another light. You could create a pleasing halo effect behind the bottle, but you need to watch out for shadows. The other option is to use reflective card and just one light, which is what I'm doing here.

1. Make your own

One way to focus your light, whether it's an LED unit or a flashgun, is to use a homemade snoot. For this, I took some of the silver card, rolled it up until it tapered to a point, then stuck it down with tape. I added another sheet to cover the gap at the bottom, cutting out a slot for it to fit over the bracket on the stand.

2. Setting it up