The Making Of A Commercial Beverage Image | Step By Step

Food, beverage, and product photography is all about sculpting light, your composition, and understanding which modifiers to use in which situations. In this behind the scenes tutorial, PRO EDU takes you in their St. Louis studio for a step by step look at building an image. Join PRO EDU this May in the Bahamas for a 2 day intensive workshop on liquids, glass, beer, and beverage photography. You could even win a free trip.

Join Us In The Bahamas

This May we will be teaching two workshops at the Fstoppers workshop in the Bahamas. Come be part of our crew, learn our lighting, learn our workflow, and add the technical knowledge needed to create stunning imagery for your clients. This lighting technique is applicable to all still life and even architecture photography. Classes are filling up quick, so sign up right meow. Here are some more reasons to sign up for our workshop:

1.) You need to work on your tan.
2.) Portfolio review from the PRO EDU Team and critique on your website.
3.) It's cheaper to fly to the Bahamas than most major cities.
4.) Hotels at the Atlantis are cheaper than most Vegas hotels plus your luck is better at the casinos in Paradise, I think.
5.) You'll get to meet some of the top photographers in the world and have a beer with them plus I will buy you a shot.
6.) You'll get to hear Peter Hurley say SHABANG in person.
7.) You'll get to arm wrestle Lee Morris in person.
8.) You'll leave with way more skillz than you have now.
9.) You'll get to swim with exotic fish.
10.) You will be at one of the most amazing resorts in the world, the Atlantis.

Fstoppers Workshop | The Complete Guide to Shooting Liquids & Liquor 5-28 - 5-29

In this two day class, Rob Grimm will be covering everything he knows about shooting liquids, beer, glass bottles and liquor. Course instruction includes the use of various modifiers, diffusion, using fake ice, making fake spritz, making fake slush, beer pours, common camera angles, the use of cards with light, painting highlights, freezing liquids with splashes, using a duratrans for backgrounds, incorporating props into composition, polarizing highlights and the properties of lighting glass bottles. A special emphasis will be placed upon composition and how to creating images that evoke emotion to draw in the viewer.

fstoppers_Workshops_Beverage Photography_Robert Grimm

This is an interactive class where students will become part of the crew on 4 commercial style photo shoots. Rob will discuss all of the tricks and knowledge he’s acquired over the last two decades from pre-production to the actual photo shoot and working directly with creative directors and the client on set. This is a hands-on, interactive workshop geared towards letting the students create the images and heavily participate in the photo shoot. The class will use both medium format and common DSLR cameras.

fstoppers_Workshops_Chinotto_Rob Grimm copy

This class is geared towards students who wish to focus on product photography, specifically with liquids and liquor. The knowledge learned in this class is applicable to other types of product photography as well. The class will prepare you with the knowledge needed to build your set, equip your studio, the lingo of working with clients and creative agencies while enhancing your knowledge of modifying light and it’s interaction with glass and liquid.

fstoppers_Beverage Workshop_robert Grimm

The Complete Guide For Product Photography 5/31 & 6/1 9AM-6PM

Description:

In this one day class, Rob Grimm will be covering everything he knows about lighting for product photography and using props to bounce, modify, and shape light onto any product to create commercial appeal. Course instruction includes the use of various modifiers, diffusion, common camera angles, the use of cards with light, painting highlights, using a duratrans for backgrounds, incorporating props into composition, polarizing highlights and the properties of lighting various materials like glass, plastic, wood, metals, and reflective other materials.

fstoppers_Bahamas Workshop_Product Photography

The students that register for this class will get to vote on the products being shot and used in that day before hand. We will be bringing as many products as possible each day, and will attempt to cater the interactive course to what the majority of the students want to bring. So, for example, if everyone votes that they want to learn how to shoot high end watches and technology, then we will be supplying the products needed for that shoot. It’s totally up to the students to decide the content we will be creating.

fstoppers_Workshops_Product Photography_RGGPHOTO

This is an interactive class where students will become part of the crew on 2, or more, commercial style photo shoots. Rob will discuss all of the tricks and knowledge he’s acquired over the last two decades from pre-production to the actual photo shoot and working directly with creative directors and the client on set. This is a hands-on, interactive workshop geared towards letting the students create the images and heavily participate in the photo shoot. Each student will learn to run a set, operate a medium format camera, and light every piece of the product to prepare the files for post production and retouching. The class will use both medium format and common DSLR cameras. It will be totally up to the class on which products we shoot, the making of the composition, and the lighting. While this will be guided by Rob Grimm, students will be able to build images together as a creative and collaborative team as an exercise in creative collaboration like most commercial shoots.

fstoppers_Product Photography_Workshop_RGGPHOTO

This class is geared towards students who wish to focus on product photography, specifically with technology, consumer products, and jewelry. The knowledge learned in this class is applicable to other types of product photography as well. The class will prepare you with the knowledge needed to build your set, equip your studio, the lingo of working with clients and creative agencies while enhancing your knowledge of modifying light and it’s interaction with glass and liquid.

Full Atlantis Trailer 

https://vimeo.com/77554337

---WIN A FREE TRIP TO OUR WORKSHOP---

You have an amazing opportunity to have an all expense paid trip to the Atlantis and win a free workshop. Details are below.

Please note that if you would like to attend our workshop but would like to pay a partial deposit to hold your spot, please e-mail me at gary@rggphoto.com.

Gary Winchester Martin's picture

Gary W. Martin is a commercial photography producer and founder of PRO EDU. His company creates documentary style Photography and Photoshop tutorials with some of the best photographer/instructors in the world. Gary has spent 20% of his life abroad and once made a monkey faint in Costa Rica. He speaks English and Romanian.

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22 Comments

Awesome! Thanks for sharing!

Sure thang Barry!

I've assisted on a few big beverage shoots and this video definitely demonstrates how tedious they can be. Fun stuff though!

Excellent post. Looks like your studio is a lot of fun

Zach you should just pack up shop and move to Chicago. You'd kill it here with all the actors and models.

Yeh or be killed!

Hahah.

I've been looking at checking out other places, but moving back to the midwest has not been an idea that I've had whatsoever.

I've spent 25 years in the snow, I'm not ready to go back.

Cool, thanks.

I don't think I could ever achieve the perfection that this type of commercial shooting requires. I'd drive myself crazy.

Well not with that attitude, David!

Thats ok, just hire Aaron Nace hah :)

nice!

Amazing video and the more I see of commercial product photography the more I think its the niche I want to go into. Sad the workshop is really pushing my budget but maybe I'll get lucky and win a free trip.

Man I wish I could attend this!

If you would like to workout a way to get there but may not have the funds today, contact me at gary@rggphoto.com and we can try to work stuff out with the Fstoppers.

Also is this workshop similar to the 3 day workshop creative live workshop?

The CL workshop was focused on business and one way to light a project. This will be two days of shooting mainly liquids, moving liquids, various glass objects, liquids in glass, and everything you could expect when taking on a beverage client. Our second class is geared towards product lighting, modifiers, and sculpting light in an environment you build on set. This is more of an intensive and interactive workshop where the students will be running the set, running the computer software, suggesting modifiers, and building the image. The best way to learn is to be doing it yourself and that's what we hope to accomplish in these 3 workshops.

Okay cool, yeah it sounds like a lots of fun, hopping I can gather the cash to do it but not sure being a college student trying to pay his way through school without debt.

Hi SweatyChicken :) would you ever be able to convince Rob to do this in Australia, more specifically Melbourne? I'd love to go to this.....the background+props+duratrans is extremely of interest, plus all the rest. Seen u guys do it at CreativeLive but to see this done with tech products (my forte for my own products) would be very good.

Where can I get decent Fake ice cubes from?? Can you recommend any?

Great video.
Any chance you'd share what you use to make the slush/ice?

i like you for sharing