Pour

April 4, 2016

The ‘pour shot’ is practically a rite of passage for every commercial photographer. I decided it was time. There are any number of ways to approach a pour shot, and most often they involve a colorful liquid. I wanted to test lighting and composition as well as the shooting technique (more on that in a bit), and used water so as not to waste the colorful beverages. I quickly found that I liked the water shots better.

Now, about that shooting technique: a typical (and excellent) way to do pour shots is to cut the bottom of of the bottle, clamp it all into place, and then pour through it, using it as a funnel. This has the advantage of repeatability and fixed composition, among other things. It has the disadvantage that you have cut the bottom off of a perfectly good bottle. While this is not normally a significant sacrifice, I happen to really like my red bottle! So, I opted to hand-pour and refill the bottle, triggering the camera by hand to ‘sync’ the timing. If you are thinking that this is a hit and miss sort of thing, you are perceptive.

The above image was a ‘happy accident’ in which the stopper top dropped into the water flow: I laughed as it happened, and the image still makes me smile, so it became a keeper. Some additional keepers are below. Which are your favorites?