The Entry Shot:
With the first assignment only just over http://marcelvanderhorstphotography.blogspot.com/2009/06/strobist-boot-camp-2.html the second was announced last week. To add to this crazily busy month, the closing date for submission was this Saturday (only one week later). So I had to hop to it, conceptualize, organise, shoot and process all in a very small time window.
A possible entry that didn’t make the cut.
With the first assignment only just over http://marcelvanderhorstphotography.blogspot.com/2009/06/strobist-boot-camp-2.html the second was announced last week. To add to this crazily busy month, the closing date for submission was this Saturday (only one week later). So I had to hop to it, conceptualize, organise, shoot and process all in a very small time window.
This time around the assignment centered around food.
A possible entry that didn’t make the cut.
The Setup Shot (Pretty simple eh?)
The aftermath!
Earlier in the week when the assignment was announced, I searched for inspiration in some cook books and cooking magazines. I tried to dissect how the lighting was done on each photograph that caught my attention. I noted nearly in every photograph of food, whether it was an ingredient or a complete meal, the lighting was either from the back right of the food (about 2o’clock to the camera) or shot hard left or right with one light source. Most food photographers go for the look of natural and neutral light shining through a window, by using a strobe (flash) with a light modifier like an umbrella, soft box or a diffuser panel, like the ones from Lastolite.
First thing I had to do was get all the props together. As I am not a brilliant pastry chef like they have at McDonalds McCafe, I decided to buy my food pre-made. I searched high and low for something indulgent like this croissant, as I was going for a dessert for one look. Most pastries I found were pretty un-inspiring, but my humble McDonalds a short walk from my house had the goods. It was the last one they had too, as it was 9 in the evening. I wish the 15 year old behind the counter would handle it a little more carefully, little did he know it was going to be photographed though.
To prepare the croissant, I shook off all the original icing sugar with the idea to replace it with fresh stuff. I placed it in the oven to get a little glisten to the chocolate, to make it look hot and straight from the oven. I dusted some new icing sugar over it and the plate to look ala-restaurant and placed a dollop or cream next to it. I wet the spoon in hot water to make it look like a clean dollop. I filled the little cup I bought from the $2 shop with the remaining cream. Sucessful food photography stems down to the styling of the food. If it looks flat and bland it won’t be appertising.
The coffee was easy as I am an avid coffee drinker, so I had all the facilities already on hand. The cup and saucer was purchased for $5 from Spotlight as I wanted something small as not to dominate the picture. The beans were fresh ground and made like a real coffee and luckily for me the crema in the coffee held nicely throughout the shoot. As the shoot wore on, the coffee was loosing its steam, so I replaced it with a candle just out of frame and blew it out just before I took the shot. I know it isn’t really visible, but in the test shots you can see the steam is not there.
Now to the fun bit. I set up a Nikon SB-28 Speedlight on a stand with an umbrella on it. The flash was gelled with a 1/2 strength CTO (colour temperature orange) and I placed a LumiQuest diffuser on it to further soften the light. I can thank Joe McNally’s book for that one. The shadows were filled with a white foam core board camera left. A simple setup but very effective. You can easily over light food.
The setting on the flash was f2 at about 1/4 power ISO100 and the camera shot at f2.2 to control the highlights and at 1/160th of a second to kill the ambient light from the kitchen. Very little post production was done to the photo as I was quite happy with it straight out of camera. A few minor Lightroom tweaks, a LAB colour and contrast boost and sharpen in Photoshop.
So if there are any local restaurants in the eastern suburbs of Victoria that needs some food photographed, drop me a line.
