Food photography Behind the Scenes

8/19/2019 Food photography Behind the Scenes

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FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY BTS COLLECTION

- Collected by Chimkudo Studio -

Ice Cream Shot | Behind the Scenes ith Ronne! C"ison

Shooting food is fun but it’s not the easiest thing to do. There are times when you need to solve

problems during food shoots that’s why you need to be prepared. In order to avoid being in an

embarrassing situation you must do your homework.

You need to bring everything you think is necessary – lenses, back up camera, monitor,

computer, gobos, lights with modifiers etc. It’s better to pack everything you have than to fall

short. elieve me I’ve been there, that’s why I learned how to improvise. I make use of what I

have and look at the things around me that I can use as props. !lthough improvisation is good,

it’s still best to have everything ready. Impressing the client with your professionalism will go a

long way.

"or this shoot, I was fortunate that I didn’t need to food style and we only needed a minimalistic

shot. I #ust did my outback lighting and that was it. The shot came out perfect for the client and

no retouch was needed. I shot this for $utback Steakhouse %hilippines a couple of years

ago. It’s a dessert shot that has the same feel as the international version of the same dessert.

$utback Steakhouse’s photos usually have a warm tone.


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I used & strobes with medium'si(ed softbo)es and another strobe at the back with honeycomb

attachment plus a warm gel directed at the wooden wall behind to separate my sub#ect from the

background and to bring out the te)ture of the wood.

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I dialed in about f*+. to f*- to give the right amount of depth of field and bokeh.

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ow to %hotograph – Sloppy /oe urger Sloppy /oe with ard 0ight

!fter sharing a bunch of softly'lit food photos, here’s one that uses a single hard light source

with small vanity mirrors as fill and accent lights. The main ingredients are of course ground beef

and a good 1ol can of unt’s 2anwich Sloppy /oe Sauce 34 I mi)ed some onions and parsley into

the mi) and made the sauce a little thicker with cornstarch so it’ll stay put and be less 1runny’

when placed in the bun. Sloppy /oes doesn’t offer much eye'candy, photography'wise, so

instead of going soft, I opted for a little drama using hard light.

"irst, the 1styling’ aspect of the burger. 5e ran out of hamburger buns so I had the kids run down

to the store to buy a pack. 6aturally, they didn’t bother picking the best looking bag of bread and

#ust bought whatever was within reach. Then again, the neighborhood convenience store won’t

have high'7uality bread anyway, so we’ll work with what we have.

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You can see that the bread has a a strong crease at the bottom. I should’ve #ust picked another

bun’s bottom 80$04 in hindsight, but what the heck, let’s move on. $ne of the trademark 1feature’

of a sloppy #oe sandwich is the amount of meat that’ll #ust drop and oo(e out when you take your

first bite. So with that in mind, I opted to 1bloat’ the appearance of the meat, overpowering the

si(e of the buns that are trying to contain it.

owever, I cannot put too much meat onto the bun because3

94 The meat with s7uash the lower bun into a thin piece of soggy bread.

&4 The meat will not 1stand’ and create the height re7uired for the shot.

:emember that anything the camera doesn’t see wouldn’t matter for the final shot. You can see

from the setup shot, the meat facing the camera is twice as thick as the meat at the back. So

essentially, only &*; of the bread has a filling, the back of the bun has very little filling.

The top and bottom buns were supported with two < sticks within the center of the mi)ture.

!s for the lighting, the light came at a =>'degree angle from camera left. ! ++>?@ with a AIY

grid spot 8made of corrugated board stacks4 controlled the lighting.

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!fter several height and angle ad#ustments, I settled for a raking light beam that skimmed across

the front face of the meat to highlight the te)ture. The lighting was also lowered a little to put a

faint gradient’ of light between the burger and the background. If I placed the light at e)actly =>'

degree of the bun, the shadows for the meat not create the necessary te)ture and contrast. You

can 1study’ where the light came from by viewing the sesame seeds on the bun and the parsleysnips.

$pposite the light, I used several small vanity mirrors. $ne at the back to define the edges of the

top bun, the second to prevent the shadow side of the bun to completely disappear into the

darkness, and a third mirror to bring some gleaming, greasy 8yum4 highlights on the meat’s

surface that’s hidden in the shadows.

! "lickr contact asked me how I determine the angles of the mirror. I simply use a flashlight and

strap it on top of the flash head then ad#ust the mirrors’ angles as re7uired. If the beam is too

narrow, i #ust hang wrap it with some tissue for a slight diffusion. I believe I used the ?"'S 9-'

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++mm kit lens on this one. The image could be finished off with some clean'up in %hotoshop,

but that’s beyond the purpose and intent of these photos.

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ow to %hotograph – 2arshmallow %ound Bake ites

ere’s a fun and easy pro#ect to get your fingers on. These marshmallow'frosted pound cakes

are made simply from melted Crafts marshmallows, Sara 0ee butter pound cake cubes, and

some toppings 8choco chips and sprinkles4. It’s sticky, gooey, and delicious as wellD owever,

this is not a food blog so we’ll get to the photography part of this shot and I have a couple of

1cheats’ to overcome the challenges of the shot.

The actual and edible cakes are in the background, the out'of'focused dish. The reason that I

placed the edible ones in the background is because it is 7uite difficult to keep the pound cake

from 1standing’ as the marshmallow frosting is very sticky. !s soon as you place the coated

pieces on the plate, the frosting will stick to the 8greased4 spatula and ruin the cake underneath

in the process.

That means# hat $o" see here are %a&es'

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The 1hero’ pieces you see in the photos were actually four pieces of styrofoam cubes with

rounded edges. I didn’t have a thick enough styro board lying around so I sandwiched three 9*E'

inch styro boards to create height, the blocks were then held down using tacky clay 8luTac4.

The frosting was carefully dripped in thick blobs for a smooth surface.

The sprinkles and choco chips were placed carefully using a small twee(er, but the slippery

nature of the frosting created a very pleasing and random accidental arrangement of the choco

chips. !s for the dish and lighting setup. I’ve opted for a clean, spring look as the main sub#ect is

primarily white. I opted for a blue palette in for the placemat and table cloth 8which is actually the

ironing board’s cover4 and chose a nice, classy plate as well as a more 1formal’ looking fork.

0ighting was 7uite simple, a large north'facing window as main rim light, on'cam flash on ?TT0

mode firing towards a white reflector for front fill and gloss, and a small F Ikea white mouse pad

#ust out of the frame for subtle gloss on the fork.

ope you liked itD GStick aroundH for more and happy &>99D

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ow to %hotograph – Breamy Bhicken %asta Soup

!nother lighting and setup food shot to share this month, this time, it’s a pack of instant

Bampbell’s Bhicken %asta Soup and the photo is nearly as simple as preparing the soup itself.

The choice of place mat took the longest to decide as I wanted a bright, summery'feel to the

image and a mat that complement the bright colors of the pasta itself. I ended up with a polka'

dot cyan place mat eventually. The cup*saucers were placed on top of a clear acrylic tray to

make the sub#ect appear floating on top of the place mat as I didn’t want to see much shadows

in the shot apart from the &'saucer stack itself.

! false'floor was placed inside the mug using an inverted white plastic container. The false floor

was used to to raise the surface nearer to the lip of the mug so that when I place the pasta

strips, they would appear to be floating at the surface instead of sinking to the bottom. It also

minimi(es the amount of li7uid used for the shot, in this case, only about 9*E cup of soup was

used. %ractically all soup'based dishes can utili(e this optical illusion to showcase the

heavy*solid ingredients, otherwise, all the heavy ingredients will #ust sink to the bottom.

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0ighting was rather simple and 7uick as well.

! bare flash with wide'angle diffuser flipped down was fired onto a large, white wall to create a

really large light source. The soup was placed about ;ft from the wall and a small white reflector

board reduced the shadows opposite the light source.

! standard +>mm lens was used with a large aperture to limit depth'of'field

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Instructional Series $atmeal Bookies in a Bup $atmeal Bookies

Today we have a simple photo of an oatmeal cookie stack. 5e’ll discuss how it was planned and

lit using minimal e7uipment and a lot of soft light. This photo has been selling well for me, but it’s

also a very simple shot with minimal fuss for me as the cookies are store'bought and the lighting

setup was very simple as well.

!n advantage of using store'bought food items, particularly dry goods, is that you can have

several GheroH sub#ects to choose from. You can #ust open several packs of the same item and

pick the best one for the shot. There’s a lot less cooking, food prepping, and styling involved,

which is good for most beginners and photographers who can’t cook.

"or the record, those are 2arks J Spencer’s oatmeal cookies. I love 2JS food stuff.

The (re(aration

I selected the best cookies out of two packs that we bought. I initially picked - pieces, but they’re

still not GtallH enough for the stack. I didn’t want the cookies to stand on its own so I’ve decided to

put it in a wide'mouthed mug. Knfortunately, the cookies were too wide to fit the bottom 9*; of

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the mug, so instead of stacking cookies all the way to the base, I cut a piece of thin styro

board to fit the midsection diameter of the cup. 5ith that piece of styro in place, the inner base

of the cup is lifted up by almost two inches, where the cup’s inner walls can fit a full'si(ed cookie

nicely. y lifting the base up, I only need about E' cookies to get the height I wanted, which is

about two inches !$L? the rim of the cup.

"or the props, I #ust used some new table napkins. The green napkin was wrapped around a

thin cardboard so it’ll retain its shape even when the cup is placed on top of it. The base brown

cloth was another table napkin but I couldn’t get the big crease off by ironing or steaming,

unfortunately. It’s an eye'sore, but I didn’t have another sample to work with.

I like using an ironing board as a base in many cases for still'life shots. "irst, their height is

ad#ustable. Second, they’re light and lengthy. 0astly, the surface is padded, so the items placed

on top doesn’t move as much when nudged accidentally.

The !i)htin)

The lighting was surprisingly simple. Ktili(ing natural window light as my primary backlight, with

side and frontal fill from an on'cam flash and a silver reflector, respectively.

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The window light is diffused with an opa7ue diffuser 8scrim4 to soften the light. This light reveals

the te)ture on the flat surfaces of the cookie while casting soft shadows in between each cookie

stack. %rimary frontal fill was placed to the left of the cookies, provided by an on'cam flash fired

towards a nearby white wall. The purpose of this fill is to GscrapeH the front edges of the cookies

to show te)ture on those parts, as well as brightening the white cup’s face from the side.

Secondary fill was provided by a silver reflector to the camera’s right. The purpose of this fill was

simply to fill in shadows slightly.

E*IF+ ,-mm at ./.0 sec# %/012# ISO 2-- 3 Tri(od mo"nted1 F!ash at ./45 man"a!1

%ost'processing involved cropping and sharpening only.

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%rawn Salad urmese 0ime /uice and %rawn Salad

This time, I did the cooking, styling, and photos – consider that as a warning 34.

Bareful color planning was re7uired for this shot as I really wanted a nice, colorful dish that

instills a summery, $riental feel. I specifically bought that purple dish for salads as purple,

greens, and red*oranges work really well together.

!s usual, the dish is edible and no stand'ins were used for this image. The shot would’ve

worked better if a4 I had bigger prawnsM b4 if I had more prawns to stack higher 8or used a piece

of styro underneath the lettuce leaves to prop the shrimpt tower higher – but I didn’t want to as

we’ll be eating the dish right after4. ! light coat of olive oil was brushed over the shrimps before

the shot was taken.

2oving to the lighting and setup3

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0ighting was rather comple) 8for a AIY studio4 on this one. Bertainly easier to do with proper

reflector'holding tools and panels, but we’ll make do with only one flash and lots of reflectors

again. The main light source is a 9*E'powered flash fired towards a medium'si(ed white foam

board at an angle. This was specifically done to replicate a rear'lit, directional soft light pattern

entering through a window pane.

The secondary light was a silver reflector held close to add a sheen on upper edges of the

shrimps and the plates. The reflector had to be held as close as possible to create a large

reflection on the dish, otherwise, unattractive, small specular highlights will appear as

reflections. The two water glasses didn’t have enough shadow edges so I added a piece of

black foam to absorb some of the rear light to add some shape to the glass edges.

!nother large white fill board was held opposite the main light source to fill in the shadows under

the purple plate and the lettuce leaves. ! small porcelain cup was placed #ust at the edge of the

upper left frame to fill the negative space while two glasses with a little water acted as specular

highlights to break the pure'white monotony caused by the main light.

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?@I"+ ./4-# %/216# ISO .--# ,-mm !ens1

6ow since I was the one who prepared this, I can share the recipeN

8"or every pcs of tiger prawnsN4

Ingredients

94 pcs tiger prawns 8duh4 de'veined and washed.

&4 & tspn of ginger puree 8#ust keep mashing the damn ginger root4

;4 ; limes or tbsp of fresh lime #uice

E4 &pcs lime leaf, chopped thinly, or use lime rinds, 9tspn

+4 & tspn chopped garlic 8raw4

4 ;'+pcs of red chili pepper, chopped and seeded.

O4 & tbsp of caster 8superfine4 sugar

- 4 salt to taste.

Instr"ctions+

94 2ash the ginger till you get the re7uired puree*#uice

&4 2i) the puree with the everything PbQe)ceptP*bQ the prawns.

;4 oil a pot of water, make sure it’s bubbling. Arop the prawns in for 9> seconds or until the tail

turns pink. A$ 6$T $L?:B$$C. Arain thoroughly and place on paper towel.

E4 Toss the prawns into the li7uid mi)ture for +'9> mins. Then place in (iplock bag or air'tight

plastic container. Bhill in refrigerator for at least an hour.

+4 Serve chilled.

?n#oy and don’t forget to subscribeD

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Bhocolate rownies %hoto rownies %hoto 0ighting and Setup

ere’s our second photo consisting of home'made brownies, shot in natural light.

The main challenge of the shot was to make a monotonously'coloured sub#ect, in this case –

brown, appear delicious and moist to the viewer. 5hile the whole sub#ect is brown in colour,

there are several distinct and subtle variances on the surface of the brownies. The top crust is

flaky and crunchy, the spongy middle is a little drier and softer and finally, melted chocolate

chunks are mi)ed into the middle areas as well.

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2y task was to make sure all three variances are captured in the shot, and to do that, I’ve opted

to use natural light instead of flash to ma)imi(e the softly'lit, summer afternoon effect that I’m

after. elow is the setup shot.

The setup is 7uite simple actually, but all light sources have to be carefully placed. oth plates

are placed on a piece of board wrapped with white sheet of paper The main light comes from

sunlight outside the balcony, the light is indirect so it’s really soft. The light is large enough to

create large, even highlights on the crust of the brownies.

The main fill light comes from a fle)ible white foam board. The purpose of this reflector is to fill in

the shadows cast by the sunlight. It also provides a broad, soft light that skims across the

spongy center areas of the brownies as well as the shadow under the plates. ! small 8purple

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0$04 mirror was used to reflect bright and hard light on the sides of the brownies facing the

camera. The mirror allowed me to see e)actly which areas of the brownies are lit, I specifically

aimed the mirror to skim off the right'most, three'stack brownies. This mirror allowed me to show

the different te)tures created by drier spongy center and the chunky melted chocolate.

E*IF+ -1-77 sec 8./.09# %012# %! ,-mm# ISO .--

Corean Cimchi < Bhicken %hoto Instructional

6ew series to share with you guys. I’ll post an image and show you how the image was shot.

These are all pretty basic setups with no e)pensive e7uipment or props involved so you can

replicate and re'use for your own use. ope you en#oy this new segment.

The first image I’ll feature is a simple Corean < dish my wife made for dinner. ?verything in

the shot is GrealH, meaning, the dish is consumable and no stand'ins were used 8I’ll mention

stand'ins if future photos utili(e them4.

ere’s how the shot was set up.

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!s the diagram shows, only a single light source was used – a Banon ++>?@ hooked up to a

wireless trigger, firing through a hand'held diffusing scrim 8opa7ue fabric4. "ill light was provided

by a large foam core board opposite the light source to control contrast in the shadow areas,

while a small hand'held mirror was used to add subtle shine for the soup bowl.

The camera was positioned right ne)t to the fill board. ! high, rear'lit angle was used for this

setup to create a soft, defining shape for the egg and to bring out the te)ture of the kimchi rice.

! diffusing scrim was chosen rather than an umbrella because I didn’t want the stems of the

umbrella to show on the egg yolk and spoon’s reflection. ! soft'bo) can be used as well but I

find a scrim easier to work with.

E*IF 3 ./2,- : %/,14 ISO 2,- 3 !ens : 57mm

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Shooting "ood $n 0ocation – 5ith a Twist

2y client called and needed a #ob turned around right away. er client needed their entire menu shot

for some collateral and web materials and the previous shooter had not been able to do what they

needed.

The images had to be attractive enough for menu use, arty enough for the web and collateral

and still stay within budget. 5ell, yeahN there’s always that budget thing. The twist was that we

had to do two shots of each dishN one for the menu and one for a more 1artistic’ collateral

piece.

ecause of the nature of the food, it was best to do it at one of their locations and luckily enough

it was near where I live. I took an afternoon and scouted the store. I wanted to check surfaces

since they insisted on using their table surfaces for the shoot. In this case there were several

tables that were nearly pristine.

There was also a huge window near a corner of the restaurant that faced east. This window was

under a walking area that was covered. !t = pm the light would stop flowing into the restaurant and

we would have soft window light for most of the day.

I decided that we would do the two setups at the restaurant. $ne for the 1menu’ type shots and

one for the more 1artsy’ shots as they were described to me.

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Gear+

Norman Pack, 2 heads, Boom, 3 stands

Small softbox, Assorted reflectors, Assorted mirrors

Small sheets of shiny white paper (for cuttin into small reflectors!

"affer#s tape, $amera Ba, %ihtin Ba, &ripod

5e began by setting up the small softbo) on the boom and positioning it above and slightly behind

the table where the food would be setup. I made sure it was close enough to the kitchen area so we

could be 7uick in getting those shots styled. 8You can see a diagram of the light setups farther down

the page.

I added a medium si(ed white fill card to the immediate left of the shot. I let the right side go without

any fill so there would be some direction to the light. ?ven if it was a small amount of fall off, it would

let the ingredients have a dimension to them as well as keeping the bowl with a slightly darker side.

elow is a shot we did for the GmenuH part of the shoot. It is a dish with some of the ingredients

surrounding it for a still life look.

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The softbo) gives a soft, slightly back light. In front of the set I placed a small white reflector to keep

the shadows at bay. It is about 9> inches in front of the set and below camera. 5ithout that reflector,

the shadows would be e)tremely contrasty toward the front. y keeping the light on a boom, it was

also easy for two people to style the images. 5e had to do the whole menu in one and a half days,

so there wasn’t a lot of time.

5e placed the bowl in position and then brought the ingredients all around it. I had a staging area for

the ingredients and would have the manager get the things needed for each dish ready before it

came out. 5e then were able to move that small amount of things on to the set. I styled it with a

classical approach of 1hero’ and supporters. ?ven though I had a tripod for the shoot, I ended up

shooting hand held. It was very important to end up with the bowls at about the same perspective

and si(e and that meant moving 7uickly. !fter the first couple of shots, I put the tripod away.

"or the more artistic of the shots we moved the set over to a table by the window. The tables

here had rounded ends, so that gave me some added tonality. elow is the same dish in the

second location

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ere I used an ->'&>>22 0 lens at wide open 8and long4 to shorten the depth of field and make the

image more 1fresh.’ I was using the ambient light from the window and the shutter speed was a little

low for my taste. I broke out the tripod for these shots. I had enough room to move the camera

around 7uickly on the tripod so it worked out pretty well. 5e eventually did some considerable work

in post on theseN adding te)t and such. Boming from a low angle I could get some back light and

sculpt the food. I also tilted the hori(on and and added fill cards for the contrast. $pening the

shadows was important, but it couldn’t be so bright as to diminish the back light thing I had going on.

I tried a speedlight for fill, but even at a low power and bounced, it looked too bright.

5e settled on two &R& white fome core boards held by clamps. $ne on each side of the dish. You

can see them on the lime as it is reflecting the light sources. The boards were easy to whisk away as

we moved into each shot.

ere is a lighting diagram for the shoot3

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I kept the shoot running smoothly because of the pre'planning that went into it. Scouting and

making sure that we could have the run of that part of the restaurant for a couple of days let the

manager know that we were cogni(ant of his need to keep the restaurant open and doing

business.

aving the ingredients for each shot one shoot ahead made the styling go 7uickly as we weren’t

waiting for some special ingredientN it was already there.

ere is another shot from the series3

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You can see how different the two shots look. $ne is very traditional, sort of a menu or recipe

look to it. !nd the other has a more fresh, maga(ine or editorial feel to it. The heavy back light

and angled hori(on give it a bit of whimsy.

It is important that the food look appeti(ing at all times. 0etting pasta sit for too long makes it look

rubbery, and we were constantly rotating the veggies and other items into the fridge so they would

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not look old and spoiled. In the end a lot of food was prepared and we gave it to customers or ate it

ourselvesN not wanting to waste it.

I shot a few shots tethered to get the e)posures correct and nail them down. !fter that initial testing, I

went to shooting on the cards. I didn’t want the !A to start picking apart every shot and slowing us

down. I knew we had what we needed and would of course 1chimp’ it to make sure.

Shooting food is a lot of fun. It is demanding and can be cra(y fast, but it can also be very rewarding

when the images make the chef smile and people want to buy the product.

I hope you en#oyed this little tutorial. 5e are full of stuff for /uly so drop in again soon.

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"ood %hotography Tips

"ood is one of my favorite sub#ects to photograph. 6ot only is it an en#oyable challenge, but I usually

get to eat it after I’m finishedD I’ve done a fair bit of food photography, and refined my system down to

a few basic elements that work well for me. ere’s how I do it.

Li)htin)

2y favorite lighting setup for food is a super'soft, high backlight. This is what it looks like. ! single

strobe, shooting through a small umbrella, and then softened further by the diffusion panel from a '

in'9 reflector kit.

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Aepending on how dark the food is, and what kind of surface it’s on, you may want to use a small

reflector 8a piece of white foamcore, or even a menu, works well4 to bounce light back towards the

shadow side that’s facing you. ere’s a simple diagram to illustrate the setup.

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Lens Se!ection

5ith food, you can shoot higher or lower, and wider or tighter, but you usually want a fairly shallow

depth of field, with the focus set on the edge of the food that is closest to you. 2y lens of choice for

this is the Banon &E'O>mm f*&.-. That particular lens is almost as sharp as a prime, and since I

usually shoot food between +>mm – O>mm and at f*&.-, I use every bit of that glass.

ere’s a TS photo taken by the client at this shoot. !s you can see, I am very close to the food, and

crouching down to get low enough to see some background behind the food. ?ven though the

background is #ust a blur, including it gives a sense of depth and place to the shot. /ust looking at

food on a plate is okay, but seeing that it’s in a nice place adds another dimension to the image.

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S(ec"!ar Hi)h!i)hts

5hen light reflects off a shiny surface 8like moist food4, it sometimes creates shiny, white GspecularH

highlights. Aepending on your client’s preference, this may be a good thing or a bad thing. ere are

two shots of the same food, one with specular highlights on the surface of the fish, and one without.

To get more highlights, shoot with the lamp directly in front of you. The light will bounce off the food

and directly at the lens. To get fewer highlights, shift the light 8or the food4 to the side slightly. This

time, the light won’t bounce directly into the lens, and the highlights won’t be as large.

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I hope these tips help you take some great photos of food. appy olidaysD

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An Introd"ction To Resta"rant Food Photo)ra(h$

ave you ever been assigned to take pictures of a chef’s creations in a restaurant %hotographing

food on location at a restaurant is a very common assignment for a food photographer. I have an

editorial client that sends me to E or + restaurants every month to take pictures of the dishes.

Through these assignments, I have discovered that most restaurants are not designed with the

photography in mind. They will often be very dark and have a myriad of light directions and color

temperatures. In these situations, you will have to bring your own lighting gear. There are other

occasions when there will be large beautiful windows for natural light. If you have never been to the

restaurant before, then you have to be prepared for both scenarios. ere is an e)ample using two

light sources with the same dish.

The Nat"ra! Li)ht Loo&

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5hen I first set foot into a restaurant, the first thing that I look for is a large window like what is

pictured above. This is the best case scenario you can have when walking into a restaurant. ere is

a picture that I took using this window as the key light.

"or this e)ample, I backlit the dish and filled back in with a white foam board reflector. 6otice how

the top of the table has a white highlight from the window on it. 2ost restaurants will have wooden

table tops that have a reflective finish to them. The large window light source is able to fill the entire

table with a highlight. If you are working with a smaller window or a different table top material, this

highlight may not e)tend the whole way. You can always ad#ust your shooting angle or change the

direction you are lighting from to find the best amount of highlight for your image. /ust keep in mind

that most tabletops will be reflective.

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ere is a picture showing the lighting set up and the image.

This is the simplest of set'ups that you can have. It is very 7uick to set up and I know that I will not

be in the way of the staff preparing for that evening’s service. Knfortunately, this isn’t always the

scenario. ere is a look at the other side of the restaurant.

The Arti%icia! Li)ht Loo&

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You can see that there is a wall on the left that blocks all of that beautiful window light. If you walk

into a restaurant and there is no window or the window light won’t reach over to the table, you will

need to use an artificial light source. There are a countless number of light sources you can choose

from. 5hatever you do choose, remember that in a restaurant smaller is better. efore service, there

will be waiters bustling around doing a variety of different tasks. This isn’t a photo studio. 5aiters and

other restaurant staff aren’t used to having a photo shoot going on before service and the last thing

you want is someone tripping over your lighting e7uipment of cords. 5hen shooting at a restaurant

there isn’t always a lot of time. The 7uicker that I can break down and pack up, the better. I usually

shoot with a Banon +-> ?@ II, pocket wi(ards, and a 5escott E;F !pollo $rb as the light modifier.

ere is the image taken with artificial light.

6otice how the tabletop is a dark wood colored and not picking up a highlight like it was in the natural

light e)ample. "or this shot, I have a different angle to my light and a different si(ed light source. The

white highlight on the table to the right of the dish is from the dish reflecting off of the table. ere is

the lighting diagram to go along with it.

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6otice how the part of the table that is right ne)t to the light source has this bright highlight. If you

moved the dish closer to the light source and re'framed the image, this highlight would be in your

image.

If you find yourself shooting food in a restaurant environment, make sure that you are prepared for

both a natural and artificial light set'up. The !pollo $rb is a light modifier that I have found to work

well for me, but it is not the only possibility. 5hatever you do use, make sure it is small enough to

stay out of the way of the hustle and bustle that occurs in a restaurant before service.

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A TO;ER FILLED ;ITH .-- ;ITH


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Ima)e shoin) the "se o% ="st the &e$ !i)ht

5ith the standard reflector attached to my "lashpoint II monolight, I noticed that my key spilled a little

too much onto the bottom tier of the tower. I wanted to focus the attention mainly on the row I was

focusing on. To kill a bit of the spill, I attached a ;> degree grid to the reflector of my key light. the

difference can be seen in these two pictures. !fter adding the grid, I made sure I re'metered.

>e$ Li)ht ith 0- de)ree Grid

6ow that the key was set, I decided to move onto the fill light. I wanted a soft, non'directional, flat

light that would fill in the shadows while keeping the accentuated te)ture provided by the key. I chose

a large ;.+V)O.+V %LB panel with rip'stop nylon attached to it, to act as my broad light source. This

panel was placed directly behind the camera in order to provide the fill. 8To learn how to make these

handy frames yourself, check out Aean Bollins Tinker Tubes.4 ehind this panel I placed my second

strobe. I then took an incident meter reading and ad#usted my light until the meter read fE.-.

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Fi!! Li)ht

I decided to place another %LB panel with a reflective white material slightly off to camera right. This

panel was angled slightly to reflect some of the spill from the key light in to the shadow side of the

cupcakes. The change is subtle, but opens up the shadow a little more.

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C"(ca&es itho"t hite re%!ector (ane!

C"(ca&es ith hite re%!ector (ane!

$nce my lights were set, I began to take a couple of

e)posures. !fter reviewing the e)posures, I felt that

the background was too dark. I wanted it to render as

pastels, in order to achieve the airy look I was trying to

e)press. I took a small portable strobe, placed it under

the table, and aimed it at the wall, that was acting as

the background in the photograph. I was not

concerned about retaining detail in the background, so

I set the hot'shoe flash to full power so that I could

effectively overe)pose it.

;ith ?ac&)ro"nd !i)ht

appy with the lighting setup, I began shooting

away. !s the day progressed, the sun started

peering through the west'facing window, located

behind the tower. I noticed it was casting a

wonderful shadow onto the floor, so I decided to

place a third panel with rip'stop nylon behind the

tower. The light shown through the translucent

material, blowing it out, while casting the shadow of

the window pane onto it. /ust when you think you

have gotten the shot, another opportunity arises.

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;ith ?ac&ro"nd trans!"cent (ane!

I hope this tutorial has inspired you, or has taught you something new. Kntil ne)t time, happy

shootingD

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Bee% Tender!oin Chimich"rri

The beef from 6icaragua is truly sublimeM grass fed and naturally lower in fat, it represents one

of the great cuts of meat in the world. ?asily on par with /apan and !rgentina, the simplemethods used by the 6icaraguan ranchers are attracting the attention of

international connoisseurs, chefs, and the meat eating public. ecause the cattle eat natural

grasses while roaming freely, are grown without the use of hormones, and because they are

not feed'lotted to bulk up before slaughter, the meat retains a stronger and more natural flavor

without the fatty marbling commonly found in premium beef. In essence, it is a throwback to a

more simple time before the grind of industry and science found its way onto our dinner table.

%atricia Tomlinson, the chef and owner of Aragonfly :estaurant in Tamarindo Bosta :ica, knows

her beef. This filet cut, coupled with the classic !rgentinian chimichurri makes for a summertime

classic here in the land of the endless summer. Bhimichurri is a rather simple sauce of olive oil,

lemon #uice, garlic, parsley, and fresh herbs is a staple of the !rgentinian table and one of themost famous cultural e)ports from the country that brought us tango. The slight, biting, lemony

edge, coupled with the richness of a fine olive oil and basil harmoni(es beautifully with the

slightly pungent 6icaraguan beef creating an instant classic of 0atin !merican culinaire. ! simple

and fresh accompaniment of herb roasted potatoes and sauteed red pepper, carrot,

and (ucchini finish the dish.

"or the food photography I wanted to create an image that matched the richness and colors of

the dish. I generally strive for a Wen'like simplicity and avoid e)ternal props, but for this image I

wanted a different feel than normal, an earthy, busy photograph where every

element graphically draws the eye to the center of the frame. This image took about => minutes

of setup on location at Aragonfly, with endless tweaking of lights and reflectors, props, plate, and

foodM but the finished image is a successful. Tish was very patient and accomidating as I

dominated a large portion of her restaurant with lights, tripods, and cables.

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ere is the lighting diagram for the shoot. ! high shutter speed canceled any ambient light left

over from outside.

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HO; TO LIGHT DRIN>S

There are a hundred ways to throw light on glass, including window light. I know lighting something

so reflective as glass can sound a little intimidating. I admit, drinks are more difficult to light than the

simple food, but with a little practice it’s really no sweat. Take a look at some of our favorite drink

photos and the lighting diagram below. This is a pretty basic diagram that will get you going in theright direction. It’s also important to note that although we are using studio strobes, the same lighting

can be achieved with any typical flash.

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It’s important to note that there was a window behind both of these setups and I had e)posed the

photos to allow for some of the natural light to come in. You can also see that changing the camera

angle has an effect on what reflections show on the outside of the glass. You can use this to your

advantage to separate the drinks from their background. I used the white card #ust to left of my

camera to bounce some light back into the front of the drinks. !ll in all a very simple setup and the

client loved the end result.

Tip3 2ake one light closer 8or more powerful4 than the other in order to give your lighting a single

direction and to avoid the awful double shadow.

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T@RNING DAY INTO NIGHT

The client wanted this photo of a martini to feel like evening, even though the photo shoot was during

the day. Thats not a problem if your using studio lights and are good at improvising. I used the same

lighting diagram as the above shots, the only difference was that I removed the soft bo)es and

placed dish reflectors on the lights to help narrow it in a little more. I also placed a dark background

in the frame and blocked off the sides of my setup with cards to stop any unwanted natural light from

seeping in. ?)pose for the strobes and 5!0!D it’s the evening.

&ip' hen shootin drinks try aimin the liht so it shines throuh the lass illuminatin

the drink inside) Also try startin your camera le*el with the drink, then raise it slowly to

see how the reflections chane on your lass)

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:?%0IB!TI6 6!TK:!0 0IT 5IT STKAI$ 0ITS

I should mention right off the bat that I am going to talk about replicating AI""KS?A natural light and

I’ve been struggling with this for a long time now. I love the look of natural light in food photography

and to replicate natural light using studio lights is difficult to say in the least. I’m sure most

photographers who must use studio lighting have the same problems I do. There are 7ualities tonatural light that are difficult to e)plain, though when we see the two side by side, for some reason

we can #ust tell the two apart. So, it has been my goal to get my studio lighting up to a standard

where people, especially other photographers, are unable to distinguish between the photos I made

with natural light and the ones I make with studio lighting. I don’t feel that I’ve reached that point yet,

so this post will continue to grow as I do. ut right now I have ; tips to start this post and at the

bottom you can see my setups for both natural and studio lighting.

Through many e)periments, I have come to a set of conclusions about replicating natural light that I

think might help other people traveling this same path and I’m ready to e)plain them here. This is by

no means a scientific e)periment so please take it easy on me, these are #ust some obstacles along

the way that I’ve had to overcome to make my photos come closer to what I see when I shoot using

diffused window light.

;HICH PHOTO IS SHOT @SING NAT@RAL LIGHT AND ;HICH IS SHOT ;ITH STROBES

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0 ST@DIO LIGHTING OBSTACLES TO OERCOE IN ORDER TO

ACHIEE THAT NAT@RAL LIGHT LOO>

.. F!at Li)htin)

%robably the most important, is that studio lights are more intense than sunlight coming through the

window. I know this probably sounds obvious, but if you think about it, natural light dies pretty 7uickly

after coming in contact with your sub#ect. owever, the strobe’s light travels right past your sub#ect, a

lot further than you might think, even at it’s lowest setting. 5hy is this a problem 5ell, the strobe’s

light will bounce off of walls*ceilings after coming in contact with your sub#ect and reflect back into the

shadow areas, so much so, that the image could become GflatH. "lat lighting, or photos without

shadow areas, are a dead give away that strobes were at use.

21 Li)ht Fa!!o%%

The transition between the highlights and the shadow areas in your photographs is another key

element to replicating natural light. 5ith diffused natural light one can see a very smooth gradient

between the two, but oftentimes with studio light, hard transitions occur even when diffusing the light.

This is the biggest problem I see with my own photos using studio lights. ?verything will look great

e)cept, G$5H the light falls, as if my highlights abruptly fell off a cliff into shadows. In some of my

previous photos, you could literally draw a line between the highlights and shadows, even though my

light was soft. I thought of trying to diffuse the light even more, but when that didn’t work, I tried

moving the light farther away from my sub#ect. The farther I moved the light away from my sub#ect,

the smoother the gradients between the highlights and shadows became.

01 Direction

Ksing a window is great because it funnels all that sun light directly on to your table, blocking it for

the most part from bouncing off the ceiling or walls of your studio and into your scene. ?ven when

using a diffusor, light from strobes will bounce everywhere and unless your room is painted black, it

will show in your photo. To solve this I have employed multiple things. "irst, is a grid attached to a

dish reflector placed on the strobe. This helps focus the light in one direction. Second, is a series of

well placed black cards, or flags to block direct and reflected light from hitting my scene. I even do

this when working with natural light, especially on my background as I don’t want it to compete with

my food. Try placing black cards in different locations around your scene to see where light is

bouncing in the most.

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Y LIGHTING DIAGRAS FOR BOTH PHOTOS'

CHEC> O@T SOE OF THE ST@DIO E@IPENT ;E @SE OER ON O@R REIE;S

SECTION'

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Behind the shot+ Oran)es

I hope you donXt mind if thereXs no recipe today. Truth is, last week was spent mostly out of the

kitchen, madly working and then scrambling to pack before my trip out of town 8btw, hello from

ScotlandD4. ut, I have been spending a lot of time thinking about the photographic process,

between getting ready for my loger "ood panel on "inding your visual

voice 8with Tami and !ran4 and hearing about the %enny de los Santos live'streamed workshop via

twitter that I sadly had to miss due to travel arrangements. So, I thought today that IXd share another

recipe*how'to of sorts3 a behind'the'scenes break'down of my oranges shot above 8from this kiwi

orange creamsicle post4.

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Z9[

Image above, the first one I took, was mostly about testing the light, the plate, and the table

together with the oranges, as well as ad#usting for e)posure and aperture settings 8shooting

manual4. ItXs sort of atypical for me to use a plate like this one''itXs a bit too modern and Xclean'

cutX for my tastes''but here, I actually 7uite liked how it contrasted with the e)tra rustic 7uality

and te)ture of the wood underneath.

The lighting set'up here is a large window to the right of the table. I didnXt use a reflector on the

left because I wanted to have some of that shadowing you see from the oranges, to give them

dimension. $therwise, I find globular ob#ects sometimes uninteresting and difficult to shoot*style

because they come across flat so easily. %lus, I #ust like shadows, if you havenXt noticed

already. 3'4

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Z&[

aving two whole oranges on a plate #ust looked boring and awkward, so here I added two

slices of oranges as well as a knife, to give the photo a bit of conte)t. The orange slices also fill

in blank space in the bottom left of the plate, while the diagonal knife at the back fills in the

negative space up there. ?ven so, everything is still angled a little off'center on the plate, #ust so

things donXt look too symmetrical and, by e)tension, staged.

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Z;[

5hat I still wasnXt satisfied with in photo Z&[ above was that the bright lighting in the upper right hand

corner distracts from the focus on the oranges. $ne thing IXm constantly thinking about is where I

want to guide the viewerXs eye in a photo, and I want to make it as unambiguous as possible where

they should focus and look first before taking in the rest of the image. So here, in photo Z;[, I used a

scrim to block out some of the light shining on the back of the table behind the oranges''sort of like a

vignetting effect.

86ote3 the first try with the scrim made the back 7uite dark, which IXm also not so happy with, but I

fi)ed this in later shots.4

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ZE[

Since I was going for a sort of vignetting effect with the lighting, I wanted to block out some of

the light in front of the plate, too, so hereXs the lighting set'up I ended up with. I think of this as

narrowing the aperture of the window to control e)actly where the light falls.

Z+[

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$nce the lighting was set up, I could focus on the actual plate. $nce again, the two full, uncut,

globular oranges were #ust sort of awkward, especially when accompanied by two orange slices3

where did those two slices come from, for instance, if both oranges on the plate were uncut

Instead, I switched out one of the full oranges for a half, keeping the prettier of the two full

oranges in the back.

I angled the half orange towards the light so that the light would fall onto the open face side,

which is the interesting part that you want to look at, and create shadows on the underside.

8akin to how you might turn someoneXs face towards the light in a portrait and create shadows

only on certain parts of their face and neck.4

Z[

0ooking at photo Z+[, I still found the foreground and background table to be too distracting to the

eye3 i.e., thereXs #ust too much negative space that detracts from the photo rather than adding

any interest. 2y original intention was to crop photo Z+[ in post'processing to a s7uare, since I

liked how the s7uare'format shot turned out using Instagram. 8tip3 i%hone makes a great shot'

previewer, if you will.4

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ZO[

!nother way that I tried to limit the foreground and background e)cess space was to try a

landscape framing rather than a portrait one, which ended up working well because it didnXt

cramp the plate so tightly as the portrait framing did. This is the final raw image straight from the

camera.

ISO 2--# f /216# ./2,- sec

Z-[

"inally, I donXt usually do much post processing to my images, but I do like to increase the

contrast, which enhances the distinction between the lights and the shadows.

...and thereXs the final productD

Food photography Behind the Scenes

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