BEER PHOTOGRAPHY FOR REVOLVER BREWING
Shooting commercial beer photography for Revolver Brewing.
Commercial photographers have heard it said before, shoot the work you wish to have when you have some free time. Well, we have only had a couple commissioned beer shoots in the studio and yet Texas beer is very much apart of our culture. With Summer around the corner, we thought it would be appropriate to show you a glimpse into what it takes to capture one of Texas' finest beers.
GIF of our Photoshop layer build-out.
Final image after post-production.
Before the shoot began, we talked about what key elements of the bottle we wanted to capture. Revolver's Bock has a signature deep, amber color to it and we wanted to highlight this feature the most since it would bring the whole image together in the end. As we mentioned before, it's nearly summer so we wanted to make the bottle "sweat" as though it were just pulled from a cooler. Lastly, the label itself needed to be spot lit to show the branding and give it that final touch.
Like most shoots we do, this one presented it's own challenges. We used two grids and diffused strip boxes to rim light the edges of the bottle to give it dimension. From there we added a snoot to illuminate the front label and allow the branding to shine. Next was the trickiest step and where our magical powers shine through. We blended a mixture of oils and water to create a solution that made the "sweat" beads on the bottle. It sounds easier than it is, but trust us when we say it's tricky.
Now that we had all of our frames captured, we used a bit more wizard magic *cough* Photoshop *cough* and blended all of these elements together and added some contrast using a simple dodge and burn... and there you have it! A thirst-quenching hero image for Revolver Brewing of Fort Worth, Texas.
Tell us what you think in the comments and hit us up if you'd like us to shoot something on our next free day!
Image Alive Gear Guide
A fun list of gear we use on a day to day basis.
People always ask, "Canon or Nikon". I usually respond, "yes and RED, and Sony, and Hassleblad". We do own quite a bit of gear though and Nikon has led a lot of the charge for us. We usually rent everything else but just for fun, here is a guide of what we have laying around.
CAMERA BODIES
- Nikon D610
- Nikon D750
- Nikon D810
- RED EPIC-W HELIUM 8K
- Canon 6D
- Canon 5D Mark III
LENSES
- Nikon 14-24mm F2.8
- Nikon 50mm F1.4
- Nikon 85mm F1.8
- Nikon 105mm F2.8
- Nikon 24-120 F4
- Zeiss 50mm F1.4
- Sigma Art 18-35mm F1.8
- Sigma Art 24mm F1.4
- Sigma Art 50mm F1.4
- Tamron 70-200mm F2.8
LIGHTING
- Paul Buff Zeus 2500 Pack (x2)
- Paul Buff Zeus 1200 Pack
- Paul Buff Zeus Bi-Tube Flash Head (x5)
- Paul Buff Einsteins (x3)
- Arri 650 (x3)
- Kino Flo 4 bank (x2)
MODIFIERS
- Paul Buff Large Octa (x2)
- Paul Buff Strip Box (x2)
- Paul Buff Medium Softbox (x2)
- Paul Buff Omni Beauty Dish (x2)
- Elinchrom 6ft Octabank
- Elinchrom Rini Rotalux
- 20º and 30º grids on reflectors
OTHER HARDWARE
- DJI RONIN
- DJI PHANTOM 4
- RHINO SLIDER
- Fotorobot 360 spin table
- Fotorobot robotic camera arm
- 27" iMac 32gb 5k retina
- 27" iMac 32gb fusion
- 21" iMac 16gb
- 13" Macbook Pro 16gb solid state
- DJI RONIN
- DJI PHANTOM 4
- RHINO SLIDER
Post Processing a Daniel Defense Upper
Check out a quick clean-up video from post-production with Western Sport.