how to photograph beer

Found this link today and thought it was interesting. A lot of techniques mentioned here are typical for product and/or food photography, but you dont need to spend a fortune on equipment to get similar effects at home.

Just thought someone might find this interesting/helpful.

http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/professional-beverage-photography-tips/

So for a measly $800-$1,200 worth of lighting equipment...

I've never even seen a polarising filter that big for a light source.

LandoLincoln said:

So for a measly $800-$1,200 worth of lighting equipment...

I've never even seen a polarising filter that big for a light source.

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Sure, but I guess I was suggesting the general lighting techniques could be used to make our beer photos better - more lighting by a window, maybe a flashlight or a lamp for spot or "interior" bottle lighting, etc.

Just food for thought. Sorry, this probably applies to 2% of the people here. Photography is a hobby of mine.

The biggest turd in photographing beer is the condensation on the glass. Pour the beer warm to help with that, but then you need to dump it or drink it warm.

Photograph it? All this time I've just been drinking it.

My only beer photography problem is finding a surface in my house that's not filthy. Even then I don't care enough to grab some Windex and a rag, most days.

That's where I wish my fil would've sold me some of his lights, etc to use with my other Canon. It'd be even handier now. I used to to some of the photography for his printing company years ago. So I remember some of it, just don't have any of it. Gotta figure out some work-arounds...

jamsomito said:

Sure, but I guess I was suggesting the general lighting techniques could be used to make our beer photos better - more lighting by a window, maybe a flashlight or a lamp for spot or "interior" bottle lighting, etc.

Just food for thought. Sorry, this probably applies to 2% of the people here. Photography is a hobby of mine.

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Mine as well. My attempts at photographing beer has been pretty dismal. With some creative use of DIY materials one could get close to this without the huge outlay of cash.

I suppose one could take a bright flashlight and some wax paper on the front to even the light source and some poster board for the snoot and make a snoot light out of it. Maybe instead of the giant polarized front light one could take a lamp and use some parchment paper in layers to diffuse the light decently enough. Won't be as good as a polarized light source, but for a good-but-less-than-pro look it could work.

A hundred bucks for a 27" x 15" sheet of polarized plastic. Yeesh.

I played with this a while back and build a small light box. Cardboard box with a pice of white poster board at the back and floor and three sides cut out and covered with tissue paper. Lighted from the three sides and bounced a bright flashlight off the posterboard to shine back through the beer.

Got as far as this.

Beautiful!

eric19312 said:

I played with this a while back and build a small light box. Cardboard box with a pice of white poster board at the back and floor and three sides cut out and covered with tissue paper. Lighted from the three sides and bounced a bright flashlight off the posterboard to shine back through the beer.

Got as far as this.

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This is great. I would love to see a picture of your setup.

The home made light boxes are actually very simple. A couple bucks, tops.

http://www.wikihow.com/Create-an-Inexpensive-Photography-Lightbox

I made one at one point for some photos, turned out great.

Psylocide said:

The home made light boxes are actually very simple. A couple bucks, tops.

http://www.wikihow.com/Create-an-Inexpensive-Photography-Lightbox

I made one at one point for some photos, turned out great.

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Thanks for the link Psy. I'll check it out. Next project

Gavin C said:

Thanks for the link Psy. I'll check it out. Next project

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There are a ton of different styles (wax paper/tissue paper/sheets/reinforced/etc.)... just google "DIY cardboard light box" and find what suits you best.

Psylocide said:

There are a ton of different styles (wax paper/tissue paper/sheets/reinforced/etc.)... just google "DIY cardboard light box" and find what suits you best.

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Will do.

This is the one that i need, thanks for share. I will setup for capture my empty liquor bottle collection.

Don't use your camera's flash...ever.