Food Photography

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grwiffen

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Graham
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Hi
Does anyone have any experience in the best way to lioght food for food photography, for a cookbook?
I have a set of daylight lights but wondered about getting a Nikon SB8/900 Speedlight to use as fill in flash too.
Any ideas or comments please?
Tx Graham
 
As a starting point, softbox above and behind the subject (gridded or otherwise shielded from the lens) with a reflector for fill. Use any addition lights with care.

Look at a few cookery books. If you're unsure, window light can be quite good.
 
I do a piece for our sea fishing magazine where I have to take shots of ingredients and the finished dish. I've combined daylight from a window with a large (28") softbox positioned inches away. The window gives the general ambient and the softbox is just a key light to give it a bit of depth. Outdoors I just shoot in open shade (on a table under a tree for example) so I can use the softbox and an additional bare light (if required) to shape the dish, just changing the shutter speed to control how much of a part the ambient plays.

I'm no expert at this so take what I say as general info, not gospel. I know a food tog who I talked to said making the dish look fresh was as important as lighting it; cold, dry food lacks that certain something and no matter how you light it, it'll still look cold and dry. You need props like mist sprays, hair spray and glycerine to give sparkle and that 'fresh out of the oven' juiciness :)
 
Food is very much a speciality subject, and most of the people who specialise in it do nothing or very little else, because it takes an enormous amount of knowledge, skill and equipment to do well.

The photography is actually about 3rd in the list; first comes the quality of the ingredients and the quality of the chef, followed maybe by the quality of the food stylist, and everyone works as a team.

As with everything else in photography, there are people who take shortcuts and there are clients who are happy with the results - but if you want to produce high quality results for the clients who pay well, there are no shortcuts.

This forum post explains the approach to food photography pretty well.
 
I find food photography to be the most time intensive of any of the areas I work in. I've done all mine on location with the Safari and a huge choice of modifiers available, although often settling on a few favourites (120cm folding octa boomed overhead being one of them).
I have a talk-through of one of the food assignments if you want to know more.
 
Incidentally, if your "daylight lights" are of the continuous type, I really think they may cause your shoot to be problematic.
For a start, they are not as bright as you may believe, and depending on the bulb type, may generate heat which is particularly detrimental to food photography, as some food can start to look "tired" very, very quickly.
 
Thanks for all your comments. Very helpful indeed.
Michael, I'd love to see your talk-though if you could send me the link please?
Graham
 
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