NOTE: THERE IS NO CLASS ON AUGUST 4. WE WILL RESUME CLASSES ON AUGUST 11. 

ASSIGNMENT: Promotional Images for Local Coffee Bar

BRIEF

Your town or area just got a new Coffee Bar in a newly gentrifying part of town. Because you are doing your marketing right, you knew it was opening soon (business licenses are posted in the newspaper) and did some in-person business development. Dropping by with a leave-behind and your portfolio, you impressed the owners right away, and they want to do some images for the various local coffee magazines.

That’s the way you do it, BTW.

They are leaving the style and approach up to you, but they do want to feature a cup of coffee with an ‘early morning’ feel, possibly with a croissant or pastry.

Now, here’s the thing. The shop’s style has to be brought in to the images and they are a bohemian, up-scale coffee vendor. They would like four images for the gig, and I want to see all four that you do. One other thing – they can only give you 1 hour for the four shots, so planning and production will be an issue for you to deal with.

Asking for permission to shoot in a coffee bar is pretty easy, as most of the owners would love to get four images to use in their marketing. Do a great job and they may want you to do some more for them… as a gig.

PARTICULARS.

• Images can be tall or wide but should also work in a square format (for Instagram)
• Color
• The file should be able to print on cheap paper and still look good (No deep darks with texture)
• Keep text in mind, but do not let it dictate your composition

This is a style shot. It is not a coffee product shot. You can choose to use interesting post processing on it if you are so inclined.

Be careful to not have it come out looking like a product shot for a coffee company… this is mood, atmosphere, style, and flair.

And have fun with it.

PEOPLE

Coffee Bars are intimate little cafes that people go to mingle or quietly have an Espresso before work. You will want to either use someone who is very comfortable with being photographed looking into themselves – not the lens – or ask that they simply go about their business, having a coffee and a pastry and you follow in close proximity shooting all the while.

Distant shots of two people conversing at tiny tables is a great go-to, and if you choose to do people you will be deep into the wardrobe part of the image. Colors WILL matter, as well as prints. What kind of ambient color is present? Is it a busy texture or a smooth, clean background. Make sure colors stand out but do not clash and prints do not cause visual noise.

STILL LIFE

From table tops to light coming through a window, almost everything in a coffee bar is fair game photographically. There are many parts of the “coffee life” that are iconic from stirrers to cups to decorative foam. Using still life and shared context can be very powerful in placing the viewer IN to the image. Think color, texture and feeling.

PHOTOSHOP TUTORIAL: ENHANCING COLOR