Choco bars & cappuccino for breakfast?

[wlou]

After my first attempt showed "specular highlights" I went on a quest to find out how to photograph hot chocolate sauce without the light reflexion. The book Light Science & Magic was helpful as well as a search on the net. This time I planned the session, the model was most cooperative and as I was alone in the kitchen, no one to pressure me. As by supper time no supper was cooked because the kitchen space was taken by light stands, light box and all the dishes, I was taken to the restaurant and we had the bars for dessert. Of course I had some more for breakfast, so good…Oh, sorry, I digress, for the picture here is the setting: 5 second exposure at f8, ISO 100, 100mm lens, 2 flashes one on each side of a small Lightbox. I took 35 pictures, with different angles and time of exposures. This is the one I prefer. Your comments are appreciated.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Louise. I really like the colours and composition in this image But I think I would like to see the coffee cup in focus too.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done and teasing as well only offering a portion of the goodies.

[Mike Buckley]

You certainly avoided the distracting specular highlights in the chocolate this time. The diffuse light nicely indicates the shape of the chocolate.

I agree with Binnur that at least the chocolate and whipped cream need to be in focus.

You mentioned a small Lightbox. I assume it was manufactured tent made of diffusion material or something similar that you built and that the subjects were placed inside the tent. Though I started making my studio shots using a light tent and am glad that it got me going, the sooner you break away from using it by placing diffusion material between the scene and the lights, the more control and flexibility you'll have. I remember that you have a small kitchen but based on the description of your above setup, it will accommodate the needs of a separate background (as opposed to using the rear of the light tent as the background).

I would have made this shot using a 35mm lens, not 100mm.

[wlou]

You certainly avoided the distracting specular highlights in the chocolate this time. The diffuse light nicely indicates the shape of the chocolate.

I agree with Binnur that at least the chocolate and whipped cream need to be in focus.

You mentioned a small Lightbox. I assume it was manufactured tent made of diffusion material or something similar that you built and that the subjects were placed inside the tent. Though I started making my studio shots using a light tent and am glad that it got me going, the sooner you break away from using it by placing diffusion material between the scene and the lights, the more control and flexibility you'll have. I remember that you have a small kitchen but based on the description of your above setup, it will accommodate the needs of a separate background (as opposed to using the rear of the light tent as the background).

I would have made this shot using a 35mm lens, not 100mm.

Mike your comments are really helpful. The light box/tent is as you described and I must say it was cramped in there. I might have to create a mini studio just for Food Photo. I have seen a lot of pictures from bloggers on the net where the background is actually a wooden table. Of course that would be a totally different effect. I am quite happy to have learned how to used my flashes in a better way. Hey, we learn so much here. Its all great fun, lets see what I can cook up next.

[Mike Buckley]

Remember that if you use a 35mm lens, you won't need as much space because you will shorten the distance between the camera and subject.

[wlou]

Remember that if you use a 35mm lens, you won't need as much space because you will shorten the distance between the camera and subject.

Chocolate and maple sugar crystals. Mike I took this one with a 50mm lens. I have an 18-55mm kit lens that I have not used in a long time because it was a poor quality. I may try it again soon.

[Mike Buckley]

That looks good, though it doesn't convey the type or role of the flatware, at least not to me.

If you're using the 50mm lens on a full-frame camera, that has the similar effect as a 35mm lens on my camera with a 1.5 crop factor. You might want to try using the kit zoom at the 35mm length to determine if it provides important capabilities that your 50mm length doesn't. You might be able to do everything just fine at the 50mm length.

[wtlwdwgn]

The 50mm lens is likely sharper than the kit zoom. If you back up a bit with the 100mm lens the DOF will increase allowing more of the subject to be in focus. I would also stop down to f/11 or even f/16 to increase the DOF. Just my two cents.

[wlou]

Steve you are probably right about backing up. The limitation here was the small size of the lightbox. As Mike pointed out, if I find a better background, I may have more room to play.

The 50mm lens is likely sharper than the kit zoom. If you back up a bit with the 100mm lens the DOF will increase allowing more of the subject to be in focus. I would also stop down to f/11 or even f/16 to increase the DOF. Just my two cents.

[Loose Canon]

Hi Louise!

Great to see you going for this type of still life. We could use a resident food shooter on this Forum!

Hey if its okay I’ll toss out a few thoughts and then you can just feel free to toss them right on out the window!

I think you’ll find that most of the more successful food shooters prefer backlighting food probably 99% of the time. At least all the one’s I have read anything about and looked at their work pretty much agree on that. If you have a nice window available (maybe north facing in our hemisphere) that might be a nice place to set your table against. Or, if you are going to provide the lights hang some diffusion material (sheets, whatever) and fire one (or two) through that. You can also put some diffusion against the widow. Soft light is great but flat light not so much.

Foam board reflectors. You can cut them in two and tape them back together to make a “V” shape so they will stand on their own for either side to lift the shadows in the front. Bounce some of that backlighting back into the scene. As Mike mentioned once you’re out of that lightbox things will really take off for you and you can really do some cool lighting experimentation without that limitation.

I think your shooting angle looks good. If you are going to be shooting a cup with liquid in it you will probably like to show a bit of that liquid in the cup so 45-60* would be about right. I would stick with the longer lens if I could for the most part. Food is not going to look its best most times with wide angle distortion and the compression with the longer lens is going to make your compositions look nicer. Of course there will be times that might require a different lens but just a theory. If you get a tight enough composition at a good shooting angle you might find you don’t actually use a background per se but the table surface will serve that purpose. And you will want some room between your subject and your background/backlighting.

I, too, wondered about the cup being in focus. For this shot you might have used the cup as a secondary element and moved it back further and brought it more out of focus, and made the bars more prominent. Once out of the lightbox you are going to have way more room for your compositions. I think a lot of times the things in the frame that are secondary elements really help the primary subject (as long as they are not overwhelming).

Maybe even a stirring spoon somehow positioned in the cup saucer would have been cool.

It looks like you have dribbled chocolate sauce over the bars. That and the sprinkles with the dollop of whipped cream look awesome. What if you placed them further back on the plate and let the sauce dribble down the sides of the bars in the front two legs of the cross and a tad onto the plate? Maybe even a very few well placed sprinkles on that and the plate as well (maple sugar crystals?)? Maybe a thinly sliced orange slice twisted or something placed carefully on the plate? I think the shot might benefit from a splash of color somehow.

The chocolate bar plate is hokay going out of the side of the frame maybe, but what if you were to raise it in the frame so as not to cut off the rim of the plate and let that beautiful curve of the dish come on around uninterrupted?

Anyway Louise as I said, just some thoughts!

Okay now I’m stinking hungry!

They say the highest compliment of food shooter can have is that they made the viewer hungry. Well done Louise!

[wlou]

Terry what a great description of what you saw and wonderful explanation with details and suggestions. Now I have ideas and just not enough time to do it all. Did I mention that I have a new found respect for Food Bloggers. I am talking of the ones that do it all, from the shopping/cooking/shooting pictures/and the clean up of the dishes and the putting away of the photo equipment. WOW, what a job that was. I also saw on the net that the pros have a whole team to do the work and when its all set up just snap the picture. Nah, I would miss all the fun.

[Loose Canon]

Louise, that dinner was belayed due to studio setup speaks volumes to me! I think you may be hooked! And no you did not mention your newfound respect for food bloggers, but I hear you knocking! I guess pretty soon all the workers in the market are going to know you as that “Picky Food Photographer That Only Chooses Perfect Specimens For Her Shots”!

Seems to me you have all the necessary ingredients (pun intended) to make a really good go of this and have a blast doing it!

I'll probably gain ten pounds just looking at your threads!

[Mike Buckley]

Foam board reflectors. You can cut them in two and tape them back together to make a “V” shape so they will stand on their own

My wife hates me wasting anything. Rather than wasting the tape, I use a box cutter to cut part of the way through the foam board. I then bend the board on that cut to make the V-shape. Two cuts near each end results in a three-part U-shape.

If studio photography is about nothing else, it's about improvisation.

[Loose Canon]

I was also wondering if the image might have a slight color cast?

[wlou]

Mike your idea of not wasting sounds good. A picture of this white bird would help understand the "u" shape?

My wife hates me wasting anything. Rather than wasting the tape, I use a box cutter to cut part of the way through the foam board. I then bend the board on that cut to make the V-shape. Two cuts near each end results in a three-part U-shape.

If studio photography is about nothing else, it's about improvisation.

[wlou]

I was also wondering if the image might have a slight color cast?

Terry thanks for commenting. If by colour cast you mean the slight pale green from the plate that is casting green colour on the light box then you are right. The old greenish silver butter knife bought at the flee market has lost his lustre a long time ago. If by chance you have a tip to not cast a reflected colour, I am all ears. Thanks again.

[Mike Buckley]

If you use a tabletop material that is less reflective, it will reflect the color of the dinnerware less or none at all. If a piece of white felt came with your light tent, use that and you'll see the difference.

I'm a terrible designer, but I don't think the color of the dinnerware complements the color of the food in this image. When I eventually get around to photographing food, I plan to go to flea markets to buy various colors and styles of single plates of dinnerware for use with the photos. One reason I have a set of white dinnerware at home is because it complements virtually any type or color of food.

As for the U-shaped card, assume you have a piece of white foam board that is 9" x 12". Lay it down and score the short dimension two inches in from the left and right sides. Bend the foam board along each score, bending each two-inch piece toward the center. The foam core will now stand up on its own on the tabletop.

[Loose Canon]

If you fired two flashes and had a 5 second exposure (dragging the shutter) then it is possible you picked up some mixed lighting from the ambient kitchen lights if there were any. Not really sure why you needed such a long shutter if you hit it with two flashes. I really couldn’t say not knowing the environment you shot in. But my first thought was the cast was coming from inside the lightbox too Louise, and from the dishes as you mentioned.

If you are shooting RAW then what I would do is adjust white balance in post. Shoot a reference gray card and use that. And I would do that straight away after uploading into your RAW processor. To test whether my color cast theory held water I used a white balance tool and sampled the whitest part of the whipped cream on the chocolate bars. There was quite a difference. But you may not always have a nice reference color in the scene, hence the use of the gray card.

If you are shooting .jpg then I would suggest setting a custom WB setting in-camera, or maybe one of the shooting modes might do it. For that you would need to check the camera manual to see how to set it up on your particular camera.

I just find it is easier and quicker to do it in post with a reference shot. And gray cards are relatively inexpensive.

To avoid problems to begin with you need to have matched lighting. If you don't it will be difficult to get accuracy either in post or with a custom WB set in camera. The reflection will be mitigated once out of the lightbox, but regardless when it is critical I always plan on correcting in post need it or not.

If you ask me (and no one did!) I would say that dead accurate color balance would be an absolute necessity in this kind of photography.

[Mike Buckley]

I was standing in line at the grocery store today so I looked through the photos of a magazine devoted exclusively to recipes of pies and cakes. Almost all of the photos were completely in focus and the few that displayed some blur displayed very little of it. I wonder if a trend going away from using small depths of field has either gone unnoticed by me or perhaps the use of large depths of field has finally returned.

I would say that dead accurate color balance would be an absolute necessity in this kind of photography.

Agreed.