Truffle trouble!

I only just managed to get my entry into the latest Strobist bootcamp competition tonight.  Deadline was midnight and I uploaded it with a whole three minutes to spare!!

The reason I was so late was a failed batch of dark chocolatte truffles last night.  I wasted a fair amount of good quality dark choc too which aint cheap.  So for this batch I opted for a cheaper milk chocolate.  I was in a rush though and after the wee one went to bed I was frantically waiting for this batch to cool enough so I could shape them and coat them in cocoa powder.  While I waited I shot a wee time-lapse video of Ben’s Wall-e toy being chased around by a big tractor :)

Michelle helped me quite a bit getting them ready while I fiddled with the lights.  They were still a tad soft so they were pretty messy.  Still, they taste lovely and I’m quite happy with the final pic, even if it’s not what I was originally aiming for.

My first idea was for quite a low key ‘luxury’ look, with some silky red background, but as milk choc is lighter I had to re-evaluate.  I had wanted to use a nice light brown towel I’d bought specifically for food shots but I couldn’t find it (DOH!) so I used a piece of carpet/rug thing that Michelle bought a wee while back. and I think it works pretty well.  As usual with food shots it’s the styling that can make the difference.  The shades of brown in this picture really work with the white line of the dish I think.

The lighting for this shot was a shoot through brolly high and camera right and another flash handheld camera left but kept low and quite close to the rug so as not to cast a shadow onto the truffles.  That also had an orange gel on it to warm up the background a bit.  Without this second flash there was a bit too much shadow on the rug from the dish.

Anyway, glad that’s in, here’s the only other contender of my truffle shots…

I thought this one might have been a better choice because it shows more of the consistency of the truffle, but I feel the specular highlight on the chocolate kind of takes away from the muted tones of the other shot which I liked so much.  Anyway, can’t change it now :)

Last pic I’d like to post is of my backup plan.  When my truffles went wonky last night I snapped a quick shot so that I’d have at least something to post.  It’s a bit of a cheesy sweet shot (not a cheese sweet, that’d be gross!) but needs must :)

 

This was shot in a light tent with a spotty tea-towel hanging over the back.  I had a flash on either side of the tent.

Must log off and get some sleep now.  I’ll be dreaming of truffles, well nightmares!

Cheers
Ian