The Best Way To Light A Beer Bottle - Photoshoot Tutorial
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- Опубліковано 6 лют 2025
- Come with me and learn one of my favorite lighting techniques for shooting a bottle. Today Im taking a beer bottle and giving it a badass, edgy look with creative lighting and precise Photoshop editing.
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Comment with any questions! Enjoy!
Website: www.ConnorMoriarty.com
Instagram: @ConnorMoriarty_Photo
Twitter: @ConnorPMoriarty
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Perfect step by step instructions on beer lighting. I like the fog effect and lighting behind the bottle. Thanks! This will help me as I build my portfolio with new shots to capture.
Excellent video, no nonsense and very educative. Thank you!
Aethil - Epic Music thanks! Glad you liked it
i watched a lot of videos about lighting a whiskey bottle, but personally, your workflow was a the simplest to follow. Thanks!
Thank you! That means a lot!
the best product tutorial ive found on here thanks man
Thanks so much! I really appreciate the support.
thank you so much for the tutorial! very informative and easy to understand! please make more of these!
Thanks my friend. Glad you enjoyed it.
Awesome!
Julius Bellett thank you!
impressive video, step by step, really instructive great job
You are incredible. I am a photography student who searches UA-cam to learn beer bottle photography. I adore the final images and I rarely use dodge and burn. You give an awesome example of how this tool can really bring the image to life. Are you still takjng pictures ? You got great talent. 👍😎
Thanks so much! I’m glad you enjoyed it! Yes, I run my own studio and we do product and branding photography for companies all over the country.
Congratulations, and I assume you are busy working on your business, which is why there have been no new videos in the last few years. Keep up the good work, and I hope one day you will be able to share more of your wonderful tutorial videos again. 😆🤩
@@yiting2548 you’re exactly right. Not only am I running a business, but I had my first daughter a few years ago, so it’s been tough to make more videos. But I plan to get back into it one day. Subscribe to be notified when I do.
@@connormoriarty Congratulations on the addition of a new family member, your lovely daughter. I've already subscribed to your channel. Best wishes for you and your family.
Wow Connor! What a perfect presentation. A tremendous learning experience. Thank you so much.
Hi Bob. Thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Excellent work with good information.
Wilson Studio thank you!
I SERIOUSLY appreciate this great tutorial!!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it
Very good tutorial with step by step clear concise instructions. Thanks for taking time to make and sharing with us
Madhusudhan Nandikolla thank you! Very glad you enjoyed it.
stunning final result
Sutejo Tan thanks!
Thank you so much for this tutorial. So helpful & just the right amount of detail. Thanks again!
Super glad you liked it!
awesome video mate. i'll def use the techniques for some beer videos/photos i have coming up.
Awesome! Send me the photos when you’re done, I’d love to see!
I was looking for long time such a video on how to combine many shoots on Photoshop & Your workshop was really amazing and you show all tips and technique on how to do that. big thanks for your great work Mr.Connor
O8M4B thank you, I really appreciate that. Glad you liked the video!
The most perfect video showing exactly what I needed to know. Thanks alot!!
LEMON NINJA wow, thanks! Glad you liked it!
@@connormoriarty I'm having a problem though, I have the edges lit nice with softboxes, but in the middle of my bottle above the label, I'm getting the full reflection of the wall behind me and the ceiling and I don't know how to stop it. Any idea?
LEMON NINJA haha how funny, I shot a bottle today and had the same issue! That’s a super common question. Think of the surface of the bottle as a mirror. It reflects anything in front of it. So how would you fill in a mirror? Put something in the reflection. So, depending on the opacity of your bottle, put a white or black board in that spot where the reflection is to balance it out. But even that might not work. As you saw in my video, I couldn’t fill the entire reflection. So, what I would do is use that light to get the label nice and lit, and don’t worry about the reflection. Then take another photo where you only focus on filling the reflection and don’t worry about the label or edge light. Then just composite those 2 photos together. If you can’t do that, rely on photoshop to remove the reflection. I’ve had bottles that are literally impossible to balance reflections perfectly. Sometimes it just can’t be done, so be happy you have photoshop.
Great Scott! That´s exactly what I was lookink for!
Thanks for your video and sharing your process!
Tim Polster of course! Glad you liked it!
amazing shot
Jenn thanks!
Dear Connor, thank you so much for great and very useful tips and tutorials!!! This is extra hard job and you've done it great!!! Thank you and wish you all the best!
Thanks, Ged! I appreciate the support 👍🏼
i love your teaching style, in-depth but easy to understand. i'm a new fan!
Meg Thompson nice! Thank you!
Amazing tutoiral thank's for you
Thanks! Glad you liked it
Awesome,looking forward to doing this
Michael Wilson glad you enjoyed!
Thank you for share. This is my next college assigment and you arrive to my life on time. Thanks very impressive job!
Addis Abeba Franco thanks and good luck!
Great video....Great shot!
Kent AufDerHeide thanks!
Great video! The image is awesome.
cococrispe thanks a lot! Glad you liked it 👍🏼
@@connormoriarty It made me want t o buy a beer and practice! Do you recommend this method for anything that is made of glass?
cococrispe This is a great go-to method for any glass. If gives the sides good separation and gives a great glow. But some bottled and glass might not look good with light shining through it. Wine for example shouldn’t have light shining through it. It all depends on the product you’re shooting. But yes, this works for a ton of products.
The best tutorial I've ever seen!!!
Gennady Fedorow thanks! Glad you enjoyed it
Very nice! Great tutorial! Well done
Colour Infusion thanks!
Awesome thank you
Glad you enjoyed it!
This is amazing! Would love to see more beer videos. Great work!
Zach Clevenger thanks my friend!
nice bro thanks for sharing
Thanks for the support!
wow , thank You !!!
Thx bro 👍
You are the best mate! I really like how you guide us step by step in lightning and editing! I learned so much! Thanks! :)
Mladen Paunovic Awesome! Glad you learned something! :)
Cool thanks for all the tips
Enid torres No problem. Glad you enjoyed!
Connor, this was incredibly helpful. I can't wait to give this a try. Thank you.
Steve Bikes thanks! Glad you like it!
AMAZING JOB !
Sunnygirl Thanks!
Excellent job 😘
Amol Gaware Thanks!
You are great...Jesus..Loved that...
Cap Doerr thanks!
Awesome thanks for useful tips n creative ideas
Sunil Kotyan Thanks! Glad you liked it!
Fantastic. Thanks so much for your great tutorial!
Insight Video no problem! Glad you liked it!
awesome !
Christophe Poncin glad you liked it!
This is an excellent video. Thank you for going through the whole process and your thinking behind it.
Adeel Bukhari Thanks! Glad you liked it!
Yep bro...ur comments summed it all up
Thanks for sharing!
Instablaster.
holy christ, such an outstanding tutorial! I'm new to product photography and sure learned a lot. kudos from Brazil!
Murilo Cunha thanks for the kind words my friend!
Awesome video! Loved it! Thank you for the step by step instructions!
Orly999 thanks! Glad you liked it!
What do you think of the final result? Thanks for watching!
Connor Moriarty looks great! Thanks for doing such an informative video. Iiked and subscribed!
The Tokolos thanks for the kind words! Welcome!
LuEightySix thanks!
LuEightySix thanks!
LuEightySix thanks!
well done. I can't afford a camera (I live in Brazil, so expensive here), so I'll do some shots with my cellphone camera and a ring light and hope for the best lol
One of my favorite sayings is, “The best camera is the one you have.” Cliche? Yes. Accurate? 100%. Use what you have. Expensive gear makes it easier, not better. Some of my favorite photos were done with a phone, or an inexpensive camera.
Really nice tutorial! Can't wait to do something similar now...
R G thanks! Send me your results! I’d love to see
@@connormoriarty - Not getting the white rim lighting through the length of the side... I don't have strip soft-box so used a shoot through umbrella.... do you think that is the problem?
R G That shouldn’t be a problem. The only difference between an umbrella and a soft box is a soft box has 2 layers of diffusion. Make sure your umbrella is behind the bottle and to the side, and make sure it’s very close to the bottle. If that still doesn’t work, take a thin piece of paper and put it right next to the bottle as a 2nd layer of diffusion. That should do the trick.
@@connormoriarty - Thank you ! I'll give that a shot tonight!
@@connormoriarty - Finally got something decent (in my opinion lol). How can I share with you for some critique?
Fabulous video! Best one I found. Thanks so much. Great teacher.
Do you remember the size of those softbox?
Thank you so much! I really appreciate that 😁 Those soft boxes were probably 12x36”
Loved it... Gonna give it a try today... Thanks a lot :)
Ayaz Shah awesome! Glad you liked it! Let me know how it goes!
Connor Moriarty not as perfect as yours but i managed to get something... Here is the link
instagram.com/p/BaD9sBvAZ8U/
Ayaz Shah nice! Looks good! Thanks for sharing :)
Very useful i think the one shot solution is just not realistic and I love the way you played with the light to build up your vision for the image
Thanks! Yeah, I mean this image is probably possible in 1 shot. But it’s easier and, in my opinion, looks better, doing it this way. Either way it’ll require serious editing.
Very cool. Great tutorial. Subscribed
Sonny Acosta thanks my friend! Glad you enjoyed!
My man!! This was a very insightful tutorial. Thanks a lot!! I have learned a lot with it :)
Fernando Nunez thanks! Glad you enjoyed it
gREAT VIDEO. What did you spray the bottle with? just water?
JD IB yes, I just used water. But if you can, mix some corn syrup or glycerin in with the water. That will make it so the droplets stay in place on the bottle no matter what you do. If you use just water, the droplets will eventually dry up or drip down the bottle.
Really creative...loved it very much...great work!
Stanford Graham glad you liked it! Thanks!
Love your videos dude very good stuff
Ronald Wray thanks!
hey man loved this video please make more, i've always been a little afraid of compositing in photoshop but this made it seem not that hard since i basically know all of the stuff you did in photoshop, keep creating this type of content man love it
lorenzo atef thanks bud glad you liked it. Give compositing a try and get better at it. It’s not too hard
Thank you for your lessons :)
Mr & Mrs X: Smartphone Cinematic Videography of course! Glad you enjoyed.
Thanks. Very nice. It's interesting to contrast your style for shooting a bottle with someone like Martin Botvidsson for example. You use a lot of composite photography where his style is more about the lighting in "one shot" ) after hundreds of test shots for sure) and then some touch-up. This just shows there is more than one way to achieve an artistic vision. It's good to be able to see and appreciate different approaches. Again, thanks and well done!
Harvey S thanks my friend. I like both methods. With most of my work I like to get everything in camera, but I like to do work like this sometimes too
Excelent! I learn a lot. I hope it helps me in my work
Manuel Gonzalez thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it
Love your presentation! It was like you and me against the challenge and sort of learning together as we went. Never noticed the perspective tool before - must try that out. But first, I'going into my shed to explore bottle lighting despite having already done it for years. You never stop learning. Happy days. :)
Wow. Truly inspiring! I'm just getting into product photography, and this has made me want to do it even more. Thanks for the video.
Jake Riding Web Design & Photography wow that means so much! Much thanks my friend!
Hi Connor! Thanks for the wonderful tutorial! May I ask what tripod were you using in the video?
Thanks for the support! I’m glad you enjoyed it. The stand is a Manfrotto Salon 230 Camera Stand - 7'
@@connormoriarty ahhh, thank you for the reply Connor! I thought it was the FOBA ...
@@stevechong65 to be honest, it could be. I really don’t remember. I’m not using it anymore and I filmed that so long ago. Sorry :/
@@connormoriarty No worries Connor！Keep up the good work!
Benefit a lot,thanks
郑玉峰 you’re welcome. Glad you enjoyed!
Love it. Great shoot and amazing results. I am on my way to do a shoot for a local brewery in about 3 hours. Got some great ideas from this especially the lighting
Tony Comerford thanks for the kind words my friend. Good luck with your shoot
Connor Moriarty just finished it. They wanted stock photos in the end so used a light tent. I did get to use the trick with the flash behind thr bottles to light it from behind. Worked a treat
Tony Comerford Nice! I'm really glad to hear that tip worked. It gives so much more dimension and life to the bottle. It's not always necessary, but when it works it looks amazing.
excellent video!
Philip Windley thanks!
Very useful thanks!
Katerina Christova Thanks! Glad you liked it!
Really nice work !! ;)
Minerve Web Studio thanks!
Great video :)
Karol Karolczyk thanks! :)
Great tutorial.
Tafsir Ahmed thanks!
It's a really, really useful video ! Thanks for this work, I wasn't thinking about merging so much shots just to obtain a single picture =)
Frédéric KERNEUZET thank you! I usually don’t put that many photos together. I usually try to get everything in one shot. But I thought I’d do something new and challenge myself.
Most dont, most get it right in camera and not have to composite 75 raw files. Using continuous light so you can see it in real time is preferred by most professionals. I rather spend 3 hours building the shot with continuous light then having to snap 100 shots hoping I can composite something together. Most I ever shot for one product was 10 shots when I was hired by Knob Creek to shoot their whiskey, the final shot being the completed shot, with less then 20 minutes in Photoshop for retouching. This dude is gonna spend days blending and masking all those shots together. This is amateur techniques. Its not the wrong way, its just the very long way of doing it.
Eccentric Smithy “Most don’t...” The words of a photography purist who sees their creative process as the only or best way to do something. Don’t know a thing about you, but last time I checked photography is an art and there are limitless ways of doing it. Sometimes I get the shot perfect in camera. Sometimes I purposefully and thoughtfully composite multiple shots together (this shot took me maybe 15-20 minutes in Photoshop by the way). I’m a professional making a career doing this, so I don’t think you have any room to talk shit online about my process. You can do whatever you want without bashing other artists with the anonymity of the internet guarding you. Good try though 👍🏼
We used to do this for Carlsberg back in the 80th. All the effects was packed in one shoot on 4x5 film. No post production could really be added, so we had to lit of the back of the bottle with a small reflector screen.
yeah PS has changed the game. i will personally get it all in one shot
Hi Connor, I watched this vid, and appreciate the fact that you stated that you'll address concerns on an individual basis. I did a similar comp, minus the smoke effect, but my images after I've named them, I ran into difficulty in photoshop...One example both the edge highlights were no longer after I'd masked in the layer for the label, and for the general bottle...after masking in the bottom, the middle and the top. Am I missing something here? Is there any way I can send you my files, or can you point me to a vid, that explain in detail ur steps in post, and the rationale behind such. Thanks in advance
Hi Adam! Thanks for commenting! Yes, what you’re describing is probably the most difficult part of this type of composite. What I did was I started with the edge highlight shot. I used it and make sure it looked good. Then, when I brought in the shots for the label and overall bottle, I just blended in the mask so that the image of the label cleanly blended into the edge highlights. It takes some work to keep the lines clean, but if you take your time it should work. Feel free to email me if that doesn’t make sense: cpmor13@gmail.com
@@connormoriarty thanks Connor appreciate ur timely response. I will email you.
Definitely need to learn to mask the way you do to get the final composite as clean as yours! Great stuff. I’m new to lighting and have only used small off camera strobes; do are those lights just continuous lights or strobes or mixture? I feel like im missing something because they appear to be continuous to me but not sure.
Luis Lopez good question. They are strobes with modeling lights. So they emit a bright light to show you how they are lighting your set, but when you take a picture the lights very briefly turn off and the flash fires. The power pack I showed you is powering all that. Continuous lights do not give you the flexibility that strobes do.
Connor Moriarty thank you for taking the time to respond, it definitely helps to get these answers cleared up for a beginner into lighting, like myself. Do you think I’d be able to achieve a similar look using only off camera flash heads with the correct softbox like the ones you’re using?
Luis Lopez of course! You don’t need expensive lights like this. When I shoot in my apartment I use cheap speedlights. It’s all about the person using them. No one NEEDS this pricy stuff, it just makes your life easier.
Amazing! just wondering why you are not using a remote and you shoot from the camera? Doesn't cause any register problems for the post? and I wondering kind of the same with the drops, how do you control they don't move? just wondering those things, but the final result.... no complains! it is great!
Ezequiel Aizenberg yeah I can trigger the camera from the computer or a remote, I just get lazy sometimes. And since I composited each section of the bottle separately I didn’t worry about if the drops moved. As long as they were how I liked them when I shot the light from behind I was happy.
i love it. i think I would have colorized the smoke in photoshop in a gold color
MP good idea!
dopeee
Tim Kasper 👍🏼
Terrific... could you give the exposure details, please?
Hi Keith. Whenever I had raw, unedited images pop up on the screen during the shooting, the exposure details are in the bottom left corner.
Great tutorial, thanks! What do you do when you can see the top of the liquid through the bottle - do you keep it in or clone it out to make it look like the bottle is full to the brim? In this shot it looks like the top label was perhaps covering this area?
Good question. I typically like to keep the photo as true to the product as possible, unless it distracts from the composition. The liquid line, in my opinion, doesn't seem like a big issue. But if you want to clone it out and fill it all the way up, go for it! Something similar I do is remove tubes in fragrance bottles. Totally preference based :)
Thanks Connor, much appreciated!
Great video! Can you make a detailed editing video on how to composite the images? Thanks!
cybil louie sure thing! I’ll keep that in mind.
Hello! Nice tips to shoot beer bottle. Thank you! However, it seems you didn't talk about how did you accomplished the water drops on the front of the bottle in a way that they don't seem to change or move through all the photo shoot. Right? Is that a special mixture that you can share with us? Thanks
imagens no ponto there are some special mixtures that you can find online. I just used water, and for this particular scenario it didn’t matter if the drops moved because I was stitching different shots together, not on top of one another. Does that make sense?
Thanks a lot for the quick response! Yes, I guess that makes sense :) My problem is that I bough a product that said that was specific for this but in some type of surfaces it simply doesn't makes water drops... I'll try tomorrow with a mix of water + glycerine to see if it works better. Thanks!
amazing video, you're very good at doing and teaching all of these. my question is, if I had more lights (each light for the back of the beer, background, light for the label) , would it be necessary to do these blending photos in Photoshop or not?
Diego Quiñones if you wanted to do all this in one shot that would definitely be possible. The hardest part is hiding the light behind the bottle. That’s why I ended up doing multiple shots. It was impossible for me to hide the strobe.
The final edit was phenominal
samdub thanks!
Great video, thanks for sharing. When you sprayed the bottle was it just with water?
Christine Siracusa yup! In this video I just used water. It did fine. When I do paid work for clients, I mix in glycerin (spelling?) haha it makes it so the beads of water stay where you want them.
Have you done any with continuous light only?
Bevan Antonio Yes, but I’m not a big fan of continuous. I don’t feel it’s as intuitive to modify, and they are far less powerful. But if you like to use them there’s nothing wrong with them 👍🏼
@@connormoriarty It's not so much a preference it's just "what I have"
Bevan Antonio The best photo gear is the gear you have. If that’s what you have then great. Use it and make some amazing photography from it. It’s just my personal preference to use strobes. But a lot of amazing artists out there use continuous.
@@connormoriarty Thank you for your advice. Will certainly use what I have now and try other gear in the future.
Bevan Antonio sure thing! Let me know if you have any questions.
what would you charge to do a product photography?
It depends what you’re looking for, but yes, I do product photography for people all over the country. My studio website is www.elysianprostudios.com/ Send me an email by filling out the form on my contact page. Make sure to say you came from UA-cam so I remember 😁
Hi! Thanks for the great video. I am still learning studio lighting so forgive me if this is a total noob question, but is the benefit of using the flash lighting vs the continuous lighting in this demo because of your studio space? If you were in a totally dark room with no natural light coming in, could you do the same thing with continuous light and a longer shutter speed?
Becky Bruning Hey. So there’s a bunch of reasons to/not to use strobes. I use them because they are more powerful and I can use tons of modifiers and pair them with speedlights. They are so bright that they overpower any other light around (like the window I’m next to in this shoot). This allows me to get the exact aperture I wanted at 100 ISO. But yes, if you darken your space and have the right equipment you can use continuous lights. You may run into issues being limited with your shutter speed and aperture depending on how bright your lights are. But the modeling lights on my strobes in this video are nowhere near powerful enough to use.
Hi great Video, very helpful. What lights do you use ?
MTB cycle I use profoto power packs, and profoto heads :)
Where can i get a wooden backdrop like that?
We built this 😁 Just head to Home Depot, buy some 2x4s, glue and nail them together, sand it, and then have fun distressing it! I like to start with a hammer. Then use sandpaper to create gashes. Then bend some nails and staples into it. Finally, stain it with a nice dark stain. I’ve done this with photo backdrops/surfaces, but I’ve also built tons of home decor and furniture for my house doing the same thing. Hope that helps!
@@connormoriarty Thanks Conor! After i nail/glue them together, is there a specific reason i need to sand it before i create the gnashes with the sand paper? Thanks im not a wood worker, but would really love to achieve something like the table you have in this video. Also, What type of wood is that and what are the dimensions of the table in the end? Thanks!!
@@codebeast7390 You sand it because after you cut the pieces, the edges will be really rough and splintered. You need to sand them down, plus it allows the stain to adhere better. I’m not sure the exact dimensions, I would say about 4 feet by 3 feet. I would just make it the size you want it. Go to Home Depot or Lowe’s and buy a bunch of pine 1x4s or even 1x6s. Cut them to the same length. Glue them side by side, and frame them on the back side with nails. Clamp them together so the wood dries. Sand it down and distress it. Then add whatever stain you want. If you want more detailed instructions, just search “rustic DIY wood surface”
I still don't understand how you get no reflection in the bottle label from the silver card. There should have been a sharp line showing but you get a nice difused reflection...
I used the card only for the label, which wasn’t reflective. The card illuminated the label nicely. The card probably left a reflection on the bottle, I don’t remember, but I didn’t use that shot for the glass. I used the soft box back light and the back glow light.
It look appealing , like extremely
Keith Yeo thanks! Glad you like it
Take my like!
How did you erase your hand when you was holding the speedlite directly behind the bottle???
DarkSilver19 Hey! Thanks! So I took two photos, one with my hand and flash in, and one with nothing. And I erased everything but the bottle so my hand disappears. It’s called making a layer mask. If you google that tons of stuff will come up.
what do you use to separate de bottle? a Pen?
Yes, pen. Or sometimes I just paint in the mask with a brush
hello what tripod are you using for the cam?
Manfrotto Salon 230 Camera Stand - 7'
Would love to see some edit how to,
I really have trouble putting the images together
Bart Leijssen I know id love to be able to show the whole process but the video would be way too long. If you have any questions let me know :)
I get some crazy glares in the bottles when i shoot. How do I get rid of this? Will a polarizer filter help?
KC Projects Don’t point any light at a bottle. You need to light it from behind and fill it with white bounce cards.
I'll try that tonight! Thank you!
Nice tutorial Connor. Just one question, when you re-shot with the additional diffusion, did you actually use those images? Maybe I missed it :-)
Stephen Gaskell yes I did. I didn’t use the first one. I used the ones when I held the flag up.
thank you :)
Wichb'l Tz'unun Kaab' of course! Glad you liked it 👍🏼