Starbucks Pregnancy Announcement 2017

My friend Michael and his wife Stephanie are expecting their first! Steph works for Starbucks, so we thought a Starbucks pregnancy announcement would fit them best. Because they were announcing to family at Christmas and to friends over New Years, we worked in a Christmas theme, too. Using some items from their house and a roll of bulletin board paper, Mike set up this ultra mini-shoot in about 15 minutes in his classroom. Congratulations Michael and Stephanie!

Achieving the Look

To get a dreamy look, I used a 2.8 f-stop. With the aperture opened so wide, it allowed a lot of light into the photos as well. I also staged the cups closer to me and let the Christmas items fill the background so they’d be blurred by the low aperture.

Mike did a good job or choosing objects within a consistent color pallet. In keeping with a coffee theme, we used coffee beans for texture, dark brown pine cones, a the copper lidded french press. Setting off the brown was the golden “Noel Joy” sign we used prominently in several of the shots. I picked up on those gold tones when I added in the bokeh lights.