What Lighting For Food Photography

[coldshot]

Hi

I have started a cooking site and i'm trying to get some equipment for shooting my recipes.

From what i've read, most photgraphers would use an umbrella or soft box.

The umbrella gives better light diffusion but the soft box has better light control.

I try to shoot in the day where there's still nautural light.

Being a noob when it comes to lighting, what would be better for me to start off with?

I singled out some lighting equipment which i thought might suit my requirement.

Tago Tech I-Store

Tago Tech I-Store

My budget is $150 for my home studio kit

Would appreciate your kind feeback

 

[kaxdd]

Hello! I'm no guru with food photography, but judging from your introduction, shooting with natural light will be sufficient for your food. What I think you need will be mainly a reflector. No need expensive one. What I do is I use a new kitchen towel roll as a reflector. Gives a soft and diffused reflection of the natural light. You can use a white cardboard as well. Improvisation is the key! I always believe no need expensive equipment for personal blog. I attended a class before and the lecturer said that most studios that do professional product photography only have those expensive equipment to show customers that they warrant the high price. 90% of the time the studio won't use them.

Just my 2-cent worth of comments.

 

[coldshot]

Hello! I'm no guru with food photography, but judging from your introduction, shooting with natural light will be sufficient for your food. What I think you need will be mainly a reflector. No need expensive one. What I do is I use a new kitchen towel roll as a reflector. Gives a soft and diffused reflection of the natural light. You can use a white cardboard as well. Improvisation is the key! I always believe no need expensive equipment for personal blog. I attended a class before and the lecturer said that most studios that do professional product photography only have those expensive equipment to show customers that they warrant the high price. 90% of the time the studio won't use them.

Just my 2-cent worth of comments.

Hi Kaxdd.

Thanks for your advice. I too believe in keeping the cost down since i'm just starting out.

Honestly i would love to just depend on natural light but the location of my apartment doesn't let in alot of natural light.

Hence i figured another source of artificial light might help to bring out more of the textures and contrast of the food.

My pics look kinda flat at this point

 

[ZerocoolAstra]

if you mount the camera on a tripod and use longer exposures, you may not need to be too concerned about the amount of lighting you have available. You can then concentrate on the quality of the light, including but not limited to:
- angle (or position)
- 'softness'

and then see if you need to fill in the shadow area with reflector or additional light, etc.

 

[iarshad]

Use tripod its a must, cuz for food u need to go close ( in most cases) and dof becomes too shallow so smaller aperture means slower shutter (keeping lowest iso).
Use CPL it will help a lot to reduce unwanted reflections.
Soft box etc will obviously give more controlled and even light but imagine the time it will take to setup!!

 

[burningacid]

I personally prefer natural light. Depends on the layout/design of ur website, you can also choose to shoot outdoors. Doesn't have to be confined to indoor... Just rem to let the light come from the side so that it highlights your food. Add a little fill light using a white board or cheap reflector in the opposite direction.

 

[JayMosin]

I personally prefer natural light. Depends on the layout/design of ur website, you can also choose to shoot outdoors. Doesn't have to be confined to indoor... Just rem to let the light come from the side so that it highlights your food. Add a little fill light using a white board or cheap reflector in the opposite direction.

I agree completely.