Product photography and shoot continuity for Brogan's Way Distillery, Richmond

Brogan's Way Distillery is an award-winning boutique gin distillery and cocktail bar in the heart of Richmond, Melbourne. Known for its unique, locally crafted spirits, Brogan's Way gives visitors a behind-the-scenes look at the full distillation process, alongside group tastings, masterclasses, cocktail-making parties, tasting flights and bar food.

We've photographed Brogan's Way on an ongoing, as-needed basis — with Lisa Saad, Principal Photographer at Gotham Studios Melbourne, shooting each new bottle as it was designed and produced.

The brief

Photograph new bottles as they're released, to a premium standard that matches the distillery's design and positioning — for use across the website and sales material.

The challenge — the range grows one bottle at a time

Brogan's Way doesn't release a range. It releases bottles — as they're designed, as they're distilled, as they're ready. Each one arrives on its own timeline, often months apart.

That's the exact scenario where product photography quietly falls apart. A new gin launches, it gets photographed under whatever conditions are available that week, and the range page on the website slowly turns into a collection of slightly mismatched images. For a premium craft product, that inconsistency undermines the price point without anyone being able to say why.

There's also the standard difficulty of the category: gin bottles are clear glass with detailed label design, and clear glass reflects the entire room.

How we solved it

We treated the first shoot as the template rather than as a one-off. Lighting position, camera position, background, distance and settings were all documented so the exact setup could be rebuilt on demand.

That documentation has been used across every subsequent shoot. When a new bottle is ready, we don't start again — we rebuild the existing setup and shoot the new product straight into the established range.

Alongside the standard product work, we've also produced more detailed and stylised shoots for social media, seasonal campaigns and other promotional use — a different visual register for a different job, but built on the same understanding of the product.

The result

A range that looks deliberate rather than accumulated. New bottles slot into the website and sales material looking like they always belonged there, with no need to re-shoot the back catalogue every time something launches — plus a separate stream of stylised campaign and social imagery when the distillery needs it.

Why this matters for your brand

If you release products one at a time rather than in ranges — which describes most craft, boutique and small-batch brands — ask your photographer to document the setup, not just deliver the files. It costs almost nothing on the day. It saves you from the slow visual drift that makes growing brands look inconsistent, and it makes every future shoot faster and cheaper because the setup is already solved.

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Credits

This photography for Brogan's Way Distillery was produced and art-directed by Lisa Saad, Principal Photographer at Gotham Studios Melbourne. Our team coordinated all logistics, art direction and styling, and produced the shoots as requested by the client. Gotham Studios Melbourne. We are your photographers. www.lisasaad.com · brogansway.com.au