Guinness - End Of The rAInbow
ROLES
Retouching
| Photography
| Creative
| AI
You can't spell rainbow without AI.
(Admittedly, we didn’t realize that until we wrote the title.)
This concept actually started by playing off the Guinness packaging — gold on black — and a little Irish rainbow lore. We approached Guinness conceptually as liquid gold (the real treasure at the end of the rainbow) and from there, sketched out what we needed to build the scene.
Obviously, we needed a hero Guinness can — which we’d shoot in studio after figuring out the rest of the scene: backgrounds, perspectives, lighting. For the environment, we wanted to riff on the idea of gold four-leaf clovers falling from a beam of light above — presumably where the rainbow meets into the ground.
There were a few ways to get gold clovers:
Some clover and gold spray paint (but it was March — not exactly peak clover season)
Some Photoshop magic with stock photos
Or building a CGI gold clover that was procedural so they didn't all look alike
If this had been a full campaign with multiple shots and motion, CGI could’ve been the right move. But for one image? Overkill. So we turned to AI to help build out the scene.
Final Composite Image
We started in Midjourney, creating a bunch of images we could chop up and stitch together into a backplate. After some time (and some truly weird clover experiments), we landed on a set that nailed the vibe: dark, moody, top-down ethereal lighting, and gold clovers raining from above. We made a few variations too — because if there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that you always want extra pieces for options later.
Once we had the background vibe locked, we could light the Guinness can to match.
Backlit from above, bounce card in front — clean, simple.
We liked it. Test comped it. Everything lined up.
Rather than reshoot, we just retouched the center shadow out.
Three variations of gold clover from Midjourney and the studio photo of the Guinness can
No product is perfect out of the box, by the way. Especially with printed packaging where you can't apply fresh new labels. Even if you pick the best one from the shelf, a high-res photo will lovingly reveal every last scratch, dent, and printing quirk.
You can see some of those imperfections in the before-and-after close-up below, and them cleaned up. (Always satisfying.)
Close up before and after of the Guinness can retouching
Once the can was cleaned up, we built out the full scene:
Adding more gold clovers from the AI variants to fill out the frame
Bringing a few clovers in front of the can for some depth
Color matching everything
Layering in some fine gold dust
Adding cast shadows from the clover onto the can
Also sneaking in some soft rainbow colors from above
1.The main background image | 2.The base Guinness can dropped in | 3. More clover from the Midjourney variations composited in | 4. Final composite
You can check out the full before-and-after below, plus some detail shots if you really want to zoom in on those pixels.
We highly recommend drinking a Guinness while you scroll — but no pressure.
Before / After of the main background image and base Guinness can / the final composite
Detail of the final composite showing the rainbow highlights and gold dust
Detail of the final composite showing the gold clover overlaid in front of the can and casting shadows
Another detail of the final composite showing the gold clover overlaid in front of the can and blend into the ground surface
