Photographing your beer

[spook]

I've been trying to get good pictures of my beers but I'm not having much luck. I've tried using a light box and I have a decent camera and lens but the images seem a bit flat and uninteresting (see below). Does anyone have any good tips on getting pics that look like those in beer commercials?

[28paws]

Hey Spook,
You have a good start. Play with the angle of your light source. A little bit of your light is wrapping around the glass and shining into your lense creating that "dreamy" look. It might be possible to flag some of it out by placing a piece of cardboard over your lense as if it were a baseball cap.
Another trick is to get a piece of silver reflective shiny board at an art supply place, or you could use tin foil wrapped around cardboard. Take this board and with a pair of scissors cut out a piece that is the shape of the glass but a little bit smaller.
You can then take this reflective piece and prop it up behind the glass to reflect light through the beer and make it bright.
It all has to do with the angle of your light source and the angle of your lense to the subject.
Hope this helps.

Peace

[28paws]

One more thing.
The reflector trick might work a little better for you if you go outside and use the sun.

[spook]

28paws - I'm going to try that. I dont know if it will work, and I don't really care. If it involves making shiny things from household items then I'm in!

[Wutz]

I don't know what sort of situation you're actually shooting in nor do I know what you have for light but...

Any time I've lit glass or a liquid, I've gotten the best results by exposing for the reflection first, then lighting the rest to fill out what you want to see. It looks like you've got a light source on each side of the glass (or at least a bounce board). Just use those light sources to get your exposure. How bright do you want those reflections? White? Just under? I'd keep 'em fairly bright but try to keep some detail.

Then, light the background without changing the rest of the light. Keep the background "white" darker than the "white" of the reflection and the glass will jump off the background. Varying the brightness of the background will, in turn, vary the brightness of the liquid. The reflective foil is a great idea if you want to alter the ratio between the background brightness and the apparent brightness of the liquid.

Good luck out there, spook.

[Ironman]

I think the best way to add interest to the photo is to have a beautiful woman hold the beer.

[28paws]

One other trick that I forgot.....

Get a spray bottle filled with water and mix in some karo syrup, then spritz the glass to make it look cold. The syrup will make it sticky and the beads won't run down the glass.

cheers

[spook]

Here's my latest attempts. I changed the background colour to blue because its on the opposite side of the colour wheel to amber. Also put in a reflective base to add foreground interest and made a reflective cut-out that I put behind the glass as suggested. I'm battling to get the bubbles in the glass to show up, I'm going to try using a room temperature beer the next time because I think the condensation on the glass is getting in the way.