Ice cold lemons

[Manfred M]

I'm currently taking an advanced lighting course fight now and this week's assignment if to produce an overhead food shot where the reflections from reflective food is minimized. Apparently this perspective is known as a "pizza shot" in the industry because that is how pizzas used in advertising are often photographed.

Doing so requires some carefully set up light from a softbox, a scrim close to the subject to provide diffuse light and a flag to cut down on the hot spots where the subject is too close to the light.

Lemons in a white porcelain bowl, ice cubes (artificial acrylic ones) and a fine mist of water and glycerine to make it look like there are water drops everywhere. The background is a navy blue towel (using a complementary colour scheme; blue is the complement of yellow).








Here is the lighting setup I used. The soft box is tilted and on an angle as is the scrim. The black foam core flag can also be see. This is a great technique because direct light from a soft box results in hot spots on the subject.








My "studio" is in the TV room, so time to clean up and put away my toys before my wife sits down to watch some TV...

[pschlute]

Nice demonstration Manfred, the picture of the set-up is so much easier to follow than a description.

One question..... why would you not use the softbox (with front diffuser in place) angled in the same way as the scrim, instead of the scrim ? Would the light be too direct ?

ps....re-read your post and I think the answer is yes (hot-spots)

[Manfred M]

Nice demonstration Manfred, the picture of the set-up is so much easier to follow than a description.

One question..... why would you not use the softbox (with front diffuser in place) angled in the same way as the scrim, instead of the scrim ? Would the light be too direct ?

ps....re-read your post and I think the answer is yes (hot-spots)

The answer is yes. The soft box by itself places the light source too close to the subject and that will cause problems because of the gradient produced by the light source inside the soft box. The moment one separates the light source and the diffuser (and places the diffuser very close to the subject, the light becomes soft (large light source) and the positioning of the soft box and diffuser (both are set at an angle to each other and to the subject, there is a gradient in the way that the light falls.

The reason for the flags is to reduce the light where the setup is closest to the subject. The light is quite intense and needs to be toned down.

[Wavelength]

Very nice image

[preciousmine]

Your photos look so beautiful and inspiring! And the setup is very great. I have also seen plenty of photographers that capture their food pictures out in the town. For example, at a restaurant where I sometimes go, https://www.riwa-restaurant.de/de/ . I have once seen someone setting up and capturing different kinds of food. It was something special for me, and the photos came up really beautifully. Have you ever thought about doing something like this? I mean, with your skills and experience, it would totally become something unreal. For example, there are so many events with good music and good-looking food. I assume a great photographer like you is the only thing that is missing there to capture everything.

[Manfred M]

I've seen a lot of videos about marketing photos like yours on TikTok. Do you know where I can take a course?

This was a homework assignment at a 2-day food photography workshop which is generally held over 2 weekends in August most years. Not a marketing image per set, but food photography is often used in marketing. These are held in Ottawa, Canada at the School of Photographic Arts - Ottawa (SPAO). The summer calendar is usually published in the later part of the spring every year.

https://spao.ca/