Ollie at work preparing the dish
Me at work
I’ve been so busy with setting up the new website that I hardly have had time to shoot any food. Most of the stuff is working now, with a few minor exceptions, so I thought I post some ‘old’ photos of a behind the scenes of one of the food shoot that I did with Ollie, the foodstylist. It was for our portfolio, so not for a particular customer, so it’s easier to show here. On the left you see Ollie at work, making sure the dish looks perfect and on the right you see me (photo taken by Oliver) trying to make a decent photo out of it.
The dish itself was rice with seaweed, on top of that a slice of smoked monkfish (delicious!!) on a bed of rockchives and some caviar inside to add a touch of color. The whole scene was lit with one Bowens Gemini 500 from the left. I shot it through tracing paper to get a softer light and I added a touch of light into the roll of monkfish so it lit up. I use mirrors quite a lot as it gives you just that bit of extra light you need sometimes.
What I will also be doing is to post here a couple of ‘howto’s’ for foodphotography. Nothing to complicated and mainly using daylight, but I thought some people might find it interesting. The first topic I will post is on how to improve your photos dramatically with only a few minor changes…. 
Smoked monkfish with rice on rock chives
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Nou nou, jullie waren lekker bezig hoor! Zag er weer goed uit!
Fantastic! I love behind-the-scenes stuff with photography, and all the little details about camera settings, etc.
Very Nice Simone!
Hey Simone a question, I see you use mirrors and despite i see you have daylight in your studio i bet you used some sort of other lighting, as you are using a mirror i bet you use continous light for food, what would you recomend to me as a good light to use for food, i am thinking of getting 1 continous studio light, but dont have anyone I can trust here to ask.
Cheers
Marco
Well… that is a tricky question to answer as I use all light sources (daylight, continuous light as well as studioflash) For this particular shot I actually used studioflash (Bowens Gemini 500) which I like a lot because of their lightoutput and flexibility. It takes some practice to get used to working with studioflash, but it does give you a more controlled output then daylight. I also have two large daylight continuous lights from Interfit (which is a inexpensive brand) but I don’t like the color they give of. Then again, that is not really an issue if you use a greycard etc. There is a rather good post on Stillifewith which is linked through to Steamy Kitchen, but they have some rather good and inexpensive options for lighting. Also quite a few other tips and tricks you might want to take a look at! I’ve browsed their sites extensively!! You can use mirrors and/or reflectors with all different kinds of lightsource. Since the studioflashes have a modeling light you do see what will happen if you use it. Using foamboard wrapped in aluminium foil is also a good substitute for a mirror. Not sure if this helped you at all but if you need more info just give me a shout!
Thanks very helpfull……foamboards with alu foil……..erh…..i always used plain white foamboards……maybe thats also a wrong? let me have a lok at your link and read, thanks a lot Simone!