As part of Photographic Futures, I unfortunately didn’t find an internship in time but have got one in place for later June. However in the meantime Singapore Lounge a bar/restaurant in Rochester had asked my to help revamp and merchandise them. So I took some photographs of the bar (shown above) to get customers noticing them. These images are being used on a digital screen on the front of their bar scrolling through. I have also self promoted myself here by at the end crediting my photographs with my name and website so when passers by see it could help myself as well. They are also used on their website (which I also created for them) and facebook page. After these images with discussion with the owner I then created a website, and flyer for them and inside promotional art. I got paid £150 for the images and website. This has also greatly helped my portfolio working with clients and has taught me what it’s like working for a business and creating images to a professional standard and the process. Under recommendation from the manager after these images I got asked to photograph Gordon House Hotel and also create a new website for them.
Inspiration.
when being set the challenge to photographs drinks and cocktails , I came across the commercial photographer Brent Herrig
This is his website
As I hadn’t done drink photography before what I had learned from looking in to a professionals work is that they look very clean and crisp. The main focus in the cocktail and background is typically blurred. Using a small aperture thats how I created the cocktail in main focus but the background a mix of colored blur. The images are all very sharp here which is something I wanted to create. The background is typically bar backgrounds in the environment the drink would be, but this has a lens blur anyway which just creates a faded background. Things I took forward from viewing this work was the sharpness and clarity everything shines from the glass and even the ice is in pristine clarity. He often uses accessories that are in connection to the drink as accessories to the image, I then took this forward and used props such as lemons and umbrellas, just to add character to the images. In post production I just sharpened around the glass and liquid and by changing the contrast and levels really made the images shine.
Another factor I had to consider and plan for this was the lighting. The lighting at singapora gave me an advantage as it was very colourful with led lights around, this then shone on the glass and illuminated the photograph giving a bar like atmosphere.
The angles are also very straight on and the only point of light is on the glass, contrasting it from the background.
abigailedwards 