All language subtitles for 03-14-Cocktails-Bourbon on the Rocks.mp4

Honestly, all of my clients are making
the same request these days, and that

is they want bottles for their website.

But to go with that,

they also want cocktails.

I think almost every brand out there
has a set of signature cocktails

that they really kind of push forward
as ideas

for you to use their beveraging.

So

to go with the white line, black line,
you can very quickly shoot cocktails on

the same set and give them that same
set of offerings.

Cocktails on white, cocktails on black.

I shoot both.

I can do it very quickly.

And it gives my client a much deeper
library for them to use, kind of going

down the road.

So

let's take a look at doing a few
different things when it comes to

cocktails.

We're going to start just with a glass
of Bourbon on the rocks.

We're going to shoot it's dry, and then
we're going to do some condensation on

it, and we can see how much it's going
to change.

And then we'll walk through a few other
cocktails as well, just to get a sense

of what you can do.

Onset to talk about styling, how to
keep it simple, but keep it appetizing,

because that's a really important
trick.

I think a lot of people get too
concerned with the garnishes and kind

of overdo it.

I think in many ways, appetite appeal
is done best when it's done simply.

When I shoot cocktails, I actually
change the set slightly.

So if you know it before, when we were
shooting in the bottle, we had the baby

plate with the plexiglass on it.

That works really well with the bottle.

I want a little bit of that reflection
and gives me a little bit of a

foundation to set a larger bottle on.

When I'm shooting cocktails out, I
always go at just this small baby

plate.

I want to make it tighter.

I don't want that extraneous stuff
around.

So I go just to baby plate.

I tape it off.

It kind of looks precarious, like the
glass is just hanging on there and it is.

So you want to be careful with it.

But it eliminates reflection.

It eliminates things coming into the
glass that you don't want that's extraneous.

So we're going to walk through a few
different cocktails, just to give you

some ideas on how you can then put that
practice into your own studio.

The first thing I'm going to do is put
my cocktail glass out there and take a

capture of it.

I want to see what it looks like, dry.

I want to make sure that my light is
good before I start adding rocks in the

actual liquid.

Plus, I may want one of these early
captures to do a little composite.

And when I go in and I do, the
condensation, condensation is going to

totally mess up the glass.

So I'm going to want a clean version as
well.

So let's get started.

Let's make a capture.

Shall I

see what it looks like?

So as I'm looking at that image,

we are getting some of that wrap around
light.

A little bit of that background is
coming around the glass.

And the edges are getting that kind of
soft, white, fuzzy halation that I

don't like.

So to fix that,

rather than move these strips of
dubutine in, which is going to kill the

inside of the glass, we're just going
to bring cards nice and close to the

edges, because we want those crisp
lines.

So we're going to put a cstan coming
right underneath,

and from that we'll have two cards
coming up, nice and close,

slightly behind,

because we want to catch the light
that's coming from these outer edges.

And i'll give it nice crisp sides to
the glass.

So this is really a simple rig.

It's a small sea stand, a small c arm
and 21 inch pony claps with cards that

are cut identically because I want to
match left to right.

And

this will be pretty good.

Go that way, slightly with it.

They go.

Ooh, nice.

Yeah.

That's good.

When we take this capture, we're
instantly going to see

these edges, particular at the top,
come in because they are just fuzzy

better.

On the left is not quite there.

That is it

a little closer.

This one's perfect, though.

If you look right here, on this right
edge, that line is nice and crisp.

And I think it needs to come forward
slightly.

It's too far back.

There you go.

Yeah.

Now that's better,

yet, much better.

Let's get ice, shall we?

So remember, this is a building
process.

We're going to start with just a glass,

nice and clean, get a feel for what it
looks like if I want to make changes.

I'm going to know quickly whether that
glass is going to work, and then I'm

going to build up.

So next thing that's going to go in is
the rocks.

And then after that, we're going to
actually add the liquid.

It's just a building process,

which

I want to do 31

out.

This is a nice one.

Pretty big.

So one of the things that I make sure
that I do

is look at the placement of the rocks,
things that I think are going to look

good to the actual camera.

I want to start there, because
everything changes when you get liquid

into.

It's

pretty nice.

Let's do that to what we get?

No,

definitely not.

So what's wrong with that a lot?

This cube one is way too dark on the
top,

too.

It has a weird floating sense.

It seems like it's just jammed in
there, that the cube in the back is

really forcing it up, and so that's
just not working at all.

So I want to completely redo that.

Suita looks like,

way too high,

so you can tell quickly whether it's
going to work or not.

I mean, very quickly,

you know, I smile a bit.

Yeah, I don't like this cube.

This one's two

kibie.

Well, much better, for sure.

Kept.

one's pretty black.

Now, the reason I do this without
liquid, when I see areas inside of

those rocks that are just dying, if I
know when it's dry, if I pour liquid

in, it it's not going to get any
better.

In fact, it's going to be worse.

So I want to make sure these things are
in a decent place, not that they're in

their final spot, but they're in a
decent place.

When I add the liquid,

the more movement that I do once I have
the liquid in,

the more runs I'm going to get.

Going up the side

liquor is viscous.

And it actually tends to creep up the
sides of glasses.

That's just more to retouch.

So if I can keep it as clean as
possible, that's where I start.

And it got better.

Sound pretty dark.

They're really dark.

You know what?

That front one is just not treating me.

Well,

let's switch it out completely.

So

it might also be

that base plate.

Yeah, we might want to white tape this,
because I'm really seeing that in the

glass itself.

White.

Just go ahead and get that now.

Yeah,

please.

Much better, completely different feel
with those rocks.

They're night and day.

Let's actually get some liquid in
there.

Let's put white tape on there.

And let's get some liquid in there,

let's kick some liquid in there.

So there are a couple things I do when
I start pouring this liquid.

I look for a spot,

kind of deep inside the glass that I
can pour this liquid without causing splashing.

And I also just gently go over my ice

to give it that kind of glazed look.

Let's do that.

That's completely different.

I don't love the cube that's in the
bottom it's just a pyramid.

It's got no real shape to it
whatsoever, no real interest to it.

So we've got to move that guy around.

One of the things that I have found is
this is a bit of a jigsaw puzzle.

Every time,

sometimes the drink just boom Falls
into place.

The ice is perfect.

And other times you've got to fight it,
and you've got to find it.

It's kind of the nature of it.

All of these glasses are different.

All of these

cubes of ice are different.

That feels better.

Up here.

Go ahead and pop it.

That's looking better.

I'm going to live with that.

How about you?

All right?

Now, I'm going to clean up the inside
just a little bit.

We'll grab it

like I have it.

So this is one of the reasons why I
want to shoot the glass empty.

Because if I need any piece of that,
because

liquor, just,

it leaves residue, it hangs onto the
inside glass.

It can be easy to clean up, and it can
be tough.

So when you have just a clean empty
glass,

you can always grab a section of it and
bring it in.

And it really can be just a jigsaw
puzzle.

Sometimes

stuff doesn't want to play.

Well.

Clean this up

when I grab it.

And then we're going to do condensation
on it.

And this glass is going to look really
different.

And I think it's more.

You see a black card on there.

You're smoke,

all right, when I say, so, go ahead and
pop it.

I like that.

It's very clean, it's very simple, and
it's pretty graphic, which is what

clients ultimately want.

An image that has a little bit of
graphic to it, a little bit of impact

to it.

That's going to grab the eye.

You can see that ice is really
challenging,

even though I have a preconceived idea
of what I want.

And I build the glass empty, and I
think something's going to look good.

Everything changes when you get the
liquid in there.

And then you have to move around and
find the right spot.

That's what we did, and I think we have
a good dry shot.

Now, what we want to do is actually
condensate it.

I'm not a big fan,

although I do it in beer all the time.

I'm not a big fan of putting sprits and
slush on the outside of cocktails.

So I just don't think it looks real.

So what I'd like to do is actually use
real condensation.

How do you make drink

have real condensation when it's just
room temperature and it's got fake ice

in it?

Use a steamer.

So I'm going to use the steamer.

I'm going to hit it, and I'm going to

get a little conversation going, and
I'm going to hit it again.

And we're going to keep doing captures.

We're going to build up till we make it
a total disaster.

And then we're going to dry it off, and
we're going to do it again, but we're

going to dry it without moving it, and
we're going to build up and build up

until we have exactly the capture we
want.

Now

keep in mind, when we do this
condensation, the whole glass is going

to go.

And for me, I don't think that's what
you really want in your final image,

because it's not going to condensate.

If you have a glass it's half full like
that, we're not going to have

condensation all the way up to the rim.

That's why you want these clean, dry
images.

So you can grab the glass and the ice,
and you can use the clean above the

liquid level and just do a nice blend
of condensation kind of going up.

And I also use a clean base, too.

I don't want to ton a conversation
going on the base.

I may play with that a little bit,

because theoretically you will have
condensation moving downward, but

you're not going to have it running up.

So let's go ahead and play with that.

And we're going to bring out the
steamer.

So guys, I am going to try to be on the
side for you.

So I'm going to stand on the side and
get this a little bit.

Kate's going to actually fire the
camera for me.

She definitely understands my timing.

I'm going to hit it lightly and build
it up time after time.

Again,

you're ready ready.

So one of the things that I have
learned,

this gets real hot, and you don't want
to hold onto it.

So I just wrap a towel around it and
gives me something to hold onto that.

Hose I can control everything better.

And again, this is an inexpensive
steamer.

This is not the big 250 dollar,
commercial grade one.

Those things are actually terrible.

Get the cheap one.

They work a lot better.

Let's go,

and you're instantly going to start to
see some change on there.

I mean it's immediate.

And I don't want all that steam coming
off of it.

That does not look right.

But we're going to build this up.

And you can see the difference that
it's making.

We've got to keep going.

What's nice about this.

You can really kind of direct it too.

You can also cover up a few of these
holes

if you want to have it just come from a
really more tight and precise point.

Yeah, that's too glassy.

Now go hippobbet.

One of the things that I've always
noticed about this, the first run is

never good.

It's just,

there's something about the glass.

It actually kind of has to be
conditioned by the steam.

So

I find the second, third, 4th time, it
usually gets a lot better.

So now how do I clean this without
taking it offset, without moving the ice,

canna air

very simply.

I'm just going to blow all the
condensation off.

I'm going to push it down.

Let gravity be my friend.

And I can start again.

And you can see it just starts to give
it that kind of

smoky diffuse look in the liquid.

I happen to really like, that's

going to be good.

That started to look better.

Yeah, look at the changes in there.

You really see that starting to affect
all the edges

inside of the ice, inside of the glass.

Ok,

I'm going to start to see it run really
soon.

There we go.

As a run.

I'm doing,

yeah,

that's pretty nice.

Who like that one?

Yeah.

So the things I'm looking at here,

I like how real this condensation feels
like.

When you look at that, you can see
those droplets they're breaking up the

ice, it's giving it that sense of
condensation that I like.

You also really see it on the edges.

And you have to blow it up a little
bit.

You can see those droplets nicely
defined.

But you don't want all this.

You're not going to have conversational
all the way up.

And that's why we're going to bleed the
two together.

And we also want to clean her base.

We'll do it one more time.

Let's show you another trick I use.

But at least you'll get the idea.

So there are times that I've found that

I'm just not getting the condensation
that I want.

The temperature difference between the
steam and the room temperature is not

enough.

Actually want to explode that or expand
it a little bit.

So if you take a cann't air and go
upside down with it, you can actually

make the glass really cold.

So when we hit it with steam

is going to exaggerate, it's going to
go a little bit faster.

You have to be careful, because you can
easily crack the glass

when here's what we're going to do,

or literally

going to hose this down.

You can feel how high as cold this can
is.

You can see it getting frosty.

And now we're going to hit it with the
conversation again.

Quickly,

it gives us a slightly different
feeling.

And sometimes I would like to work just
the edges a little bit more, keep the center

a little bit more clean, but get some
of that heavier condensation going on

the edges.

And that's pretty, too.

Ok.

I honestly love doing this.

It's fun.

I get to really play.

This is something you can really
experiment to see

what kind of effect you like and what
kind of look

you want to bring to your cocktails.

Let's take a look at that.

I think that's kind of interesting on
that right side.

Too much there, but that's really
pretty.

And like that, we're going to mark that
just as an option.

Ooh, that one's even nicer.

So when I'm looking here, I see some
really good details that I like.

Love that one.

Yeah, I like that it's kind of a little
bit frostier feel to it.

I also love that one.

So

play around with this.

This is just a matter of finding the
right kind of

cold feeling, the right kind of
condensation and the right refreshment

cute.

Because it should feel refreshing.

It should be one of the things you just
want to reach out and grab.

So again, you can see how you can kind
of quickly go from white line, black line,

shooting bottles to offering more for
your client, for doing cocktails.

And you can offer both dry and
condensated, which are two very, very

different looks.