If you’ve ever tried to snap a photo of a perfect cocktail, chances are the result was not at all perfect. Photography is an art form most of us iPhone-wielding amateurs do not understand. But that doesn’t mean we can’t learn. Here, three professionals reveal how they transform everyday objects—a glass of whiskey, an elegant shoe—into images that make you want what you see. You may not be able to replicate the exact shots, but you can use these strategies to significantly up your Instagram game.
Adam Voorhes & Robin Finlay
Known professionally as The Voorhes, this duo is a (married) photographer/stylist team who specialize in still lifes. They shoot WIRED's monthly What’s Inside column.
Keep Your Whites White
Finlay: “You know when you shoot something in fluorescent light and you get that weird-colored glow? Your eyes don’t see it, but the camera does. When we took this shot initially, we noticed there was a tiny bit of cyan in the ice cubes. Making your highlights really white in Photoshop gives you a much crisper and cleaner image. It’s so subtle, you don’t even realize it was bothering you until it’s fixed.”
Fake It (Don’t Make It)
Voorhes: “You want a photo to feel natural but look better than it does in real life. Regular ice looks cloudy, the shapes aren’t attractive, and in a shot like this, where there’s action and the cubes are bouncing around, you want some consistency.”
Finlay: “The ‘ice’ in this picture is actually hand-crafted acrylic cubes from Trengrove Studios. But the whiskey is real. It’s Wild Turkey.”
Work Clean
Voorhes:__ “__We bought a tumbler from Goodwill with facets that act almost like prisms, so you see these glowing points of light in the middle of the liquid. You want the glass to be attractive, high quality, and clean. Robin always gives me a hard time when I get fingerprints all over it.”
Finlay:__ __“To clean the glass between shots, we use blue shop towels instead of the regular paper towels because they seem to give us less lint. We’ll Windex it and handle it with latex gloves.”
James Day
Day is a London-based photographer who has shot portraits, Star Wars models, and the Apple Watch for WIRED, plus ad campaigns for Audi, Sony, and Heineken.
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“When you take pictures, particularly still lifes, you want it to be about the object itself, so I try to isolate it from its environment. For this shot, I wanted the shoe to feel heroic and monolithic, so I kept it very pared down and simple and beautiful, and I positioned the camera tight and low, so you’re looking up at it ever so slightly.”
Photoshop Your Background
“Photoshop is a fantastic tool, but it’s quite open-ended. You need to know what look you’re going for. The background of this shot was composited in Photoshop, and we gave it a slight dark halo around the shoe so the spikes and highlights pop around the edges.”
Light It Up
“It’s all down to lighting. Look at the surface you’re dealing with. These Christian Louboutin shoes looked amazing coming out of the box—as they should when they cost well over $1,000—and they are made of very reflective patent leather. I side-lit the shoe using strip lights that ran vertically so I could have these very defined highlights going down the incredible stiletto heel. You want to show off an object’s interesting points to their best advantage.”
