Recently I was approached by Rekorderlig Cider to produce a number of images and Tiktok videos for their Chinese range of products. Being a global brand I jumped at the opportunity! This is my second major shoot for Rekorderlig. The first was a couple of years ago and was for their packaging for their Dry Apple Cider range. We set up a number of shots at sunrise as Sydney is on the East Coast so the sun rises along the beach. Being a photographer in Sydney you get to learn all the best spots and the time of day to get the most from a location. Rekorderlig wanted that golden hour feel to represent lazy days spent with friends enjoying your favourite chilled cider. We had to fake that it was sunset so all the models had a nice boozy breakfast! The result was six images that would be used across packaging, point of sale and social media. We shot the images in one day at a number of locations around Manly Beach in Sydney’s Northern Beaches. I was really happy with the result and seeing your images on the shelf in a store gives me a real sense of pride.
So when this new opportunity arose I was all in. They wanted a range of images, with differing props, products and backdrops. The shoot was a real challenge. Luckily it happened during the Covid-19 outbreak so I was able to shoot from my home studio. The challenge was the number of props involved. It’s not just about the photography it’s about the styling too. Each prop was meticulously placed. Each piece of fruit needed to be cut to perfection. The drink needed to look refreshing for hours on end. Just moving a glass would be a challenge as the condensation would drip or the surface that the drink was on would be wet. I had to avoid fingerprints on surfaces. Reflections are the most difficult part of shooting glassware. A number of images needed to be built up and then merged in post. If you put a glass in front of a bottle. The bottle can reflect the glass causing abstract blobby images.
The same goes for the fruit flying through the air. A blueberry may look pretty but when it casts a black blob on your product it can become an unwanted distraction. Luckily I have years of experience and know what works. this makes the shoot fast and efficient. I am able to shoot a whole heap of setups that gives my clients lots of options to choose from.
I really wanted to push the boat out with this shoot and try something different. I am always looking to challenge myself with my work. I invested in a high-speed sync system. The Elinchrom Skyport Plus HS for Canon. Paired with my twin Elinchrom Dx4 Studio flashes this gave me the ability to capture high-speed imagery.
I wanted to freeze liquid splashing to represent the refreshing taste of the cider. Let the flavour explode type of feel. I poured the liquid into a bowl with some fruit and threw the liquid at the bottle. The bottle was fixed down with blue tack to prevent it from being knocked over. Doing this by myself and trying to trigger the shot at the same time, as you can imagine, took me a couple of goes to get just right. After each attempt, I would have to stick a new label on the bottle as the label would get drenched and didn’t look very appealing. I would also need to clean up all the fruit and dry off the table. But, persistence paid off!
I’m not just a photographer in Sydney either. I’m also a cinematographer or a videographer as it’s more commonly known. Although the two are distinctly different. The beauty is that brands don’t need to hire two creatives. They can get everything they need from Exposed Wolf.
So another aspect of the shoot was to create some content for Tiktok. Tiktok has some bad press in Australia recently with security concerns. But it is a thriving market in China and a fantastic way for brands to reach millions of consumers. The video was to be short and snappy and only last 15 seconds long. In that time I had to show off the drink, make it look refreshing and create a story! I set up a camera rig to shoot in portrait aspect. This gave me a higher quality output rather than just cropping the sides. It also allowed my composition to be spot on without having to worry about fitting things into the crop in post. I shot in 60fps to give me speed ramping options in post.
The client loves the results. So much so that they have come back and asked me to shoot the entire range for them. This is huge for me as a photographer and I’m looking forward to getting stuck into the new images. I still pinch myself that I do this for a living. I get to be creative all day long and get paid for it by global brands.
Thanks for reading!
Gareth Carr
Cinematographer & Photographer based in Sydney, Australia
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Exposed Wolf is a video production & photography company based in Sydney, Australia. With over 20 years of industry experience, they can help you with planning, shooting and editing your projects to give you months of powerful content to raise your business and brand.