Basic lighting for Food Photography?


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dinxcarin

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Oct 13, 2006
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Hi all. Can anyone teach me the basic lighting for food photography?
Thanks in advance. I am a newbie.
 

u would need a background to work with, can be as simple as a table or background of restaurant, etc. also need a couple of lights maybe a third to light up the background. that should suffice for basic setup.

depending on how u wanna capture the food, the food presentation, tilting the plate a little, whether to see the smoke or not. sometimes cold food makes an easier shoot. watch the aperture, the main focus is on the food and not the background (normally...).

you could also use 2 lights on either side or just one main one above. typicaly most ppl would use yellow light, though white light can work wonders at times. at times you may not even need lights, just use whatever the restaurant has. adds to general feel of the food presentation.

if you are just shooting general food pics, e.g. above the food shots, might want to go with a light box/tent instead. but remember, use cold food.
 

Hi Thanks for the tip.
Do you have specific brand/type of lighting equipment to recommend?
I am not so familiar with lighting yet. also, I tried to focus on the food but the bg was blurred.
How do I keep eveything on my shot clear.fg and bg? is it possible?I am using manual mode.
Thanks again.
 

i usually shoot with watever i got in the restaurant, sunlight by the window is good too.

pro. stuff from photoflex or elinchrome are good, but u wun want to be bringing those stuff around. i believe cathay has a mini studio set for sale, 2 lights and a light tent i think, but rather exp imo. DIY with ikea is much cheaper.

bg blur is typically due to a big aperture being used, i am guessing f/2.8?
mount ur cam on a tripid, shoot maybe at f/7 or f/11.
should get a clear flat pic.

plan ur shots. have fun and watch the lighting.
 

Hi Thanks for the tip.
Do you have specific brand/type of lighting equipment to recommend?
I am not so familiar with lighting yet. also, I tried to focus on the food but the bg was blurred.
How do I keep eveything on my shot clear.fg and bg? is it possible?I am using manual mode.
Thanks again.

The Sun. Best light you can get.

I shoot with the sunlight and a reflector to bounce the light back to prevent or reduce shadows. Use a good lens (macro is good) for selective focusing. And a solid tripod would help also.
 

i usually shoot with watever i got in the restaurant, sunlight by the window is good too.

pro. stuff from photoflex or elinchrome are good, but u wun want to be bringing those stuff around. i believe cathay has a mini studio set for sale, 2 lights and a light tent i think, but rather exp imo. DIY with ikea is much cheaper.

bg blur is typically due to a big aperture being used, i am guessing f/2.8?
mount ur cam on a tripid, shoot maybe at f/7 or f/11.
should get a clear flat pic.

plan ur shots. have fun and watch the lighting.

Will keep note on the equipments listed.
AS for my shots, yes I used big aperture because I am just using the office existing
flourescent lamp.

below is the link of some of the photos I have taken using flourescent lamp.
Any comments?


food shots
 

The Sun. Best light you can get.

I shoot with the sunlight and a reflector to bounce the light back to prevent or reduce shadows. Use a good lens (macro is good) for selective focusing. And a solid tripod would help also.

I am shooting indoor so I cannot take advantage of the sunlight.
The reflector is one of my options too. I have this wide converter wc-e24 0.66x but I don't know how to install it. Do you happen to know any website that instructs visually on how to do it? I am using D70, by the way. Big thanks
 

dun think this wc-e24 will mount on your d70. do chk on this.

dun think you would need a reflector from the shots you posted. wb is good with current lights. shots are good, no bg only. try the aperture thing above.

can get more creative with your shots. closeups, full framing, above shots, side views, combo plates... many options available. some types of food are boring, can afford to blur them in the bg, e.g. rice and potatos.

i am hungry... where can i get food at 3am...
 

Bro,

3am... Maybe can try Geylang.

To TS,

The shots looks YUMMYLICIOUS. IMO, maybe you should not crop away the plates, especially if the plates have some designs/ colours. Same goes for the food (noticed some parts of your chix wings were cropped), and the sauces (as I believe it must have been drizzled in an artistics manner)... Overall, still :thumbsup:

i am hungry... where can i get food at 3am...
 

I am shooting indoor so I cannot take advantage of the sunlight.
The reflector is one of my options too. I have this wide converter wc-e24 0.66x but I don't know how to install it. Do you happen to know any website that instructs visually on how to do it? I am using D70, by the way. Big thanks

Well, if you wanna go Pro style, then strobes with softboxes would be a excellent idea. In the meantime, you can try using some flashes to help, do note that there may be certain colour casts with certain lights.
 

dun think this wc-e24 will mount on your d70. do chk on this.

dun think you would need a reflector from the shots you posted. wb is good with current lights. shots are good, no bg only. try the aperture thing above.

can get more creative with your shots. closeups, full framing, above shots, side views, combo plates... many options available. some types of food are boring, can afford to blur them in the bg, e.g. rice and potatos.

i am hungry... where can i get food at 3am...

Will try to play around with the aperture settings then.
The photos are raw. I still need to do some tweaking in photoshop like adjust saturation, cropping,etc.. Thanks for some of the tips.

you were hungry? Hope you didn't starve yourself? heheh.



Bro,

3am... Maybe can try Geylang.

To TS,

The shots looks YUMMYLICIOUS. IMO, maybe you should not crop away the plates, especially if the plates have some designs/ colours. Same goes for the food (noticed some parts of your chix wings were cropped), and the sauces (as I believe it must have been drizzled in an artistics manner)... Overall, still :thumbsup:

Big thanks. Do I have potentials of becoming a pro? heheh! Anyways, the plates are just plain white. I have variety of angles but weren't able to post it. Maybe will post some later. Have heaps of them . Thanks a lot.



Well, if you wanna go Pro style, then strobes with softboxes would be a excellent idea. In the meantime, you can try using some flashes to help, do note that there may be certain colour casts with certain lights.

Hi. Where can I get strobes with softboxes ? Is it available in Cathay? Thanks.
 

Cathay should have them. Most other photography stores should have them too... but not cheap. ;)
 

Hi TS,

Like you, I'm also a newbie starting out in Food Photography. For the first two times i shot food in a restaurant, there wasn't enough sunlight for me, hence although i also believe sunlight is good, but when there is no sun, there's nothing much for you to use. I've then decided to make use of my nikon speedlight when i came across a fantastic website.

I've done some searching around and though i'd share it with the rest.

I'm an avid reader of Strobist. Reason being i don't fancy myself carry big strobes or hotlights to restaurants, and i definitely don't have a studio for them to bring food for me to shoot. I like the idea of small and portable lighting, hence using your existing flashlight(if you have one, i'm using SB-600, D200. Nikon CLS) and an umbrella or softbox, you can achieve great lighting as well. Some may argue that small speedlights don't give enough power, but to me food isn't exactly a very big item, so output from the small flash is good enough for me.

The good thing about strobist is that they share with you how they set up their lighting system(minimal cost too!). Here is an example on macaroni and cheese. Yum. My favourite photographer for now is Auntie Clara. She uses speedlights and softboxes to create all her shots. I love it.

Here is a good read on food photography. And another famous one which every food photography beginner should read.

On top of that. You should always see how other photogs shoot their food and learn from their angle, lighting and composition techniques. You can learn alot just by spending an hour browsing through their photos.

Here are a few i like : Akel Studio, Taxel Image Group, Emerald Bay, Michael Ray, Hine Photo, Kelly Cline, Quad Photo, Seth Photography, Still Life With, just to name a few.

Of course another good source of would be Martha Stewart herself. I've read that the style of lighting used for her photographs are popular and good(i havent figured out what style that is, still learning).

Flickr is also a very good source to find inspirations. I like Loua's photos, as well as Matthew's and Andrew's. There's a whole lot of community in flickr dedicated to food photography.

Here is the link to a local photographer(Julian i suppose) who shoots alot of food using ambient lighting as well. Maybe he's from CS too? haha.

Really hope that helps you kick start your hobby, i know it did for mine.

Have fun and keep shooting. :thumbsup:
 

Hi TS,

Like you, I'm also a newbie starting out in Food Photography. For the first two times i shot food in a restaurant, there wasn't enough sunlight for me, hence although i also believe sunlight is good, but when there is no sun, there's nothing much for you to use. I've then decided to make use of my nikon speedlight when i came across a fantastic website.

I've done some searching around and though i'd share it with the rest.

I'm an avid reader of Strobist. Reason being i don't fancy myself carry big strobes or hotlights to restaurants, and i definitely don't have a studio for them to bring food for me to shoot. I like the idea of small and portable lighting, hence using your existing flashlight(if you have one, i'm using SB-600, D200. Nikon CLS) and an umbrella or softbox, you can achieve great lighting as well. Some may argue that small speedlights don't give enough power, but to me food isn't exactly a very big item, so output from the small flash is good enough for me.

The good thing about strobist is that they share with you how they set up their lighting system(minimal cost too!). Here is an example on macaroni and cheese. Yum. My favourite photographer for now is Auntie Clara. She uses speedlights and softboxes to create all her shots. I love it.

Here is a good read on food photography. And another famous one which every food photography beginner should read.

On top of that. You should always see how other photogs shoot their food and learn from their angle, lighting and composition techniques. You can learn alot just by spending an hour browsing through their photos.

Here are a few i like : Akel Studio, Taxel Image Group, Emerald Bay, Michael Ray, Hine Photo, Kelly Cline, Quad Photo, Seth Photography, Still Life With, just to name a few.

Of course another good source of would be Martha Stewart herself. I've read that the style of lighting used for her photographs are popular and good(i havent figured out what style that is, still learning).

Flickr is also a very good source to find inspirations. I like Loua's photos, as well as Matthew's and Andrew's. There's a whole lot of community in flickr dedicated to food photography.

Here is the link to a local photographer(Julian i suppose) who shoots alot of food using ambient lighting as well. Maybe he's from CS too? haha.

Really hope that helps you kick start your hobby, i know it did for mine.

Have fun and keep shooting. :thumbsup:

good links u hve there hehe.. makes me hungry.. haa
 

Hi TS,

Like you, I'm also a newbie starting out in Food Photography. For the first two times i shot food in a restaurant, there wasn't enough sunlight for me, hence although i also believe sunlight is good, but when there is no sun, there's nothing much for you to use. I've then decided to make use of my nikon speedlight when i came across a fantastic website.

I've done some searching around and though i'd share it with the rest.

I'm an avid reader of Strobist. Reason being i don't fancy myself carry big strobes or hotlights to restaurants, and i definitely don't have a studio for them to bring food for me to shoot. I like the idea of small and portable lighting, hence using your existing flashlight(if you have one, i'm using SB-600, D200. Nikon CLS) and an umbrella or softbox, you can achieve great lighting as well. Some may argue that small speedlights don't give enough power, but to me food isn't exactly a very big item, so output from the small flash is good enough for me.

The good thing about strobist is that they share with you how they set up their lighting system(minimal cost too!). Here is an example on macaroni and cheese. Yum. My favourite photographer for now is Auntie Clara. She uses speedlights and softboxes to create all her shots. I love it.

Here is a good read on food photography. And another famous one which every food photography beginner should read.

On top of that. You should always see how other photogs shoot their food and learn from their angle, lighting and composition techniques. You can learn alot just by spending an hour browsing through their photos.

Here are a few i like : Akel Studio, Taxel Image Group, Emerald Bay, Michael Ray, Hine Photo, Kelly Cline, Quad Photo, Seth Photography, Still Life With, just to name a few.

Of course another good source of would be Martha Stewart herself. I've read that the style of lighting used for her photographs are popular and good(i havent figured out what style that is, still learning).

Flickr is also a very good source to find inspirations. I like Loua's photos, as well as Matthew's and Andrew's. There's a whole lot of community in flickr dedicated to food photography.

Here is the link to a local photographer(Julian i suppose) who shoots alot of food using ambient lighting as well. Maybe he's from CS too? haha.

Really hope that helps you kick start your hobby, i know it did for mine.

Have fun and keep shooting. :thumbsup:

Wow! Cool links! Big thanks itsybitsyspidy..I am browsing now..:)
 

Cathay should have them. Most other photography stores should have them too... but not cheap. ;)

Will have it as one of my options..that's if my budget allows/.Thank you very much.:)

Go and get your home work done 1st and try and try again till you get it. We pros didn't get there overnight.

Thanks for the encouragement tommon.. I sure have a veeeeery long way to go. But hope will get there...somehow..sigh.
 

Thanks for the great links itsybitsyspidy...I am now starting to see the light,...still reading...:thumbsup:
 

Thanks for the great links itsybitsyspidy...I am now starting to see the light,...still reading...:thumbsup:

Yep, just read more and the important thing is learning how light works so you can light your food properly. Food photography doesn't have to be very expensive, you can achieve alot of the same effect how those pros do it by exercising some creativity to your shots. ;)
 

You can try the easier way out - light tent
 

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