WHAT PROCESS DO WE USE TO PHOTOGRAPH COCKTAILS?
You’re a bar or restaurant owner. You know your business and the last thing you need is some know-it-all photographer telling you how to run your business. No, I’m not going to do that! But as a photographer, what I’ll do instead is give you a few pointers on how to prepare cocktails or meals to make them more drool-worthy. More importantly, I’ll tell you how to make them good enough that more customers will want to order them, and that will make you money! Sound like a deal? Great! But let’s leave meals to a future post, as after all, some of the best things in life can be worth waiting for!
Now I hear you saying that you serve customers cocktails all the time, and that already makes you money. I get that. But I want you to attract even more customers. A good cocktail may taste good, but that does not mean it will appear drool-worthy in a photograph. And I only want to shoot those drinks that are drool-worthy as good quality photography attracts new customers who order more drinks and put more money in your till. If more money sounds good, then let’s get going.
We don’t just photograph the finished beverage to create a great cocktail image. Quality cocktail photography is all about capturing the drink at its best. Ultimately, it’s not about the cocktail, even though you need new customers to see those images, it’s about the desire that those images create. The key is to make everyone who views your images immediately feel thirsty, desire that cocktail, and ultimately purchase one.
Now here comes the challenge! The tricky thing with most cocktails is that they have a limited lifespan, and if left too long they will die due to ice melting, the garnish wilting or the drink just appearing melty and sweaty due to condensation buildup. This means we do not have much time to capture a cocktail before it no longer appears attractive. The other problem is that when we have a drink in front of us, we look down on it. But except for a minority of overhead images, a camera views drinks head-on, so the drink can look completely different to the camera than how you or I may view it, and that’s key when attempting to make anything appear drool-worthy.
The solution to this is to shoot the cocktail in steps, which begins with setting up each shot before the cocktail is made, or at least before it’s poured into the glass. This requires setting up the scene, deciding on the shooting position and the angle from which the shot will be taken. It will also require assessing the lighting and may even require repositioning the scene accordingly to obtain the best lighting for that particular image. We generally like to take some test shots with an empty glass to see if the lighting and every other aspect of the scene look good before the cocktail is poured. Yes, you read correctly! While it may seem obvious to provide a photographer with the completed drink, what we need first is just an empty glass, and yes, our initial images will be just that, an empty glass.
Once we have the lighting just as we need it, we’ll then add ice and repeat that process, making any lighting adjustments that are needed. Once we are happy with our second round of images, we will finally, and very carefully, pour the cocktail into the glass, and if necessary, make a third round of lighting adjustments, and quickly shoot before the cocktail starts breaking down. It’s all about the light, the light must be right! And if all that isn’t challenging enough, just picking up and moving a drink can leave drip marks, or legs on the glass, or a garnish could easily be moved or fall into the drink. The last thing we want is to ask you for a replacement just because the initial cocktail died, so we must be diligent in avoiding these issues. Actually, we can move cocktails without creating these problems but how we do it is our trade secret. If you hire us, then we’ll share it with you!
Yes, shooting a cocktail can be one long drawn-out process but that’s what drool-worthy photography is all about. But it’s fun. And I can already hear your till working overtime, so perhaps having a photographer tell you how to run your business wasn’t so bad after all!
True Images Photography provides professional beverage and food commercial photography that gets your business noticed. Feel free to book a free 30-minute consultation here.
Do look around the rest of the blog here for more helpful posts, and if you have any questions please reach out. I’m happy to advise. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn where I always answer messages with a detailed reply.