Haven’t had much of a chance to update the blog recently so I thought I’d put up this post about how I often use a wee reflector for food shots. The shot above isn’t anything to do with that though, I was just really happy with it :) I had noticed the reflections of the blinds in the glass partition and I knew I wanted to use them somehow.
I placed a flash with a Honl grid on just out of the frame camera left pointing at the subject’s face and another bare flash on the floor behind him pointing up. I did have to clone out a hotspot just above him but other than that there’s minimal pp on this one. I used my trusty Sigma 150 macro lens which I find is a great lens for portraits!
Anyway, here’s the picture of the soup that we will be most likely running in Home Plus Scotland…
The specular highlight on the soup (the bright reflection on the surface) was deliberately placed to give a visual indicator of the ‘texture’ of the soup. I used only natural light here as there was a small window camera left and without the reflector the soup looked quite ‘flat’ and not as appetising. My first attempt with the reflector was this…
The specular highlight just isn’t prominent enough for me and basically looked like an accident, so I angled it to get more of a direct reflection to get this…
For me this was too much and it made the soup look much thicker than it actually was. So after another adjustment I got the picture I was happy with. The main reflector I use is just a gold coloured cake board that I bought from Asda for under £1. They are brilliant because you can get different colours and they are easy to carry around and replace. I know many studio based food photographers use small mirrors but as I travel about and shoot food on location these cake board things are ideal.
I’m looking to expand my food kit soon by adding more props. Trip to Ikea beckons I think! Or if anyone has any tips on cheap props I’m all ears :)
Cheers
Ian
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