This image of the etched beer glass was part of a promotion for Beers At No 42, a beers, wine and spirits specialist.

Photographing a glass on its own brings in a number of considerations for a product photographer. Add in some etching that needs to be clearly seen, that’s another thing. As well as showing what a product looks like, you also want to make the image eye catching. Product photography should be something  that a potential purchaser remembers. It should also set the product apart from just a standard white background product shot.

As is often the case with any product photography, the image is in fact a composite of multiple images. Each image was set up and shot for a particular reason, often this was just a tiny element of the final image.

When doing a composite, there does need to be a clear final image in the mind of the photographer. For me this is often a series of hand drawn sketches which break down the final image into the separate ones that need to be photographed. It’s often at the drafting of a sketch that you realise that something isn’t possible or that it is lacking something.

In order to show the etching clearly, a black background was chosen and the empty glass was shot so that the etched logo could be clearly seen. Multiple images were then shot to achieve the correct look to the beer being poured in and with care to remove any unwanted reflections. Each time the beer was poured in there were different splashes, some of which worked and some which didn’t. The final composite was a combination of the ones that worked and where the level of the beer meant that the etching against the black background wasn’t lost.

Once the final composite was put together, it still felt like there was room for something else, so using some stock imagery, splashes  were added around the base and the top of the glass.

Links

Product Photography portfolio https://www.saraporterphotography.co.uk/pp_gallery/product/

Beers at No 42 https://www.beersno42.co.uk