How to Light Beer: A Photographer’s Guide to Working with Cans, Bottles, and Pours

Special Consideration

Maintaining Control

Control is important in all photographic projects, but beer presents unique challenges that are hard to control. Let’s say you set out to photograph the latest and greatest smartphone. Once you compose and light the image, all that’s left to do is figure out the correct exposure and snap the picture. Unlike the smartphone, however, beer doesn’t just sit there, it moves. The head and bubbles in the beer are always in flux, which means it’s generally necessary to capture many takes. As a result, photographing beer is repetitive in nature.

So, what can you do to ease the process? This is where testing and maintaining control of the beer is important. Temperature and humidity are special considerations that ...