Photographing drink bottles is an unforgiving kind of shoot, where the surroundings reflect on every surface of the bottle. When I was asked by R&R Distillery to photograph a number of their products, I knew I had a challenge on my hands. But at the same time I was excited with the creativity of the project.

The client had seen the wine bottle shots in my food photography portfolio and they were looking for a similar kind of approach. However, although they had given me some guidelines of their requirements, they pretty much had left the creativity and styling to me.

The single product shots of the vodka, gin and the whiskey, although look simple, required a lot of careful planning and experimentation with the lighting. The end result not only had to show the drinks in the bottles at their best, but also the branding and the graphics on the bottles had to be clear and strong. Each bottle was a different shape and needed different lighting treatment. I’m glad to say the end product achieved the above aim to the client’s satisfaction.

The fun started when I began photographing the cocktails. This was my first attempt at photographing cocktails. Although I’ve styled and photographed many different types of food, this was the first time I had to think about styling and photographing drinks that gave the viewer that cold delicious impression. The usual tricks of the trade, glycerin, water, fake ice etc were used to achieve the cool freshness I was looking for.

I loved playing with the colours, fresh fruit and experimenting with different backgrounds. This project got me excited about styling, lighting and photographing cocktails and shortly after completing this shoot, I photographed some more cocktails for Getty Images, which I’m an exclusive contributor, examples in my portfolio.

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Drinks and cocktail Photography