Honza Beer Challenge or how to take web-ready pictures of one hundred bottles in less than two hours

We challenged Honza, Orbitvu Product Manager, to take hi-quality photos of one hundred products we had chosen. As he is a real beer lover, we bought different types of crafted beer in glass bottles and asked him to make web-ready images as fast as he can.

But, as funny as it sounds, if you have ever tried to take a product photo of a beverage bottle, you probably know that it can be a little bit tricky. The point is that when the glass is a subject of your photography, you need to know how to work with it. Especially when you have to shoot a lot of products fast and well.

First step – preparations

For this photo session, Honza was working on Alphashot XL Pro v2 – our all-in-one photo studio and integrated software, Orbitvu Station. It controls the camera, lights, background, and a rotating platform. The first thing was to prepare the device. As we have already mentioned, glass is a little bit tricky to photograph, so he decided to use some of our additional accessories. He used a bottle support which allows the light line to describe the product’s shape from top to bottom, an antireflection kit to create an environment for shiny and reflective products and black textile front cover at the back to avoid unwanted reflections.

One of the main points was to create a template in Orbitvu Station. The software has some predefined templates, but you can also create your own. It is beneficial especially when you have to photograph difficult objects. The template contains all necessary settings like a number of images, lighting, angles, camera positions, aperture, shutter speed, IQ mask, etc.

Once Honza created the perfect template, he was able to maintain image consistency while achieving high productivity.

Ready, steady go….

As the device and template were ready, there comes the real challenge with putting one hundred bottles into the device, one by one, pressing the “capture” button and letting the magic of automated photography happen. It took Honza about ninety minutes to make five hundred images, five per each product.

If you are wondering if Honza completed the challenge, we say: definitely! Even though we have three bottles of beer less after shooting, the results which you can find at our online demo store are truly satisfying.

Also, check out 5 tips to create great visual content:

• Prepare your products – especially glass objects need to be clean, without fingerprints, dust, etc.
• Position things (camera and products) well
• Test different lights setups and pick the best
• Based on your best pick, create a template that will give you excellent image consistency
• Use additional accessories for our devices. They help to achieve better results.

See how Honza photographed one hundred beers in less than two hours

Check out how to photograph bottles and other glossy objects with ALPHASHOT XL WINE.

Want to learn more about Orbitvu automated product photography solutions, contact us.