by Simone on July 9, 2012 // 20 Comments »

Behind the shoot… workshop in Weimar

Final shot

I’ve decided that it would be fun and possibly interesting for you to show a little more behind the scenes setups for photoshoots that I had. I almost always take behind the scenes photos and while I cannot always share the end pics I thought to start of I can show you a little bit more about the setup for the shoot Corinna and I did during the workshop last weekend. You’ve already seen our final selection; for the end photo we picked a photo made by Corinna as the angle was slightly more pleasing then the one I had taken, but since this is my blog the photo above is taken by me. The final select is in the previous workshop post so you can also see that one.

Our assignment was to create a picnic scene using the style of the magazine assigned to us. For us that was Donna Hay magazine.. Talk about coincidence! So our first job was to find a suitable spot, not in the full sunshine and with a nice rustic feel to it. The area we were in was full of gorgeous background, stones and other stuff we could use, but ofcourse our competition took up some premium spots but we did find a good area. As you can see from the pictures our final selected spot was really not that big. And quite wet too. Uneven as well so you can trust me to knock over a bowl filled with oil in the first 5 minutes.. !

It can sometimes be tricky to see where the light is coming from when you’re in the shade and we didn’t want to use front lighting so we ended up with sidelight. It was fairly soft so we didn’t need to use the reflector, although we did have to wait a couple of times for the sun to go away! Nasty sun always appearing when you don’t want it to… We wanted to have the green in the background so we shot sideways on the stairs as you can see above where Corinna is trying to find the right angle.

All in all we pretty much agreed quite quickly on what to use as background as well as some of the props. Since Donna Hay has so many different styles and so many different photographers we thought this would be fitting. Plus blue was a good choice for Donna Hay too!

So not much to explain in terms of lighting here. It was pretty good as it was, so no need to bounce, diffuse or reflect. We loved the bright red of the colors and the peppers so those had to somehow work together and blue and red is always a winning combination. Now I only wish I had such beautiful old stones at home too!

posted in Behind the scenes, Photography

20 Comments »

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Rosa — July 9, 2012 at 12:15
Thanks for sharing your pictures and impressions with us.

Cheers,

Rosa

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- Simone (junglefrog) — July 9th, 2012 at 22:54
  
  Thanks Rosa!
  
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Sue/the view from great island — July 9, 2012 at 18:56
I’ve said it before, but I love these posts, keep them coming! I’m drooling over your location, and the final shot is lovely. I want to sit down and picnic right there.

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- Simone (junglefrog) — July 9th, 2012 at 22:53
  
  Thanks so much Sue! The location was indeed beautiful so that makes it a lot easier!
  
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Corinna — July 9, 2012 at 19:29
Hello Simone , once again i like your blog and this post too. … you forgot the ants *hihi*

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- Simone (junglefrog) — July 9th, 2012 at 22:53
  
  O hahaha, you’re so right Corinna! How could I forget those nasty ants?? It was fun though. Good thing they did not actually crawl up our pants!
  
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Móna Wise — July 10, 2012 at 09:10
Oh…I cannot wait to see you. We are filled with STONES around here!
Looks lovely Simone but it seems that every shot you take turns out perfect xx

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- Simone (junglefrog) — July 11th, 2012 at 21:46
  
  Only one more week to go Mona!! Well and a few days…:) can’t wait to see you!! Cars is rented, everything ready to leave to Ireland ( not in actual packed suitcase terms of course. Lol)
  
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A Canadian Foodie — July 10, 2012 at 22:11
OMGosh! That looks like a PILE of WORK – but what an incredible setting. The steps are gorgeous… and quite the coincidence that you got Donna Hay!!! It is so surprising to me that you have more to learn in photography – but it should not be. I have areas of expertise and feel so much more out there to learn, too – but, you are already so good at what you do…

Valerie
Loved the behind the scenes – guess I missed saying that.

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- Simone (junglefrog) — July 11th, 2012 at 21:47
  
  I love going to these workshops Valerie. I always come back hugely inspired and full of new ideas so that alone is worth it!
  
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Meeta — July 11, 2012 at 13:30
I loved the fact you got Donna Hay! It was great seeing you put this together and lovely that you share the process on the blog.

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- Simone (junglefrog) — July 11th, 2012 at 21:48
  
  I so had to laugh when seeing the Donna Hay paper! It was fun!
  
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Sönke — July 11, 2012 at 21:36
Hi Simone,

a very nice post. As a food photography newbie, it is very interesting to see how the pros do their shooting. And sorry, for taking up the premium spot before the church for our picnic shooting . Marta and I also had problems with the light. But instead of ants we had cute hover flies.

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- Simone (junglefrog) — July 11th, 2012 at 21:49
  
  O I would have preferred hover flies above the scary ants. Of course it didn’t help that I stepped into the ants nest!
  
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Joy — July 11, 2012 at 23:55

That looks like a wonderful experience.

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marla — July 12, 2012 at 14:59

I love behind the scenes posts about photography!! This looks like so much fun

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Janet — July 21, 2012 at 03:55

Lovely photos! Love the blue cutting board too. An original?

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