AI product photography for coffee and tea brands

Updated ยท Stillhouse

The short answer

Stillhouse photographs every bag, tin and box in your coffee or tea range in one set, with the label restored from your own photo. A range of origins and blends comes out looking like one roaster, and every frame is checked before it reaches you.

Example frame to comeA kraft coffee bag on a wooden worktop in the set, window light, beans spilled beside it, label forward

Photographing coffee & tea

Coffee and tea are bought by feel. The customer wants a sense of the roast, the leaf and the place it was grown, from a picture of a bag. That sense comes from the surface, the light and the props, and from the label doing its job.

A roaster or a tea merchant adds products constantly: a new origin each season, a limited blend, a gift set. Each one needs a page that looks like it belongs with the last.

Common photo problems

  • 01

    Origin labels are small print

    The origin, the roast date, the tasting notes and the weight are all text. They are what a coffee drinker reads before buying.

  • 02

    Kraft and matte bags absorb light

    A paper bag or a matte tin looks dead under flat light. It needs a directional source to show the texture.

  • 03

    Steam and liquid are hard

    A cup with steam or a pour in progress is a detail that sells the product, and also one an image tool will often draw badly.

  • 04

    Seasonal releases break the grid

    A new origin shot six months later, in a different light, makes the shop look disorganised.

What the studio does about it

  • One roastery light. Build the set once: a worktop, a window, a time of day. Every new origin is photographed in it.
  • Labels from your photo. The roast and origin text are restored from the photo you uploaded.
  • New releases as they arrive. Autopilot photographs products new to your store in your set, and can publish them when every check passes.

The shot list for coffee & tea

  • Hero of the bag or tin, label forward
  • Beans or leaf beside the pack, to show the roast or the cut
  • The brew: a cup, a pour-over or a teapot beside the product
  • Scale beside a hand or a mug
  • Gift set laid out together
  • A short clip of a slow push-in on the hero

Questions

Can I show the coffee or tea being made?

Yes, as a still life with the product and the cup in the set. Frames with liquid and steam are harder to get right, so look at them before you publish.

Will each origin look like the same shop?

Yes. The set is frozen, so every bag is photographed in the same room and light.

What about a subscription box or gift set?

Photograph the set as one product from a photo of the whole box, and the individual items as their own products. The studio checks each frame against the photo it was given.

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