Product photography of Charlie Wells beers at the studio in Kent
Prior to shooting an advertising image on location in Shoreditch earlier this month, I had to produce some test product photography of Charles Wells beers at the studio in Kent. First, here’s the finished location shot:
Brewer Charles Wells (Bombadier, DNA, Young’s London Stout) launched the craft beer brand “Charlie Wells” in 2015, first with the Dry Hopped Lager, and later the Triple Hopped IPA. The Dry Hopped Lager is brewed with natural mineral water from a well sunk in the early 1900s and the brewers combine several varieties of hops from around the world to create the beer’s character – a slight bitterness, hoppy aroma, and a subtle maltiness. The etching on the glass and bottle / can artwork shows “Charlie” – a modern day version of founder Charles Wells.
The idea was to agree the art direction and lighting in advance with the client and then use it as a template for the location shoot, (where shooting time was going to be very limited). The other reason for the test shoot was because it was a mixed group of products – glass, can and bottle – which would all behave differently when lit.
You can see in the examples below the importance additions of the highlights to the sides of each product (to provide shape and what Mary Berry would call “definition”), the backlight to bright the beer to life and add low shadows to the foreground. The gold card is used selectively to pull the colour back in to the beer. The final set of images were straight packshots which you can learn more about here.
