toptrainer wrote:
really looking for some lighting tips. shooting a food catalog five times a year and the client wants a white on white background and foreground. Also using white plates, so trying to get the background white the foreground white and not blow out the white plate. I’ve done one session but had to go into Photoshop and tweak the background and the foreground and looking to possibly get away from that to make the post-production go quicker.
Does anybody have lighting and camera setting tips that may help as I need to go back Wednesday and shoot the second round of the catalogue? I am adding one photo so you can see what they’re looking for, and what I am up against.
really looking for some lighting tips. shooting a ... (
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65% of my commercial; work is FOOD PHOTOGRAHY. The basic concept of good food illustration is simply gettg to get the food to look appetizing. That involves recording texture, sparkle, dimension and effective staging.
Please understand, that I am not writing this to be nasty or harsh but frankly speaking, if that is what your client wants, they are on the wrong track! IAs a consumer of food, I can't tell if they are strange to look at hockey pucks or pastries. The selective focus in not help the situation it's distracting.
There are many ways of achieving a pure white background with white-on-white separation. Creating a table-top cyclorama background with white seamless backgron paper is one method, Transilluminated opal Plexiglas is another. These methods are not "rocket science" but they need to be planned, yoy have to have the light gear, and it can't be learned and mastered overnight. If you do the lighting properly and are exposed accurately, you won't' need to do any complex post-processing actions to change, remove or alter the background.
Even if you achieve the light and background affect yo need. the other aspect of the job may be missing- FOOD STYLING. This does not necessarily mean that you or the stylist needs to "fake" anything but there are ways to prepare food so it is more photogenic. Sometimes a food stylist is called in or the chef, baker, or maker can handle the task. I have big contracts I usually work with a stylist, on lowe budget gigs, I will call upon the kitchen staff and over the years, have learned many of the methods so I can DIY it.
The pure white background is not a bad concept- it looks CLEAN, however, some better food illustrations have more of an environmental or conceptual background and props. Selective focus can be affected as long as the man subject is in sharp focus and well placed in the composition. If there is no art direction or layout you need to conform to, you man be better off suggesting a more effective concept that is, in the face, easier to shoot.
If you can grasp the lighting concept, mostof the work can be done with one or two monolights, a medium-sized softbox and a few reflectors. If you are up for it, I can post a few light diagrams and explain the method.