Steam comming from a bowl?

Little John

Little John

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Hi I would like to achieve the appearance of steam coming from a bowl of porridge in a photo. But it needs to be in its normal surroundings on a table so no putting it in front of a black background to make it easy. The idea is a goldilocks and the 3 bears type thing so I am looking for suggestions on how to get this to look right.

Thanks
 
Hot porridge, cold room..
 
Dry ice.
 
Dry ice and backlighting.
An alternative to dry ice is cigarette smoke, but dry ice is better
 
I saw a programme about food advertising and they used tampons (that had been placed in boiling water) hidden in the food to give the "steaming" affect. Not sure how well that would work with porridge though.
 
Doesnt have to be porridge I was planning to shoot low anyway and show the porridge for the one that is "just right". So maybe keep the door open and water out the kettle would be an option. Dry ice wont rise so thats no good.

I am more looking for the technical way to light it really, I have 5 flash guns and 5 studio heads available so lots of options, any sugestions? possibly side lighting back lighting? I don't really have much time to get it shot given a week to come up with the ideas and shoot lol
 
Yes, a tampon is one of the many tricks used, it's fine for many things but not for liquids, that requires dry ice.
But whichever tools are used, the crucial thing is to use backlighting
 
Thought about an atomiser/mister ?
 
I've seen cigarettes used for food menu shots... can't remember where, possibly a video on youtube.

The smoke is blown onto the food and a picture is quickly snapped as it rises

edit: found it:
 
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ok got this weekend to get the shots and I'm working most of it so going to be fun. backlighting a bowl with a hot tampon in it sorted :)
 
Danger_MouseUK said:
I've seen cigarettes used for food menu shots... can't remember where, possibly a video on youtube.

The smoke is blown onto the food and a picture is quickly snapped as it rises

edit: found it:
Click to expand...
That video is hopeless - a classic case of everyone who has a video camera pretending to know what he's doing.

Whichever little tricks you use to create the steam - dry ice, hot tampon, cigarette smoke or whatever - what matters is to backlight the steam
 
Garry Edwards said:
That video is hopeless - a classic case of everyone who has a video camera pretending to know what he's doing.

Whichever little tricks you use to create the steam - dry ice, hot tampon, cigarette smoke or whatever - what matters is to backlight the steam
Click to expand...

Yeah, It's from Digital Rev, a fairly major retailer, they have one of two other videos on their channel, so I don't think it's quite a case of a random with a video camera, I think the video might not have been to your humour. In all fairness Lok isn't quite as good as the other guy, Kai, who usually does their videos.
 
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