Beverage product photography requires a unique skill set as beverage products come in cans or bottles. The bottles have peculiar shapes-they are highly reflective and translucent, and their upper parts are mostly dome-like. For most it would seem like just another shape to capture in a photo, but those who actually set themselves up to the task would understand that beverage product photography has technical challenges.
Wine photography is an added challenge as unlike most other beverages, wine bottles are made of glass. Lighting arrangement for glass is slightly tricky as glass is reflective as well as transmissive, but at the same time it is a distorting medium.
More so, product photography on white background has become a standard for retail as it makes the product seem accessible to everyone. According to product photographer Sam Werkmeister, e-commerce is getting “democratized” wherein everyone can sell products.
To answer the pressing needs of micro, small and medium businesses, professional products on white photography photographers help businesses in creating click-worthy images of products for eCommerce.
You may look at this do-it-yourself guide for product photography to shoot wine bottles on a white background. However, it is always advisable to hire professionals.
The Beginning of the Wine Bottle Challenge
Wine is a product that has to be marketed to create a very particular image of the brand in the minds of potential and loyal customers. Photographing a wine bottle has varied sets of hurdles.
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Red Wine
For a red wine bottle, it is important to figure out the shape of the bottle in the image. Most red wine bottles are black or green so it is almost like a shiny black mirror. Red wine is dark in color and has restricted light reflecting through it. Thus if one is aiming at brightening the liquid in the final image, one should be wary of the fact that this is not the best goal to achieve.
For red wine bottles, the aim should be to make the product look attractive and focus on the highlights that are reflected in the glass. The bottle is shiny and reflective since it is made of glass, so it will display on its surface all that is in front of it or beside it. Most product photoshoots face the problem of studio light being reflected off of the wine bottle in the image.
The solution is best carried out by professional photographers. They make the light source more alluring by somehow diffusing the intensity of the source of light.
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White Wine
As opposed to red wine, white wine is an easier candidate for product photography. The white wine can easily shimmer and represent the perfect color through the glass bottle. White wine bottles are mostly transparent-completely colorless or light green bottles which allow photographers to place the source of light behind the product.
Simply placing the light source behind the bottle will not be enough as the focus of artificial light is sharp. To soften the effect of the light, a diffusion panel has to be utilized to alter the effect. Added to these props is a reflector on one side. The reflector enables the label of the bottle to be clear in the final photo.
The task becomes easier with trendy wine products like Rosé Wine which comes in clear glass bottles. One needs a white background, some white “sweeps” (curved sheets), a diffuser, and a lamp/bulb light.
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The Problem with Shiny Objects
Highly reflective materials like glass give a tough time to learning professionals. Laws of physics would not let a glass material like wine bottle to be represented perfectly without any requirement of equipment.
The camera has to be set to AV mode and one definitely needs a DSLR camera, diffusion paper, light, and a tripod. Beverage product photography is not something you would want to take a picture of from your smartphone camera.
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The Best Solution-Hire a Professional
Professionals have had hands on experience in every type of problem that particular categories of products have when it comes to beverage product photography. While most big businesses do not even think twice in hiring professionals, smaller ones run on a tight budget. With most product photography services charging their clients on the basis of flat priced product photography cost per shot, small and medium businesses have every reason to be thrifty.
Professionals who have their forte in products on white photography understand this inconvenience and make it their goal to cater to the smaller businesses that are in need of professional product photography. Their pricing is mostly based on the total number of photos/shots, not on a flat rate.
It is imperative for businesses to focus on their main job-creating the product that they are trying to sell. Most products that they have to sell online need to be showcased well in an appealing way via photographs that talk to the customer. While it may be easy and not time-consuming for few products to be photographed by simple equipment, most products provide a challenge.
When you have economical options in terms of hiring professional product photography services like the ones offered by the products on white photography professionals, there is not much to worry about a tight budget.
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Freedom to Customize
Businesses might think that hiring professionals will take away their authority to place and present a product in a way they think is best. Most professionals in the field of products on white photography have an inclusive ideology of product photography wherein they let the client take charge as the art director. This makes the client the leading person in the product photoshoot as they decide how, where and what the product will be represented as.
It is recommended to hire a professional team because they add a stunning level of sophistication to your product image, making it more attractive to buyers.