How-To Archives | San Diego Photographer

Faygo bottle professional beverage photo.

How to Photograph a Glass Bottle

The Shot If you've ever attempted to photograph glass bottles, especially transparent ones, you probably know a few cuss words. Today we're covering commercial beverage photography camera settings, lighting setup, and styling—plus common mistakes to avoid. Camera Settings For most bottles, I am using a focal length of 100mm (on a 100mm macro lens). It tends to introduce less distortion and foreshortening of a bottle and we want things nice and straight and level. The longer focal length also helps…

Camera Settings for Product Photography

If you're new to product photography work, its a whole different game than portrait and lifestyle, with its own set of camera settings, lighting techniques, tools and methodology. Lets dive in and look at some of the fundamentals! Camera Settings PREFACE: Before getting to camera settings it is MUY IMPORTANTE to tell you that you should always shoot products from a tripod or camera stand. This way you can use whatever shutter speed you want and not worry about shake/blur.…

Shooting Still Photos and Video Together

Flex alert here, guys. I shot Drew Brees recently, alongside a video crew in San Diego. Drew was a laid back, accommodating dude with a generally great attitude towards the whole crew. It was a high level day on my fun-o-meter. Enough about me. Today we set out to answer the question: Can we shoot video and photo simultaneously on the same day? Should we do that? Convenience vs. Quality After all, the talent is there, lighting is there, maybe…

Shot Lists for Photoshoots: What, Why, How

One of the first questions I ask a new potential client is "Do you have a shot list?" I'm happy to work with them either way but it helps me gauge how much they may have thought about the details and logistics of their shoot. Generally, when clients come to me with a list of shots, it means they've done some prep work, have a good idea of their brand identity (or brand identity they aspire to), and may already…