Cabbage

[Mike Buckley]

Purple is the favorite color of two women I greatly admire, a childhood friend and my sister-in-law. I couldn't help but think of them as I was making this photograph and that personal aspect of photography is actually the most rewarding for me.

Aside from the obvious goal of attractively lighting the subjects, it was also important to light the tabletop so each of its surfaces would be immediately distinguishable from the two other surfaces. That's despite that the tabletop is such a small part of the image. Even so, making that happen not only makes that detail of the image more interesting but, more importantly, also helps the scene appear three-dimensional.

I had to make the photograph no later than today because I'll be using the cabbage tomorrow to prepare a special Thai-influenced recipe of salmon filet placed on a bed of rice surrounded by a curry-peanut sauce. The dish is topped with a colorful cabbage salad.

EDIT: A second version has been added later in the thread, thanks to a very helpful comment made by Dan.

Setup
The tabletop is the plastic cutting board I used to cut this cabbage. The background is purple presentation paper I bought several years ago in the school section of a retail store. A small continuous-light lamp is on the right side slightly above the scene. That lamp is flagged to limit the light falling on the background. A white reflector on the left side lifts some of the shadow tones on that side of the large cabbage and increases contrast in that area to display its texture. A flash light fitted with black matte aluminum foil bent in the shape of the mound of cut cabbage adds a halo to that area of the background. A polarizer eliminates all but a tiny amount of glare on the cut face of the large cabbage.

[Marie Hass]

Love, love, love your choice of BG. Viewing in LR allows full savoring of all the color and textures of both the cabbage and the cut pieces.

I think, now, I am hungry.

Marie

[madcrow]

Class image, you great detail and colour. Everything works exceptionally well. I think one of your best.

[Rita]

Another great food shot Mike. I really like the colours and texture in the cabbage. The lighting is exceptional as always.

[Wavelength]

Really a great composition; i never though cabbage has so much of scope

[Shadowman]

Nicely composed.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you, everyone!

[NorthernFocus]

One of my favorites of your food images so far, Mike. I love the technique you often employ to use a BG of same/similar color. My natural inclination would be to use a contrasting BG. But with both the food and wine images this is very effective. I'm not too jazzed about the cutting board. I do think the plastic works better(photographically) than wood. Perhaps if it was a truer white. Something closer to the color in the cabbage.

So is the salmon Atlantic or Pacific? Farmed or free range?

We have bumper stickers in AK that say, "Friends don't let friends eat farmed fish".

[Mike Buckley]

I'm not too jazzed about the cutting board...Perhaps if it was a truer white. Something closer to the color in the cabbage.

It is this sort of suggestion that is exactly what I enjoy most about CiC. I was thinking that the real color of the cutting board helped strengthen the image by making the white of the cabbage appear as a truer white. However, after trying Dan's suggestion, I realize that making the color of the cutting board more like the color of the cabbage strengthens the image by simplifying it to the use of just primarily two colors -- purple and white (rather than purple, white and off-white).

So is the salmon Atlantic or Pacific? Farmed or free range?

I haven't been to the store yet, but it's usually farmed Atlantic salmon with color added. EDIT: Now that I've been to the store, I can report that it's all of that and it's from Chile.

We have bumper stickers in AK that say, "Friends don't let friends eat farmed fish".

We would starve if we were limited to free range salmon around here and I live in a suburb of a large metropolitan area.


Version 2

[bnnrcn]

Very nice Mike, I prefer the second version