inexpensive options/tips for lighting food and interiors?

G

Gislebertus

Suspended / Banned
Messages
7
Edit My Images
No
Hi all!

As stated in the title, I need some inexpensive options for lighting food (and to a lesser extent, small interiors).

I've been unemployed for nearly a year now, and I really can't afford to spend much. Seriously, anything above $200 is painful for me. I'm not entirely sure at the moment if I can really make good cash as a photographer, but I've got this guy who runs a food magazine and he has offered me the opportunity to be his primary photographer. He also wants me to shoot restaurant interiors.

So far I've been getting by on natural daylight through windows and reflectors; the results are decent but tend to be slightly too dark when we print the magazine (even after photoshop adjustments).

For the interior shots I just use long exposures. But for dark restaurants without windows he is forced to hire a professional photographer with equipment. I need real lights.

I own a Panasonic Lumix, if that matters.

Also, do any of you have any favorite food lighting tips you could share?

Thanks so much!
 
Last edited:
Oh, give me a break.

Listen, I have a degree in photography and I've got enough skills to have already pleased the director of the food magazine for 3 publications using nothing but my cheap camera and natural daylight. According to the director, my shots look better than the one's the "pros" take with their fancy equipment, that's why he wants me full time.

Surely their must be something out there that can decently remove a few shadows? I could figure something out myself, I'm sure, yet I thought it wise to first consult you folks with experience ...... maybe I was wrong.
 
Is he paying you the same rate as the 'pros wth the fancy equipment'?
 
Gislebertus said:
Hi all!

As stated in the title, I need some inexpensive options for lighting food (and to a lesser extent, small interiors).

I've been unemployed for nearly a year now, and I really can't afford to spend much. Seriously, anything above $200 is painful for me. I'm not entirely sure at the moment if I can really make good cash as a photographer, but I've got this guy who runs a food magazine and he has offered me the opportunity to be his primary photographer. He also wants me to shoot restaurant interiors.

So far I've been getting by on natural daylight through windows and reflectors; the results are decent but tend to be slightly too dark when we print the magazine (even after photoshop adjustments).

For the interior shots I just use long exposures. But for dark restaurants without windows he is forced to hire a professional photographer with equipment. I need real lights.

I own a Panasonic Lumix, if that matters.

Also, do any of you have any favorite food lighting tips you could share?

Thanks so much!
Click to expand...
lets pick 2 of the hardest things to light and shoot, and then pick a toy camera to shoot it with, with a budget for everything else so low, it wouldn't even buy a half decent tripod to mount the camera on
 
I don't got time for this ****. What a bunch of condescending pricks. Knowing how to make the most out of little is the first lesson of any great artist. I'll figure it out myself. :wave:
 
Gislebertus said:
I don't got time for this ****. What a bunch of condescending pricks. Knowing how to make the most out of little is the first lesson of any great artist. I'll figure it out myself. :wave:
Click to expand...
check out the strobist website for good tips. I still say that food and interiors are bloody hard to shoot with the right equipment, let alone hardly no equipment
 
lots of food photographers swear by natural light.... go buy some white and black foamboards, some clamps to hold them in place, and find a room with some big windows...
 
Jeez guys, harsh talk. Give the guy a break - he's using the forum as it's supposed to be.
 
Gislebertus said:
I don't got time for this ****. What a bunch of condescending pricks. Knowing how to make the most out of little is the first lesson of any great artist. I'll figure it out myself. :wave:
Click to expand...

Its nice to be nice ..but keep your ass of the pillow :D
 
It's like a bloody school playground in here sometimes. It was a perfectly reasonable question and there was no call for the replies.

Some people are now having some time off to consider their posting habits.
 
Hacker said:
It's like a bloody school playground in here sometimes. It was a perfectly reasonable question and there was no call for the replies.

Some people are now having some time off to consider their posting habits.
Click to expand...

:agree:

If the OP has been given a chance, a little advice may well have been offered :shrug:

Seasons greatings I think :thinking:

Mick
 
I think some people are jealous that the OP has impressed the magazine editor so much he wants to hire him/her even with a lack of equipment!

Ignore the prats. Check out equipment hire as you could hire stuff for the first shoots and then use the money you have earned to invest in further equipment.

Have you tried bumping up the exposure in camera with exposure compensation to see whether you can reduce the shadows? If there's no exposure compensation one of the other scene modes might trick it into a longer exposure.
 
Gislebertus said:
snip.....I have a degree in photography and I've got enough skills to have already pleased the director of the food magazine for 3 publications ...
Surely their must be something out there that can decently remove a few shadows? .........
Click to expand...

well it sounds like your work is ok .... but $200 or £200?
no offense, but with a degree experience, you must be aware that this sum is very low

and i understand the un-employment problem...are there Gov grants available that will allow you to buy equipment for "getting back to work"

never done product work - the Lumix flash 'could' be used to fire a couple of cheap 'slave units' to fill the shadows - white board as a diffuser..?
 
I'm far from knowing what to do, however when I wanted to take some pics of chocolates for my website, I didn't know what to do as I don't do photography, however I knew I needed to add lighting so I used a white pillor case cut down the sides and opened out, used some wood to make a sort of horseshoe shaped frame, put el cheapo table lights either side so light was filtered and softened inside the pic area and then prayed and hoped. Maybe not super professional or anything but it did the job, well I think so and so did the guy doing our website.

Worth a thought, well done on getting the job, please let me see your end results
 
Yardbent said:
well it sounds like your work is ok .... but $200 or £200?
no offense, but with a degree experience, you must be aware that this sum is very low

and i understand the un-employment problem...are there Gov grants available that will allow you to buy equipment for "getting back to work"

never done product work - the Lumix flash 'could' be used to fire a couple of cheap 'slave units' to fill the shadows - white board as a diffuser..?
Click to expand...

If the op is in the States then a couple of slave flashes should be easily obtainable for $20-30 each, even if you then need to add a couple of optical slaves (maybe $8 each) to fire them from the onboard flash of the Lumix and maybe a reflector (or even a bit of white foamcore or card) a couple of cheap stands/umbrella adapters (or even a couple of old tripods) and umbrellas should help no end :)
 
Whilst disliking your language in post 7, I don't have one so will reply anyway.

From the sound of it your best investment would be a good quality tripod. This will give you the opportunity for longer exposures which you can use for both food and interiors provided your camera does not create too much noise. Reflectors and mirrors can be useful for food photography. Get your magazine employer to maybe pay you in equipment if this saves you getting taxed on cash (no idea what the rules are over there) until you have enough equipment to do the job more easily.
 
You may even be able to try using normal household spot lights, and with long exposures you could paint light where you need it. You'll have to gel the lights though to get the colour balance right, if you're mixing light sources. And has been mentioned, reflectors can really save the day, even mirrors!

P.s sorry you had to suffer a few unpleasant replies, Xmas can bring out the worst in some people :)
 
I usually have the sense to keep out of discussions like this:)

Personally I’m 100% in favour of making do with whatever equipment we have, as long as the job is do-able with that equipment, that’s how we learn, and using poor equipment is fine as long as the end result is OK – in other words, if the only downside of using the wrong equipment is that the job takes several times as long do do properly, then why not?

But not all problems can be solved with time, effort and technical know-how, sometimes the lack of the right equipment is a total killer.

The first thing that put me off in this thread is the statement that the OP has a Lumix camera and that he thinks it’s fine to use very long exposures when there isn’t enough light. Why did this put me off?
1. Well, the Lumix is probably a perfectly capable camera for some things, but it has a tiny sensor with a total area (I believe) of just 24.7 sq mm, compared to the 864 sq mm of the smallest camera that I personally would use for food photography. Even under good lighting conditions the dynamic range is going to be very poor, and if long exposures have to be used the noise levels will be awful.
2. If the OP feels that light is all about quantity (rather than quality) then he doesn’t understand the basics, so there’s probably not a lot that can be usefully said.
3. And if he feels that all that he needs is ‘a few lighting tips’ and if his target is to ‘decently remove a few shadows’ then again, he has demonstrated that he has absolutely zero concept of what lighting is about. Tip: It’s about creating and controlling shadows, not removing them:)

I’m not going to be critcal of his attempts to get a paid job when he’s been out of work for a while, that has to be 100% right. But it seems to me that hoping to get professional results without equipment that’s even vaguely suitable is a bit like hoping to start a van delivery service with nothing more than a small family car.
 
Garry Edwards said:
I’m not going to be critcal of his attempts to get a paid job when he’s been out of work for a while, that has to be 100% right. But it seems to me that hoping to get professional results without equipment that’s even vaguely suitable is a bit like hoping to start a van delivery service with nothing more than a small family car.
Click to expand...

Quoted for truth.

Whilst it's certainly possible to "make do" you'd be better off including hire of appropriate equipment on your invoice to the magazine.
 
Don't know if I've missed something but couldn't the guy running the magazine help with purchasing some lighting gear. It'd probably work out cheaper than hiring pro togs.
 
If it were me I'd buy a set of Yongnuo RF-602 triggers (about $35), a couple of cheap stands (probably about $15 each) and a couple of those Yongnuo flashes with manual control ($40 each)... there you ahve the basis of a flexible lighting set-up.

Then I'd maybe get a shoot-through brolly and/or a small softbox (40x40cm) and make myself some reflectors out of card and tin foil.

I reckon you can do all that for under $200 and you have it sorted. Then it's just a case of getting creative, getting the job done and hopefully not piling on too much weight from all the left over food!! :thumbs:

My top tip: I got told back at university that an atomiser of water and a can of hairspray will give sparkle and sheen to any food, even when it's cold. :thumbs:
 
This food picture was lit using 1 flashlight, 1 umbrella, 1 reflector and a coffee filter paper.
Unless you are only shooting 1 dish then I would advise against using natural light, as it may change between dishes, and you will never get any consistency between shots.
Interiors can be shot using available light, with 2 or 3 files blended together but generally 3/4 lights are required for large interiors.
Good tip with the water spray, I use one which used to hold Ecover.
 
Last edited:
well...no posts by the OP since #7

conclusion.?..........lost another member thanks to the initial remarks

'some' members need to "Shape UP - or Ship OUT"
 
I'm very surprised the OP wasn't banned for his comments in post #7
 
Can you not use a reflector / white card to bounce natural light around and remove shadows ?

The Digital Photography Book Volume 2 (Scott Kelby) has a whole load of pages dedicated to product photography. Well worth a read, infact the whole series of books is excellent.



BTW - congratulations on your achievements so far :thumbs:
 
awp said:
I'm very surprised the OP wasn't banned for his comments in post #7
Click to expand...

the OP wouldnt have had to react if some folk remembered that this is a forum for many different skill levels and abilities. We decided that he was well within limits to get annoyed and left it there to show what the wrong attitude shown to new members leads to.
 
There is an excellent site at www.prophotolife.co. the guy there shows you on videos that you can light a lot using reflectors and mirrors with one light. It could also work using good natural light reflected accordingly. Good luck.
 
antihero said:
fixed...good site too :)
Click to expand...

I remember when he first started it. Hasnt updated it in a few years, as he has a new job - see his Nov 2010 update post.

The Chap first put me on to the Calumet Genesis line of lights that he recommends, and even though I had a cupboard full of Elinchrom, I am surprisingly pleased with them.
 
I think we've just got a troll. He has a degree in photography and is asking a basic lighting question?
 
diggerz said:
I think we've just got a troll. He has a degree in photography and is asking a basic lighting question?
Click to expand...

I've got a degree and it was only by myself I found out what I know now about lighting. Some courses, like mine, focussed on processing and digital imaging, albeit when digital wasn't very good. Unfortunately, not all courses work to the same standards..... :)
 
I see that suspensions don't last very long.................... hardly a suspension then!
 
alexam said:
I see that suspensions don't last very long.................... hardly a suspension then!
Click to expand...

depends on teh crime, 3 days is long enough for most.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top