For the second assignment of Strobist Boot Camp II, we got to work with food. This was a particularly challenging assignment for me, because I’m so used to shooting food in natural light. Also, I really wanted to eat the plate of food that Margaret cooked up, so I was partially rushing through the shoot so I could eat dinner before it got cold.
Figuring out how to light shrimp and pasta and cheese with a single strobe in a small softbox was really tough. I couldn’t quite get the right shadow placement. I didn’t get the highlights exactly how I wanted them. The texture of the food just didn’t quite get there. To me, the final photo feels a bit flat and lacks the punch that I could see in real life. It’s a decent photo — I’ve seen worse in cookbooks — but it’s nothing even close to the finalists and winner of the assignment (seen here on Strobist.com).
What could I have done differently to improve the final result? For one, I shouldn’t have rushed it. Also, I could have used two big soft light sources to try to get better 3-dimensional form from the food.
This was definitely a great learning experience for me, which is the whole point of doing Strobist Boot Camp. Lighting for food is a whole other beast from lighting for portraits, and it’s something I should definitely practice more. Margaret and I cook pretty much every night, so there are plenty of opportunities for tasty photos.
Tags: bootcamp, lighting, strobist, strobist bootcamp II