Photograph your coffee cup in soft daylight, without flash, from directly above. Once the grounds have dried, shoot the inside, the handle side and the saucer, then pick the sharpest shot. When the light and dark areas of the grounds are clearly visible, the reading can go into detail; a blurred or shadowy shot hides the symbols.
It is tempting to grab the cup and shoot straight away, but a few minutes of preparation make a visible difference. Below you will find the preparation, the light, the angles and the most common mistakes, in that order.
How should you prepare the cup before taking the photo?
A good photo starts with a well-prepared cup. After drinking your Turkish coffee, leave a sip or two of grounds at the bottom, hold your intention in mind and turn the cup upside down onto its saucer. The point of traditional cup turning is to let the grounds run down the walls and settle into shapes.
Then leave the cup to cool. Tradition suggests waiting five to ten minutes, which gives the grounds time to settle and lose their shine. Wet grounds reflect light and leave white glare and bright patches in the photo. If the inside looks matt when you lift the cup, you are ready. If drops are still running down from the rim, give it a little longer.
It also helps to wipe the outside and the rim with a napkin. Stray coffee marks on the rim look like symbols in the frame and get mixed up with the real shapes.
What is the best light for a coffee cup photo?
The best light is indirect daylight from a window. Put the cup beside the window, somewhere the sun does not hit it directly; when the light comes softly from the side, the texture and fine lines of the grounds stand out. Direct midday sun casts hard shadows, while warm indoor lighting in the evening turns the grounds into one flat brown stain.
Switch the flash off. Flash bounces off the glazed surface of the cup, leaves a white spot in the middle and flattens the texture of the grounds. If there is no daylight, use a desk lamp held to the side and slightly above rather than the ceiling light. Make sure the shadow of your phone and your hand does not fall into the cup, because a shadow is the thing most often mistaken for a symbol. If the grounds look too dark in a white cup, tap the inside of the cup on screen and adjust the brightness to bring the balance back.
Which angles should you shoot the cup from?
Three shots are enough. For each one, hold the phone steady, fill the frame with the cup and tap on the grounds to focus.
- The inside, from directly above: Hold the phone parallel to the rim and move back until both the bottom and the rim fit in the frame. This is the main shot of the reading, showing the bottom, the walls and the rim at a glance.
- The handle side, slightly tilted: Turn the cup so the handle faces you and shoot at roughly forty-five degrees. Traditionally the handle side stands for the cup's owner and their close circle, and this shot shows the shapes in that area.
- The saucer, from directly above: After lifting the cup, photograph the grounds that ran onto the saucer as well. Some readers interpret the saucer separately and link it to the general mood of the home.
Move the phone closer instead of zooming in, since digital zoom blurs the detail. If the phone cannot focus when you are very close, pull back a little. Taking all three shots in the same light makes them easier to compare afterwards.
Which shot do you upload to Faltastik, and what should you write down?
A coffee reading on Faltastik starts with a single photo, so choose the sharpest of your three shots; usually that is the one showing the inside of the cup from above. You can upload a JPEG, PNG or WebP file of up to 5 MB. The photo is checked during upload and verified as a cup photo; a blurred image is still accepted, but you are told that it is not clear. If you see that note, retaking the shot gives the reading more to work with.
In the next step you briefly describe what you see in your own words. This is where the shapes on the handle side and the saucer go, based on the shots you did not upload. A short note such as "a winged shape beside the handle, a round empty patch in the middle of the saucer" is enough. In the last step you can add a question if you like; it is optional, but it sets the focus of the reading.
Why does a sharp photo change the reading?
In coffee cup reading, a symbol is the shape formed by the light and dark areas of the grounds together. What makes a bird a bird is the gap between its wings; what makes a road a road is the clear ground on either side. In a blurred photo those gaps close up, shapes run into each other and the cup looks more crowded than it is.
Position matters too. Traditionally, shapes near the rim are read as the near future and those near the bottom as a more distant time. A tilted shot breaks that order, so a shape on the rim can look as if it sits at the bottom. A sharp shot from directly above shows both the shape and its place correctly.
What are the most common photo mistakes?
The table below sums up the mistakes people make most often and the easy fixes.
| Mistake | What happens in the photo? | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Using flash | White glare in the middle, flat-looking grounds | Turn the flash off and use window light |
| Shooting before the grounds dry | Wet glare and smeared lines | Wait five to ten minutes |
| One shot from the side | One wall of the cup is never seen | Shoot the inside from directly above |
| Digital zoom | Details turn blurry | Move the phone closer |
| Warm indoor light | The grounds become one flat stain | Use daylight or white light |
| Your hand's shadow | A dark patch that looks like a symbol | Light from the side, raise the phone |
If you can see the phone reflected inside the cup, change the angle slightly. Turn off filters and beauty settings; anything that shifts the colours also shifts the contrast between the light and dark areas of the grounds. For a closer look at how each area of the cup is traditionally read, the coffee reading guide is a good place to start.
What happens to your cup photos?
It is a fair question to ask before uploading anything. Under the Faltastik privacy policy, photos that are not attached to a reading are deleted after twenty-four hours, and photos attached to a reading are deleted together with your account. You can try each reading type once for free without an account, and the free plan includes fifteen readings a month.
One last reminder: coffee cup reading is meant for entertainment and reflection, and it is not a substitute for health, legal or financial advice. If you want to look up the traditional meaning of a shape you spotted, start with a common one such as the bird symbol.
