Cocktail Photography Styling Tips for Restaurants
Cocktail photography is an art form. What is more beautiful than a slow pour of liquid or a perfectly composed cocktail shot in a gorgeous glass? With a bit of creativity, you can use your restaurant’s cocktail photography to wow your guests on social media. Here we are sharing our top cocktail styling tips for restaurants.
Capture action
The story of a cocktail lives in how it is made. Capture your bartender pouring, stirring and shaking. Show the cocktail passing between hands. Shoot from the guest perspective—include shots that help them visualize themselves in the space. Action shots of the cocktails being mixed and hands holding glasses add energy to social media feeds and give the viewer a bit of FOMO to make them excited to visit.
Tell stories with props
When shooting your cocktails, capture both the atmosphere and the personality of the bar. Use props that tell a story. For instance, this shot with a tiny piano the owners found in a vintage shop. (It reminds me of the Tom Waits song “The Piano Has Been Drinking.”) Or this shot with the perfect gold pineapple skewer that reinforces the flavor notes of pineapple in this cocktail.
Use unexpected backgrounds that set the scene
When shooting on-location, always scout the best surfaces found natively in a space—preferably ones that are close to natural light. You want the photos to truly tell the story of the location—what is its vibe and atmosphere? Is there an interesting texture on the bar or tables? Does the restaurant have beautiful wallpaper? And don’t be afraid to experiment with unusual surfaces to add more visual variety into the shoot.
Take advantage of all of the props and surfaces available in your restaurant and then some! For instance, this dreamy coconut cocktail photo was taken on a mirror we pulled from the wall.
Give flavor note clues
Surround the cocktail with the elements that go into making it to add more depth and color. Bright citrus, earthy spices and unexpected garnishes can help your cocktails stand out on social media and demonstrate what makes your cocktail program so special.
And one bonus cocktail styling tip—wait to add the ice until the last moment before shooting. Nobody wants to see sad melty cubes. Gently place them into the glass using tweezers. Or use fake ice cubes—just make sure they are high quality, realistic looking ones.
Yes, we’ve got a template for that…All our our restaurant social media kits come with post templates designed to show off your cocktail photography to its best!
FREE INSTAGRAM KIT
Try out a free set of 20 Instagram post + story templates and tell your best stories.
PLAN ONCE, POST OFTEN.
Dig deeper with our free Instagram Playbook—our step-by-step guide to finding your restaurant’s visual style and creating a plan of action.
COCKTAIL PHOTOS | Art direction: Rose & Co. | Photography: Ernst Berlin | Cocktail styling: Bar Botanista