Drink photography for a café menu: milk tea, coffee and juice

Why drinks are hard

A drink is a cup of liquid in a shiny container, and it starts to change the moment it is poured. Ice melts, foam settles, pearls sink and condensation runs. Glass and plastic reflect every window and lamp in the room. Beverage photographers solve both problems in the same way: they set up everything first and bring the drink in last.

Light from behind

The look that makes a drink glow in a café’s photos is backlight: the light source behind the drink, shining through it toward the camera. Digital Photography School calls it the most popular choice for drinks, because it limits reflections on the front of the glass and makes translucent drinks, such as iced tea, juice and fruit tea, glow from inside.

At home, the light source is a window:

• Put the window behind the drinks and the phone in front, facing it. Move the set a little to the side if the bright window is in the frame. A slight angle is enough.
• Fill the front. Light from behind wraps round the edges of a glass but can leave the front dark, the side where the logo is. A white card or foam board just out of frame in front bounces light back onto it.
• Side light for the edge. With the window to one side, you get a bright line down the edge of the glass, which shows its shape. It also suits opaque drinks, such as milk tea or a latte, which don’t glow when lit from behind.
• Diffuse direct sun. Baking paper or a sheer curtain over the window turns a hard sunbeam into a soft source.

Get rid of glare

Shiny cups show reflections of whatever faces them: the window, the ceiling light, you.

1. Turn off the room lights. Each lamp is another bright spot on the cup.
2. Move the light, not the cup. When the highlight is a wide bright band, move or angle the light until it is a thin line. Two Loves Studio recommends aiming for a thin reflection rather than none at all, because it shows the glass is there.
3. Block what you don’t want. Put a black card where a reflection comes from. A large white card with a hole cut for the lens hides you and the phone from a very shiny cup.
4. Clear the set. Anything bright near the drink, such as a white napkin or a phone, can show up in the glass. Move it or take it out.

The angle depends on the glass

Shoot the drink from the angle that shows what makes it good. A DPS guide to finding the hero angle splits subjects into tall and flat:

For tall drinks, keep the phone at the height of the middle of the cup and level, so the cup stands straight. Close up, a wide lens makes glasses look like they are tipping over. Use 2x or 3x and step back rather than shooting close at 1x.

Ice, condensation and timing

Real drinks have a short window before they look tired.

• Use a stand-in. Set the light and framing with an empty cup or a glass of water. DPS recommends bringing the real drink in last and pouring only when everything else is ready, because fresh foam and bubbles are what show it is fresh.
• Make it twice. Stylists make each drink two or three times. Underfill while you set up, and top up on set from a small jug.
• Pick the ice. Clear ice catches the light best. Cloudy ice is fine in milky drinks, where it hardly shows. Crushed ice lasts longest. Two Loves Studio notes it can hold for up to an hour on a cool day. Commercial studios use acrylic ice for long shoots. Rachel Korinek of Two Loves Studio says fake cubes have their place in that work, but good ones are not cheap.
• Shoot boba and layered drinks first. Pearls sink, layers blend and cream sinks into tea. Take those frames before anything else.
• Real condensation. Chill the glass or cup for 15 to 20 minutes before filling. Beads form within minutes of pouring and start to run soon after. Lara Ferroni had about a minute between beads forming and running. A darker background makes them show.
• Stylist’s condensation. For a long shoot, stylists spray a mix of glycerine and water, starting at about half and half, which beads and stays put. It is a prop trick. Don’t serve or drink from a cup you have sprayed.

A menu photo is a promise. Shoot the drink you sell, in the cup you serve it in, at the size you serve it. Styling makes it look its best. It should not turn it into a different drink.

A set of three

Drinks often sell in threes: a flight, a family of flavours, the three best-sellers. Three is also the classic group in the rule of odds, which our guide to thirds and odds takes further.

• Stagger them. Bring the middle drink a little forward, or set the three in a triangle, rather than in a straight row. The front one becomes the hero.
• Vary something. A different colour, height or garnish in each cup keeps the row from looking like copies.
• Logos face the camera. Turn every cup so its label is square to the lens. It is easy to miss and obvious in the photo.
• Keep the gaps even between the cups, and the straws at the same angle.

Consistent across a menu

A menu board or a delivery app looks professional when every drink photo matches. It is the same discipline as a consistent product catalogue. Skylum’s guide to menu photography lists the same habits product photographers rely on:

1. Same place, same time of day, so the window light is the same.
2. Same background and surface for every drink.
3. Same angle and distance, so each cup fills the same part of the frame.
4. Same edit. Edit one photo, then copy the edits to the rest.

Mark the cup’s spot and the phone’s spot with a piece of tape and every drink you shoot that day will match.