how to photograph beauty drinks

I’ve photographed food products before. And I’ve photographed skincare and beauty products before. However, I had never photographed a consumable beauty product before, until my project with Beaumore. They are a California-based, Asian-inspired brand that makes collagen beauty drinks as well as supplements.

For the rebranding, they reached out to me for a shoot that would showcase their new packaging, which has now been re-designed to have an elevated, bolder, more luxurious look. The shoot would focus on showing both individual bottles as well as the full packaging, set among soft neutral tones and pops of color that matched back to the packaging colors.

I also wanted to show the products in a styled setting that wasn’t typical of skincare photoshoots, yet wasn’t too reminiscent of food photography either. To help illustrate that, ingredient props were kept to a minimum, and drinks glasses were used sparingly. We focused on creating minimal backgrounds with a focus on textures using fabrics and ribbons, and styling with fresh feminine props such as flowers.

The most challenging part of this shoot was to figure out different ways to showcase the box set of bottles. Working with a larger product, I wanted to find creative ways to show the box in different angles.

I incorporated a mix of flatlays so all of the bottles could be seen at once, as well as some levitation photography that would create a more playful and youthful feeling.

Other times, I would use hidden blocks to prop up the boxes a bit more and shoot from 3/4 angles. Having the lid of the box tilted differently in each shot also helped create different senses of space and proportion within the image. And finally, mixing up the styling of the image and the types of props that were used also helped differentiate the box set set images. Red roses were used to add a pop of color and tie back to the red labels. Soft fabric in one shot was in contrast to another shot with dramatic moody shadows.

For shots of the individual bottles, it was about creating more lifestyle environments around the products, as well as really honing in on the dramatic lighting and styling. The key was to make sure none of the styling props would overpower the small bottles. Since the bottles had bright saturated colored labels, most of the props and background colors were kept to light, neutral tones.

And finally, for the supplement products, we wanted to focus on simplicity, with at least one of the images showing the actual tablets inside the bottle. Minimal setups rely on textures, whether from fabrics or stones, to add interest.

If you’re rebranding your product line and need updated images, let’s connect!

For more details on this shoot, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at how the images were styled and shot, please check out the vlog.

And if you’re also curious to see how some of the images were edited, you can see the entire process in this vlog.

Interested in trying Beaumore’s products for yourself? Have a look at their website.