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How to Photograph the Perfect Cup of Coffee

Chris Gampat
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09/29/2015
1 Min read

Last Updated on 09/29/2015 by Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Coffee image (1 of 1)ISO 4001-50 sec at f - 4.0

Today here in the US, it’s National Coffee Day; a day where we all pay special tribute and appreciate the little bean that keeps millions of Americans (and people around the world) ticking through their work day. As you may know, lots of folks love photographing coffee and posting images on social media. But getting that photo that tempts people can be tough to do; but we’re going to tell you how to make it simple.

If you’re all about using natural light, place your coffee near a large window and make sure that there is a lot of contrast in the scene. For example, if you have a white cup, then use a black background. This makes the human eye pay attention to the coffee much more than it would with a less contrasting background. The contrasting background also comes in handy when it comes to capturing steam in your image. But to reiterate the most important part, be sure to use window lighting; and lots of it! Getting a great coffee shot is simple to do with natural light and even something as simple as your phone; and we teach you more about that here.

Photo by Jon Low. Featured in our interview with him.

For the more advanced amongst us, you can always emulate the look of window lighting. or you can check out the video below from Learn my Shot.

For even more advice, you should check out our interview with photographer Jon Low; and you can also use chemical reactions to get the look of steam.

coffee coffee photography contrast national coffee day steam
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.