How to light this....

[psybear]

Total amateur when it comes to lighting but I'd like to improve!

I'd like to try to replicate this type of shot, which was apparently taken by arranging the doughnuts on a sheet of clear perspex over a coloured card background - creating the illusion that it has been taken vertically.

Any suggestions as to how to light it to minimise shadows? Could it be done with a single speedlight/softbox and maybe a reflector?

 

[Phil V]

Large soft source camera right, probably a reflector camera left to push some light back. If your softbox isn't big enough you could add a scrim between it and the table (very cheap shower curtain / voile / tracing paper.

 

[Broric]

Getting both splashes at the same time without resorting to photoshop feels like it'd be tricky.

 

[Phil V]

Getting both splashes at the same time without resorting to photoshop feels like it'd be tricky.

That and the sprinkles in mid air.

 

[Broric]

I think the sprinkles are just cleverly positioned

 

[blakester]

@Yv did something along similar lines for her Staff POTY entry HERE
Yvonne may be so kind to give you a steer on lighting it, although the look is slightly different.

 

[Kodiak Qc]

•
If I may suggest: the goodies are lacking in 3D. A tad of directionality would do it! In this
case, shadows are not the foe!

 

[Garry Edwards]

Large soft source camera right, probably a reflector camera left to push some light back. If your softbox isn't big enough you could add a scrim between it and the table (very cheap shower curtain / voile / tracing paper.

I don't want to be pendantic but.... that's a silk, not a scrim. A scrim is a dense opaque piece of material with lots of tiny holes in it.

•
If I may suggest: the goodies are lacking in 3D. A tad of directionality would do it! In this
case, shadows are not the foe!

I agree, what's needed here is harder lighting, not softer

 

[Kodiak Qc]

I agree, what's needed here is harder lighting, not softer

Garry, when I say directional I don't mean hard… but directional! …like a 1x4 strip with grid!

 

[Garry Edwards]

Garry, when I say directional I don't mean hard… but directional! …like a 1x4 strip with grid!

I was thinking along the same lines, but should have said that the light should be skimming across the surface at an acute angle. This may or may not be hard lighting, depending on the distance/relative size of the light source to the subject

 

[Niwdog]

Most of that is done in post. The cups of coffee where also shot separately. Smallish softbox, possibly gridded, with perhaps some black card to drop in shadows in key areas, and then a lot of dodging and burning.

 

[Kodiak Qc]

I was thinking along the same lines, but should have said that the light should be skimming across the surface at an acute angle. This may or may not be hard lighting, depending on the distance/relative size of the light source to the subject

•
Right.

 

[psybear]

Thanks all, very useful suggestions. And I will PM Yv for tips on how she lit that one!

 

[Niwdog]

Who shot it, incidentally?

 

[psybear]

A Russian lady whose name escapes me!

 

[Scooter]

Dina Belenko

 

[juggler]

Thanks all, very useful suggestions. And I will PM Yv for tips on how she lit that one!

Most of that is done in post. The cups of coffee where also shot separately. Smallish softbox, possibly gridded, with perhaps some black card to drop in shadows in key areas, and then a lot of dodging and burning.

Not according to the second hit in google:
https://www.behance.net/gallery/28471773/Balancing-donuts-(with-tutorial)

 

[Garry Edwards]

Interestingly (to me) the tutorial explains the arrangement (which is obvious anyway) but doesn't even mention the lighting.
We can clearly see, from the specular reflections, that there was a softbox producing flat lighting, and I think we've agreed that the shot would have been much better with more directional lighting.
For the avoidance of doubt, directional lighting in this context is simply light skimming across the surface at an acute angle. Depending on both size of the light source and its distance from the subject, directional lighting can be either hard or soft, or somewhere in between. And it can also be both hard and soft at the same time, i.e. there can be low overall contrast and high local contrast.

 

[Steve T]

That hand looks like a photo of a photo and the shadows on the fingertip and first macaron look wrong to me. I think its a photo taken of certain bits then that image used as the background for the final shot. Look at the shadow cast on the second doughnut by the rim of the bottom cup.