This was a fun shoot. As always, preparation is the key to success and I came in with a lighting plan and a good understanding of the subject at hand. Food lighting is usually dictated by either texture or reflection and this this shoot had a bit of both. Since I lit for so many different subjects, I’ll do a breakdown of each shot.
The Ginger
I love the way this stuff looks. When it comes to still life, nothing beats a God given object. The diversity and beauty of the natural world is truly amazing.
For the ginger root, I was thinking “graphic.” I’ve always been a big fan of Maplethorpe’s Flower series and I wanted to do something in the same vein. To isolate the subject, I placed the root on black and got close. Since ginger roots are textural objects, I scraped light across the surface to create dimension. Finally, to even out the contrast, I placed a 60″softlighter on-axis behind the camera.
The Lemon
Mondo created a cool composition and I placed the focus on the cut lemon. To light this, I moved a light panel in very close to the lemons. Typically, dimension is created with a midtone diffuse area and shadows, but in this case, dimensionality was created with strong specular highlights. To control these highlights, I moved the panel in close and turned the cut lemon to reflect the light. To balance the scene, I added a little on-axis fill and used a white card on the opposite side of the main light.
The Tea
This shot was for the social media sites, so it ended up being a menu shot. The challenge on this one was creating a reflection on top of the tea. To do this, I moved a light panel behind the tea and used the family of angles to light the surface. To add a gradient, I moved the strobe closer to the panel and created a hotspot that reflected on top of the tea. It’s subtle, but I like the effect.
Final Thought
This was a great shoot because it was planned shoot. No matter your level, it’s always smart to go in with a plan. You may not stick with it, but it’s a good place to start.
Lighting Setups
Technical
Camera: Nikon D90
Lens: Tamron 17-50mm 2.8
Strobes: White Lightning x1600
Tripod: Manfrotto
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 50mm
Shutter: 125
Aperture: f/16
What can I say, your descriptions remind me of impressionistic composers and painters; lighting, color, texture, and seeing beauty of the natural world as it is. Your final product is comparable to observing from high above a large uninhabited valley with lush greenery extending as far as the eye can see.
hi David I love it. Thanks a lot for sharing. I like the gradient you created also. Can you please tell me what kind of diffusion material is that one for the panel? Thank you very much.
The diffusion material is 400 Leelux made by Lee Filters.