How I got the shot: Raspberry iced tea

While you might all be feeling a little chilly in the Northern Hemisphere, down here in Australia we are sweltering in the Summer heat.

Nothing quite beats an iced tea on a balmy summer evening. So I set about creating a little product photography styled shot for iced tea. If this was for a brand label, I would also have added the bottle in the shot. Here’s how I set up and took the shot.

Behind the scenes

I set up my 34” Light Shed (B&H | Amazon) on a table, and then set up the white backdrop inside. I placed a vinyl backdrop in the base.

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Props

Using a timber cutting board and two mason jars, I filled them with fake ice cubes (they last longer under lights and such), along with real iced tea. I sprayed the glasses with 50/50 water and glycerine to create condensation on the outside of the glass (which also lasts ages under lights) — I use a little spray bottle.

Adding some fresh raspberries, lemon wedges and mint leaves to really help build on the story. The final touch was placing some paper straws for a touch more color (which balanced out the lemon). Using the glycerine mix and the light shed really dropped down the reflections in the glass, too.

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Lighting

I put my Godox AD200Pro (B&H | Amazon) on a light stand on the left-hand side of the light shed. I used the basic flash head and had my settings at 1/32 power to get just the right amount of light. I used a Godox X1-S trigger (B&H | Amazon) to communicate with the speedlight.

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Settings

I was using my Sony a7R III (B&H | Amazon) and my Tamron 28-75mm lens (B&H | Amazon). I shot at ISO 100, f/4.5, 1/125s at approximately 50mm. I did some minimal editing in Lightroom. 

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