IntroductionWelcome| 00:04 | Hi! I'm Bill Robbins and welcome
to Food and Drink Photography.
| | 00:08 | In this course we'll discuss
techniques for shooting and lighting small-scale
| | 00:12 | subjects and staging food to look
crisp, hot, cold, or fresh from the oven.
| | 00:19 | I'll start by exploring two core types
of food photographs and the compositional
| | 00:23 | concepts you should have in
mind before planning a shoot.
| | 00:27 | I'll look at all the necessary gear,
from choosing the right camera to creating
| | 00:32 | a toolkit specialized for photographing food.
| | 00:35 | We'll look at how to frame a
subject with the right props, utensils,
| | 00:40 | and background objects.
| | 00:42 | I'll show you how to style beautiful
and appetizing subjects like ice-cold
| | 00:46 | drinks, steaming hot coffee,
delicious ice cream, and sizzling hot steak.
| | 00:54 | Finally, we'll go out to a restaurant to
explore the specifics of shooting on location.
| | 01:00 | In this course I've made the effort to
cover all these topics from two different
| | 01:04 | perspectives, including techniques for
amateurs and food bloggers as well as the
| | 01:09 | professional photographers.
| | 01:12 | So, I hope I've managed to whet your
appetite. Now let's get started with Food
| | 01:16 | and Drink Photography.
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| What makes an appetizing food photo?| 00:00 | In this movie we're going to ask
and answer the question, what makes
| | 00:03 | an appetizing photo?
| | 00:05 | The simple answer to that
question is that the image triggers an
| | 00:09 | emotional response.
| | 00:10 | This could be accomplished by several
factors or a combination of factors.
| | 00:15 | As a photographer shooting food, the
first thing is that the food is fresh.
| | 00:20 | It's hard to make brown, limpy lettuce
look appetizing or a fillet of salmon
| | 00:25 | that's been overcooked look
appealing. Using fresh food is a given.
| | 00:30 | Next, we get to the aesthetic that the
photographer brings to the table, so to speak.
| | 00:35 | This includes the sensibility of
lighting, color palette, composition, mixed in
| | 00:39 | with a technical knowledge of
how to use your camera gear.
| | 00:43 | Understanding how these elements work
together is much like a bicycle chain.
| | 00:47 | The chain has links that
hold the chain together.
| | 00:49 | If one of those links is
missing, the chain does not work.
| | 00:52 | So in our analogy, the links
represent different aspects of the image that
| | 00:56 | we're trying to create: the camera, the
lens, the point of view, the lighting,
| | 01:01 | the props, and all of the
other elements that are involved.
| | 01:04 | When all of the links are
connected, we get a great image.
| | 01:07 | So let's take a moment and talk
about these two images that I brought in.
| | 01:11 | The first one of the honey coming off
the honey spoon, I think represents three
| | 01:15 | elements that will help
trigger an emotional response.
| | 01:19 | The first one is the quality of the light.
| | 01:21 | I think the quality of light gives
you that warm and fuzzy feel to it.
| | 01:25 | The second thing is the shallow depth of
field. With the shallow depth of field,
| | 01:30 | it takes out any
distractions from the background.
| | 01:33 | And the third thing is the camera point of view.
| | 01:36 | Having the camera point of view in
tight like this puts you, the viewer,
| | 01:40 | right into the subject.
| | 01:42 | Now let's go over here to the salad
side and take a look at the salad.
| | 01:45 | One of other things that we talked
about earlier was having fresh food, and I
| | 01:50 | think this image represents
the freshest of the fresh.
| | 01:54 | So looking at this salad, it makes you
just sort of want to jump into this
| | 01:57 | image, sit down, and take a
big bite out of the salad.
| | 02:01 | So, what this course will do for you is
to help you become more aware of what
| | 02:06 | these links are and how to
use them to your advantage.
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1. The Two Flavors of Food PhotographyComposing graphic styled photos| 00:00 | In this chapter we're going to look at two
ways of approaching the creation of an image.
| | 00:05 | One would be graphic, responding
to design elements. Two, create an
| | 00:10 | emotional response.
| | 00:11 | We'll start in this movie by
talking about the graphic approach.
| | 00:15 | In these examples of a graphic approach,
you're first drawn in by the elements
| | 00:19 | of design, which may lead
you to an emotional response.
| | 00:23 | We react to certain specific
elements, which transfer to our senses.
| | 00:27 | They are color, line, shape,
negative space, texture, and light.
| | 00:34 | So let's take a look at these.
| | 00:35 | Let's talk about color first.
| | 00:37 | So in this example you can see the
strawberries, which are red, draw you in
| | 00:42 | because of the overall color palette
that I'm using in this photograph. So the
| | 00:46 | red draws the attention.
| | 00:48 | In this photograph of the salmon, the
salmon contrasting against the white plate
| | 00:53 | draws you in. So these are really good
examples of how the use of color can work for you.
| | 00:59 | Let's talk about the next element, line.
| | 01:02 | If we look at the line that the plate
creates, it's very strong and it draws you
| | 01:06 | in and it keeps your attention into the salmon.
| | 01:10 | The same thing with the plate up here,
where the plate draws a line and you get
| | 01:15 | the contrast between the white and the black.
| | 01:18 | Over on in this example, if we look
at the line, we're seeing how the white
| | 01:23 | chocolates pop-out against the dark
background, because the line is accentuating
| | 01:29 | that difference in contrast.
| | 01:32 | The next one that we'll talk about is
negative space. So in this example of
| | 01:37 | negative space, you can see that the
black against the white creates this
| | 01:42 | triangle in these corners and that
contains us, that keeps us interested in what
| | 01:48 | the subject matter is.
| | 01:49 | So with this photograph, let's talk a
little bit about how the texture works.
| | 01:53 | So the texture of the cereal
contrasts the texture of the background and
| | 01:57 | keeps your interest.
| | 01:59 | When we think about light, in all of
these, the light doesn't overpower the
| | 02:03 | subject. And that's one of the things
that we want to pay close attention to is
| | 02:07 | that the light doesn't become the
subject, that food remains the subject.
| | 02:12 | So the response to the graphical
design elements can then lead to an
| | 02:15 | emotional response.
| | 02:17 | So it doesn't negate an emotional
response; it's just a tool to point us in the
| | 02:22 | right direction and one possible
way of shooting your food photos.
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| Composing for the emotional style| 00:00 | As we continue looking at two different
ways of approaching the creation of an
| | 00:04 | image, let's take a look
at the emotional approach.
| | 00:08 | This approach gets the viewer to
respond more to an emotion first, rather than
| | 00:12 | the graphic elements.
| | 00:14 | This could happen by the image
conveying a feel for a time, a place, or
| | 00:18 | some type of memory.
| | 00:20 | In this image, the setting or
environment helps create the emotional
| | 00:24 | response to the coffee.
| | 00:26 | So this was an image I saw in my head
probably a month before I took this photograph.
| | 00:31 | I was sitting on this bench, 8 o'clock in
the morning, the sun was coming through
| | 00:36 | the trees, capturing the steam coming
out of the coffee cup, and I thought, wow,
| | 00:40 | that's going to be a great photo.
| | 00:42 | So I came back a month later and shot this.
| | 00:45 | So this is completely
created by a memory that I had.
| | 00:50 | In these next examples, we're
responding to both the storytelling combined with
| | 00:54 | our senses of taste, smell, and hearing.
| | 00:58 | So taste, we taste the chocolates.
| | 01:01 | Smell, we can smell the coffee. And in
hearing, we can hear the sizzle of the
| | 01:06 | frying pan. All through the senses of sight.
| | 01:11 | Remember, the graphic approach that we
talked about in the last movie can lead
| | 01:15 | you to an emotional response.
| | 01:17 | So some images, like the image of the
chocolates, can give an impression of both approaches.
| | 01:23 | In the next movie we'll spend a little
more time comparing these two approaches
| | 01:27 | and using two images of the same subject.
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| Comparing graphic and emotional styles| 00:00 | When we start to compare the two
different approaches, graphic or
| | 00:03 | emotional, there are certain
attributes that help further define the two
| | 00:07 | directions and styles.
| | 00:09 | In these examples, two things immediately
stand out: point of view and depth of field.
| | 00:15 | The overhead point of view lends itself
for a more graphic approach, as it can
| | 00:20 | define shapes in a faster manner.
| | 00:22 | This is due in part to the
flattening of the space from the point of view.
| | 00:27 | Depth of field in this example
extends from the top surface of the subject
| | 00:32 | to the background, and although not
critically sharp throughout, the focus is acceptable.
| | 00:38 | On the other hand, the lower point of view in
this image has a very shallow depth of field.
| | 00:44 | This point of view provides more depth,
even though the depth of field is very shallow.
| | 00:49 | Using a shallow depth of field is a
very good technique in helping the viewer
| | 00:54 | stay on point to what the main
subject and emphasis is in our image.
| | 01:00 | We use the shapes and lighting in the
background to help create a feel for the environment.
| | 01:06 | For more in-depth information on depth
of field, check out lynda.com's tutorial,
| | 01:11 | Foundations of Photography: Exposure.
| | 01:14 | When we look at the two approaches
that were taken to get to the end results,
| | 01:18 | the viewer does not respond by thinking,
oh, you took approach A, or oh, you took
| | 01:23 | approach B to get to the results.
| | 01:25 | The viewer responds to what you,
the photographer, wanted to say.
| | 01:29 | We're just using these approaches as tools
to start down a path to be more creative.
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2. Essential GearChoosing the right camera| 00:00 | In this movie we're going to take a
look at the different types of camera
| | 00:03 | formats that might be appropriate for
you to use in your food photography.
| | 00:07 | These range from the very high-end for the pro,
to the point-and-shoot for the food blogger.
| | 00:14 | So let's take a look at
the pros and cons of each.
| | 00:17 | So let's start over here with the
medium format. The medium format is going
| | 00:21 | to give us a lot of versatility.
| | 00:23 | So we'll start up here at the front-end
and it gives us interchangeable lenses.
| | 00:28 | It's also going to have reflex viewing,
which means that we're looking through
| | 00:32 | the lens in real time. And as we go to
the back of the camera, we can see it
| | 00:37 | has a digital back.
| | 00:39 | Now the digital back on this camera
comes off, and it means that we can put on
| | 00:44 | other digital backs if we don't like
the particular one that's on here. And
| | 00:49 | that gives us the ability to go from
capturing anywhere from 25 megapixels to 50
| | 00:56 | megapixels on our capture.
| | 00:59 | The drawback for this is that
camera is it's very expensive, so most
| | 01:04 | photographers that would be using this
camera are going to be working in the
| | 01:07 | studio if they're food photographers.
| | 01:10 | The camera out on location gets a bit bulky.
| | 01:14 | It's a little bit difficult to
hand hold when we're shooting food.
| | 01:19 | So this is really going to work for the
studio photographer who is shooting food.
| | 01:23 | Our next camera is the Pro DSLR.
| | 01:27 | The Pro DSLR has a lot of the same
features as our medium format camera but it's
| | 01:32 | not quite as expensive.
| | 01:34 | So up in the front, again, we have the
ability for interchangeable lenses. It
| | 01:39 | has reflex viewing, and both of
these cameras have full manual control,
| | 01:46 | which means that we're able to
set the shutter speed and aperture
| | 01:50 | independently of each other.
| | 01:52 | With the Pro DSLR, we also have the added
edition of being able to capture HD video.
| | 01:58 | So let's take a look at our
advanced point-and-shoot camera.
| | 02:02 | This camera has a lot of the same
possibilities that we get with our Pro DSLR.
| | 02:09 | It has interchangeable lens ability,
it has reflex viewing through a
| | 02:13 | viewfinder, it has the ability to
capture HD video, and it also has Live View on
| | 02:19 | the back of the camera.
| | 02:21 | The cost of this camera is
considerably less than a Pro DSLR.
| | 02:26 | When we compare the size of the chips,
this will capture anywhere from 10 to 15
| | 02:31 | megapixels, and our Pro DSLR will
capture anywhere from 15 to 25 megapixels.
| | 02:38 | So there's a difference in the
chip size, which is going to show up when
| | 02:42 | we start making photographs larger.
| | 02:44 | Let's move over to our point-and-
shoot over here, and this is probably the
| | 02:50 | most common type of point-and-shoot.
| | 02:53 | It is very compact, very light,
| | 02:56 | it doesn't have the ability
to have interchangeable lenses.
| | 02:59 | It has a built-in zoom lens, and the other
feature that it has is Live View on the back.
| | 03:06 | So, one of the things about Live View
that we have to consider is that it's a
| | 03:10 | little bit more difficult
to see in bright sunlight.
| | 03:14 | The other part that both of the point
-and-shoots have is something called
| | 03:17 | shutter lag, which means that when
we push the shutter button to take the
| | 03:21 | photograph, there is a slight lag in time
to the capture, and that can be 1/10 of
| | 03:27 | a second, 1/15th of a second, which in
most cases is not going to be a big deal.
| | 03:32 | Except if we we're trying to capture
maybe a coffee pour, then that starts
| | 03:37 | to become troublesome.
| | 03:39 | Our last one over here is our iPhone,
and this would be true of any smartphone
| | 03:45 | that has a camera in it.
| | 03:46 | And it offers the ability to be with us
all the time, it also offers the ability
| | 03:52 | of a vast array of apps that we can
download, and with those apps, we have the
| | 03:57 | ability to create some
very interesting photographs.
| | 04:01 | So just to recap, medium format has
the finest detail in the biggest chip.
| | 04:05 | DSLR has the most versatility for the
money, the point-and-shoot's for travel,
| | 04:11 | and with the iPhone or other smartphones,
you'll always have a way to photograph
| | 04:15 | your food, no matter what.
| | 04:17 | So far in this course, you've seen the
quality of shots you can get with a DSLR.
| | 04:21 | As we go through the rest of the course,
you'll see examples of what you can do
| | 04:25 | with some of these other types of cameras.
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| Evaluating lens options| 00:00 | Along with thinking about
which camera format is going to best serve
| | 00:03 | you, we also need to explore lens possibilities.
| | 00:07 | So let's take a look at some of the
considerations with both the medium
| | 00:11 | format and the DSLRs.
| | 00:13 | The most common feature we look for as food
photographers is the ability to get in tight.
| | 00:18 | Using macro lenses makes this possible,
getting in as tight as 4 to 6 inches.
| | 00:23 | This stability, along with shooting at
a wide or open aperture, helps create a
| | 00:28 | look and style for our food photography.
| | 00:31 | So here is an example of the macro, in
tight, and you can see with this image of
| | 00:36 | the ice cream that I am in probably 3
inches away from the subject. So it fills
| | 00:41 | the frame, I'm shooting wide open,
and have shallow depth of field.
| | 00:46 | On the opposite end of the macro lens
is the telephoto lens. It allows us to
| | 00:51 | shoot from a distance but still fill
the frame with the intended subject.
| | 00:55 | While not used as often as the macro for
food photography, the telephoto can get
| | 01:00 | us in tight to the food without being
on top of the subject like the macro.
| | 01:06 | This might be helpful when we're
shooting a person taking a bite of food or
| | 01:10 | shooting a pour that might splash on the lens.
| | 01:13 | When shooting with the telephoto, we
usually do not have to worry about the
| | 01:17 | aperture so much. Because of
the nature of the telephoto,
| | 01:20 | it's already given us
that shallow depth of field.
| | 01:23 | So here's an example of the telephoto in use.
| | 01:26 | So you can see, as I'm filling the
frame with the telephoto, my subject is
| | 01:30 | about to bite down on this ice cream
and I'm at a safe distance away using
| | 01:35 | the telephoto lens.
| | 01:36 | Now from the financial side, a zoom
lens that also has a macro feature could be
| | 01:42 | an alternative to buying
several different types of lenses.
| | 01:45 | And here's an example of a zoom lens
that gets me in tight and still gives me
| | 01:50 | that shallow depth of field look.
| | 01:53 | This is just a quick look at lenses.
| | 01:55 | For a much more in-depth look at
lenses, check out Foundations of
| | 01:59 | Photography: Lenses.
| | 02:02 | With lenses, it's all about the quality of the
glass, so remember, you get what you pay for.
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| Setting up a studio kit| 00:00 | An important tool to the food
photographer is our studio kit.
| | 00:04 | Here are some of the essentials for the
food photographer not to be without in
| | 00:08 | the studio or on location.
| | 00:11 | So first up is our tweezers.
| | 00:13 | So the tweezers give us the ability
on set to move things without leaving
| | 00:17 | fingerprints, so this would
definitely be an essential item.
| | 00:22 | Next, we have the tapes.
| | 00:25 | Firs,t we have the photographer's best
friend, the gaffer's tape. Then we go to
| | 00:30 | the masking tape, double stick tape, and
the granddaddy of them all, the toupee tape.
| | 00:37 | The toupee tape has the ability to
almost hold anything because of the strength
| | 00:42 | in its stickiness on both sides.
| | 00:45 | It's also the thinnest tape that we can find.
| | 00:48 | In the back, we have our gloves.
When we're using hot lights,
| | 00:53 | we want to make sure that
we have those in our toolkit.
| | 00:57 | Next, we're going to go to
the baby medicine syringes.
| | 01:01 | These will allow you to put fluids in
and out of glasses without leaving drips
| | 01:06 | going down the side of the glasses.
| | 01:08 | Up next, we have the eyedropper.
| | 01:10 | The eyedropper we can use to place bubbles,
say like in coffee, in a very specific spot.
| | 01:17 | Our next items come from the auto supply store.
| | 01:21 | So here's a mechanic's mirror that
the mechanics use to look in spots in your
| | 01:27 | engine that couldn't normally see.
| | 01:29 | As photographers, we have that happen on
sets where we can, with this mirror, hold
| | 01:35 | it out and see places that we might
have to normally just walk around the set
| | 01:40 | and look at, we can do that from the camera.
| | 01:43 | The other item is a magnet that we
can also use somewhat remotely to pull
| | 01:48 | things off of the set.
| | 01:50 | Over here we have our A-clamps.
| | 01:52 | So there are various sizes of A-clamps
and these are the small size A-clamps.
| | 01:59 | You want to have at least a few of
these in your toolkit at all times.
| | 02:03 | So further on in our toolkit we're going
to see how these A-clamps can help us out.
| | 02:09 | Next on the list is the floral wire.
| | 02:13 | So the floral wire comes in various
gauges and lengths, and I have two examples
| | 02:19 | here, this being a thicker gauge.
| | 02:21 | This would be an example of the kind
of floral wire we would use to create
| | 02:25 | shapes, say, to put a napkin over,
so that it had a flow to it.
| | 02:31 | Our next items are the wooden skewers.
| | 02:33 | Now the wooden skewers we can use to
move things around on our set or to mark a
| | 02:39 | position when we take a
prop in and out of the set.
| | 02:44 | So up next, we have a
variety of spritzer bottles.
| | 02:48 | So having a variety of spritzer bottles
is important because they can give us
| | 02:53 | the ability to create different sized
droplets, say on the side of the glass
| | 02:58 | where we are creating a chill. In
these three I have different mixtures of
| | 03:03 | water mixed in, in this one with
glycerin, with karo syrup, and this has a
| | 03:10 | mixture of water and photoflow.
| | 03:14 | Our next items are the floral frogs.
| | 03:17 | So floral frogs give us the
ability to save space on our set.
| | 03:22 | I can set up these reflector cards
without having to bring in a large stand.
| | 03:29 | Next we have armature wire.
| | 03:32 | So the armature wire does somewhat the
same thing as the floral frog. It gives
| | 03:37 | us the ability to have our set a
little bit more self-contained.
| | 03:42 | So in this case I go to the hardware
store, buy some wire, get some tape, an
| | 03:48 | alligator clip, and I have my new
reflector holder. And here it is in use.
| | 03:56 | You can see that we can sort of move this
around anywhere we want and it will hold itself.
| | 04:02 | So the important thing when looking
for armature wire is that you use a gauge
| | 04:07 | that's thick enough that
it will hold its position.
| | 04:11 | Our next item is the makeup sponges.
| | 04:15 | The makeup sponges give us the ability
to use them as wedges, say underneath a
| | 04:20 | saucer where we need to tip it slightly
towards the camera. And again, those are
| | 04:24 | available at a drugstore.
| | 04:27 | Over here we have the wooden blocks.
| | 04:29 | So wooden blocks, in combination with
real tacky tacky wax, give us the ability
| | 04:36 | to yet have another way to set up a
reflector card and position it on the set
| | 04:41 | without using a light stand. So that's it.
| | 04:45 | In my experience, these are the most
essential items for food photography.
| | 04:49 | If you plan to do lots of food shooting,
you may want to put together a toolkit
| | 04:53 | with items similar as these.
| | 04:55 | Just as we'll be working with different
cameras and lenses, you'll see many of
| | 04:59 | these tools pop up in the shooting
set-ups that we will be working on within the
| | 05:03 | rest of this course.
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| Choosing light reflectors| 00:00 | We included in our studio kit as one
of our essentials reflector cards.
| | 00:04 | Now let's look a bit deeper into the subject.
| | 00:08 | We use reflectors to create spots of light
or to highlight areas that may be too dark.
| | 00:13 | By using reflectors to fill the
shadow side, it actually gives us much more
| | 00:17 | control over the look of the light.
| | 00:20 | We can create pools of light or
tiny specks of light using various
| | 00:23 | reflector types of materials.
| | 00:25 | Mirrored reflectors reflect 100% of the light.
| | 00:29 | So let's look at this.
| | 00:32 | So you can see that this is reflecting 100%
of the pear back into the mirrored surface.
| | 00:39 | And here is an example of that
mirrored surface as it would appear with the
| | 00:44 | lighting that we used in the studio.
| | 00:46 | You can see the highlight has a very
hard look to it and the line separating the
| | 00:50 | highlight from the shadow side is very strong.
| | 00:53 | All right, in our next example, we
are going to use a brush silver.
| | 01:00 | The brush silver will reflect
anywhere from 50% to 70% of the light it
| | 01:05 | sees, but it's going to have a softer, more
diffuse look compared to that mirrored surface.
| | 01:11 | So over here in our examples, you can
see this mirrored surface has now changed
| | 01:16 | into a more diffuse
highlight, giving us those results.
| | 01:20 | Our next one is using a white board.
| | 01:23 | The white board is going to reflect
anywhere from 60% to 75% of the light it
| | 01:28 | sees and also in a diffuse manner.
| | 01:31 | So when we look over here in our
examples, we can see down here the reflection
| | 01:35 | of the white card and it
gives a very diffuse look.
| | 01:39 | The shadow side, as it meets the
highlight area, has a softer transition to it.
| | 01:44 | Our last board that we are going
to talk about is using a blackboard.
| | 01:49 | We can use this blackboard as a subtractive
element to negate any reflection of light.
| | 01:55 | And you can see over here in our last
example, the pear has gone fairly dark,
| | 02:00 | because it's not getting any
light reflected back into it.
| | 02:03 | There is really no limit to what
can be used for reflector materials.
| | 02:07 | Don't feel that you have to buy these items at
either a photo supply house or an art store.
| | 02:13 | Be creative! Have fun with it!
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3. Lighting TechniquesBest practices for lighting direction| 00:00 | Now in this chapter, it's all about lighting.
| | 00:04 | In this movie, we are going to explore
finding the best direction for our light source.
| | 00:08 | The subject of light direction is quite
different from what the quality of light
| | 00:12 | falling on the food will look like,
but it's just as important, and the
| | 00:16 | combination of direction and
quality will make your photo complete.
| | 00:20 | We've created a special studio
environment for this chapter.
| | 00:24 | We have stripped away everything else so
that we can just focus on the direction
| | 00:27 | of light and how it will
behave on our food subject.
| | 00:31 | Even though we do have some house
lights here, we are going to dim them so
| | 00:35 | that we can focus on the photo
lighting that we will be working with.
| | 00:39 | So, let's dim the house
lights and then let's get started.
| | 00:45 | First thing I am going to do is spin
our bulb around and what I'm working with,
| | 00:50 | as far as the light, is a Smith-Victor
daylight-balanced bulb, 500 Watt. And
| | 00:57 | this comes in a lighting kit that has
two of these kinds of lights, the stands,
| | 01:01 | all for about $100, so that you can
get started with this fairly cheap.
| | 01:05 | All right, so I've got my
light right by the camera axis.
| | 01:10 | And this is somewhat going to mimic what
happens when you shoot with flash on a camera.
| | 01:15 | So I am going to take a photo and we
are going to look at it, and what we
| | 01:20 | are going to see is that we see a
highlight, a specular highlight in that
| | 01:25 | apple that's on the left side of the frame.
And the surface of the apple is very shiny;
| | 01:30 | we call that a specular surface.
| | 01:33 | You'll notice when you look at the
surface of the pear that the light has a
| | 01:36 | different feel for it; it's more diffuse.
| | 01:39 | And that's because the
surface of the pear is diffuse.
| | 01:42 | So I put these two things in front of
the camera so you can see how the light
| | 01:46 | reacts to them as we go through this.
| | 01:49 | So even though this is not about the
quality of light, I just want you to start
| | 01:52 | to be aware of what happens with
different surfaces under light.
| | 01:57 | All right, so as we look at this, we
can see that with the light shooting right
| | 02:02 | from the camera axis, it
tends to flatten the subject out.
| | 02:06 | In other words, there is no
real separation of the planes.
| | 02:09 | There is not real separation
in depth. So let's try this.
| | 02:13 | Let's move our light about 45 degrees
off the camera axis to our left.
| | 02:19 | And we are going to take
a frame from this point.
| | 02:22 | And right away, we start to see that we
are able to have a highlight side and we
| | 02:30 | are starting to get a shadow side.
| | 02:32 | So we are creating a light
ratio, highlight to shadow.
| | 02:36 | I am going to force that a little bit more and
bring this light around to 90 degrees to the subject.
| | 02:42 | So as I do this, you will notice on
the photo I am just about to take that
| | 02:49 | we've created more of a
highlight and more shadow.
| | 02:53 | So let's shoot that. And there we go.
| | 02:57 | It starts to look pretty nice.
| | 02:59 | Again, you can see in the surface of
the apple the light that's reflected.
| | 03:04 | That's a specular source on a specular
surface, and compare that with what's
| | 03:09 | happening with the pear.
| | 03:10 | Also look at the highlight as it
runs down the left side of the pear and
| | 03:15 | transfers over into the shadow side;
| | 03:18 | it starts to look pretty nice.
| | 03:20 | We are going to move this light around
to one more position, and this is going to
| | 03:23 | be at about 120 to 130 degrees to the camera.
| | 03:30 | So let's get this over here, and
tip the head back to the subject.
| | 03:37 | All right, let's see what this looks like.
| | 03:40 | Okay, so that looks even better.
| | 03:46 | And one of the reasons why I'm
saying that looks better, even though the
| | 03:49 | contrast, the highlight to shadow ratio,
is quite great?It looks better because
| | 03:55 | I'm going to be able to take fill cards
or reflectors, and put them in here and
| | 03:59 | bounce them into that shadow side.
| | 04:02 | So what this light is doing for me is
it's separating the pear from the apple
| | 04:07 | from the plate from the countertop.
| | 04:09 | So that light, when I move
it around, creates separation.
| | 04:14 | It also helps create depth to
the photograph by doing that.
| | 04:17 | And it gives me a lot more
control over what I can do.
| | 04:21 | All right, lastly I want to
talk about the light height.
| | 04:26 | So I am just going to pick this
up and bring it up over the top.
| | 04:30 | So where we started originally was more
reminiscent of a late afternoon light.
| | 04:36 | That would be probably 4 or 5 o'clock.
| | 04:38 | As I bring this light up higher, you can
see where the shadow starts to move in,
| | 04:44 | become shorter. And that's going to
sort of look like a light you might see in
| | 04:48 | nature anywhere from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
| | 04:52 | So let's put this back down, and again,
what we want to be able to do is to
| | 05:00 | somewhat create a natural
looking light source eventually.
| | 05:04 | And to do that, we want to have the
direction of the light also feel natural.
| | 05:08 | All right, so let's recap and go over a few
of the things that we talked about in our demo.
| | 05:18 | So we want to try to keep the direction
of the light off camera axis, either
| | 05:22 | right or left, anywhere from 90 to 130 degrees.
| | 05:26 | You want to look for separation
between the different planes of the food.
| | 05:30 | And keep in mind that this now will
allow you much more control in how you
| | 05:35 | can create different lighting ratios
between the highlight and the shadow on the food.
| | 05:40 | Okay, now it's your turn. Go give it a try.
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| Creating a specular lighting setup| 00:00 | We're shooting in the studio again to
look at two different main categories of
| | 00:04 | light qualities, specular and diffuse.
| | 00:07 | The simplest way to think about these
two distinct qualities of light is to
| | 00:10 | think how we experience them in nature.
| | 00:13 | Specular would be direct sunlight. Diffuse
would be a cloudy day with no direct sunlight.
| | 00:18 | Of course, there are many variations
of both of these in nature and that
| | 00:22 | transforms to what we can do in our lightning.
| | 00:25 | In this movie, we're going to look at the
qualities of the specular light and how
| | 00:29 | we might want to use them with food photography.
| | 00:32 | You might remember that we discovered
that having the light source 90 to
| | 00:36 | 130 degrees from the camera is going to
give us the most control in drawing the
| | 00:40 | shape for our food images.
| | 00:42 | I've put my light at about 120 degrees to the camera.
| | 00:46 | I've kept it fairly low to get longer
shadows, much like the late sunlight.
| | 00:51 | This position of light gives us
something called edge or rim light.
| | 00:55 | I'm going to modify the light
with a CTO gel or sun gel.
| | 00:59 | This will give the light a feel
of looking like late warm sunlight.
| | 01:04 | You might try using different density of
this gel to achieve the different color
| | 01:08 | temperatures that a setting sun goes through.
| | 01:10 | I like the look of a half CTO and that's
what we're going to wind up using today.
| | 01:14 | All right, so I've already
started by framing this.
| | 01:20 | I've got my strawberry strudel on a
plate, I've already framed it up in the
| | 01:23 | camera, and I'm fairly tight. So what
you're seeing, all of the excess around here,
| | 01:29 | is not really what I'm
looking at through the viewfinder.
| | 01:32 | So let me get a shot off, so that we
can see how this one light without any
| | 01:37 | modification looks at this point.
| | 01:42 | Okay, that actually looks fairly nice.
One of the things that's happening though
| | 01:47 | is that the highlight to shadow
ratio is a little bit too heavy.
| | 01:50 | So I want to put a little fill card
and fill the shadow side to make it a
| | 01:54 | little bit more even.
| | 01:56 | So, I've got a card down here, we'll
just put it up here and fill on the
| | 02:02 | opposite side of our key light.
| | 02:06 | So again, remember, we are putting
this over on this side to help push some
| | 02:10 | light that's coming from our
one source, back into the subject.
| | 02:14 | All right, let's see what this looks like.
| | 02:16 | Okay, that's helped quite a bit. So it's
filling in on the shadow side, and it's
| | 02:23 | giving us a little bit more of a
realistic look as to what the contrast in light
| | 02:28 | would be in the late afternoon.
| | 02:29 | All right, I'm going to come over on
the other side and we're going to do a
| | 02:35 | little modification on this light.
| | 02:38 | So I have a bare bulb in here, and
that is creating a pretty harsh look.
| | 02:43 | I filled it with this, and I want to
modify this by bringing up some glass and
| | 02:51 | putting it in between the light and the subject.
| | 02:55 | I'm not going to include this in the
frame because what I'm really looking for
| | 02:59 | is the pattern of the light going
through the glass and into the plate.
| | 03:03 | and onto the subject.
| | 03:05 | So this is just helping
tell a story a little bit.
| | 03:08 | So you can see as I do this, the
quality of light that happens as it goes
| | 03:13 | through the glass. We are
modifying it and it has a nice feel. Okay.
| | 03:19 | So let's take a look through the
camera. I am going to move this one just
| | 03:25 | slightly back. All right, we'll do a frame.
| | 03:29 | Wow, that looks pretty good.
| | 03:32 | So between the fill card and the
glass I've really started to create a nice
| | 03:36 | feel, but I'm seeing there is a little
bit of darkness in here that I want to
| | 03:41 | create a little bit more pop to.
| | 03:43 | So I'm going to bring up this little
gold reflector card, and you can see that I've
| | 03:49 | got this on some on armature wire so I
can control it, and I'm just going to
| | 03:55 | go back in front to look through the
camera, to make sure I get it in the right
| | 03:59 | spot. And I can see that from right
there, it's bouncing back into this little
| | 04:06 | dark hole, I'm also getting a little bit
of splash from it, onto the side of the
| | 04:10 | plate, which is going to give us a nice look.
| | 04:12 | So let me look at how that looks.
| | 04:15 | Well, that looks nice.
| | 04:17 | All right, let's go and do one other thing here.
| | 04:20 | Now we're going to modify our light source.
| | 04:27 | So before I put this on, this is our
CTO gel, I'm going to look at the clamp,
| | 04:31 | and you'll notice with this particular A-clamp,
I've taken the rubber tips off
| | 04:35 | of it, because this reflector is very hot
and if I left those on, they would just melt.
| | 04:40 | So I'm going to put this on, somewhat carefully,
because again, that reflector is very hot.
| | 04:49 | So just to the eye, you can see how
much that's warmed that up, right away.
| | 04:55 | So, well, before I do our final frame,
I'm going to come in here and do a little
| | 05:00 | bit a touch up with some oil,
right onto the specular surfaces of the
| | 05:04 | strawberry, so that's going to catch
our specular light source and give us some
| | 05:10 | really nice little highlights.
| | 05:12 | So what makes this look fresh is the
reflection of those specular highlights in
| | 05:19 | the strawberry jam itself.
| | 05:22 | So we have a strudel that has a
diffuse surface--that's the dough, and a
| | 05:27 | specular surface--that's the strawberry jam.
| | 05:29 | All right, so we're ready for our frame. Wow!
| | 05:35 | That looks yummy, and you know what,
I did that with just one light.
| | 05:40 | For the lighting in this movie,
I've used lights from a Smith-Victor
| | 05:44 | lighting kit that you can buy for
about a $100. That includes the
| | 05:48 | reflector, stands, and bulbs.
| | 05:50 | So it shows you that you don't have
to spend a ton of money to improve your
| | 05:53 | food photography, but what I did do,
that I'll encourage you to do, is to
| | 05:58 | always use the equipment that you buy
in a different way. Don't just use it
| | 06:03 | straight out of the box.
| | 06:05 | Develop your own secret sauce in lighting.
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| Creating a diffuse lighting setup| 00:00 | We're back in our shooting
studio again, this time to look at the light
| | 00:03 | qualities of diffuse lighting.
| | 00:05 | We've already looked at the qualities
of some basic specular lighting and have
| | 00:09 | seen how that could work
in creating a certain look.
| | 00:13 | Remember, specular light is similar to
the quality of direct sunlight, and now
| | 00:17 | we're going to look at diffuse
light which has the general quality of a
| | 00:21 | cloudy or overcast day.
| | 00:23 | Diffuse lighting can be
created many different ways.
| | 00:27 | One way is to take a specular light
source and then modify it by placing some
| | 00:31 | type of diffusion
material in front of the light.
| | 00:34 | This modifier can be anything
from a shower curtain to a commercially
| | 00:38 | produced diffusion material.
| | 00:41 | Yet another way to produce diffuse
light is to turn the specular light source
| | 00:45 | away from the subject and bounce it
into something, such as a wall or a
| | 00:50 | piece of foam core.
| | 00:51 | Now we have diffuse lighting
created by indirect lighting.
| | 00:55 | So let's take a look at a
couple of these options.
| | 00:58 | Now I've already brought in and
framed up my strawberry strudel, and you can
| | 01:04 | also see I'm using a peeling painted
piece of wood backdrop, and I have our
| | 01:10 | specular light source, which again is
our Smith Victor with a 500-watt daylight-
| | 01:15 | balanced bulb on it.
| | 01:16 | So our lighting is pretty contrasty
and it's very specular. So when we look
| | 01:22 | at the surfaces that we're going to
be photographing, we have a specular
| | 01:26 | surface--that's the plate--we have a
mixed surface of specular and diffuse in
| | 01:32 | our strawberry strudel.
| | 01:34 | So the strawberry jam part of it is a
specular surface and the dough part is a
| | 01:39 | diffuse surface. So let's take a
frame of this and take a look at it.
| | 01:45 | Okay, so our light's a little bit
harsh, and what we want to do is soften this
| | 01:53 | up to where it might look
like indirect window light.
| | 01:57 | So what I'm going to do first is take
a piece of quarter-inch plexi and I'm
| | 02:03 | going to slide that in between our
light source and our subject. And what this
| | 02:10 | does is it takes our specular source
and it spreads out this point light source
| | 02:16 | into what looks like more of a
windowpane, a frosted windowpane.
| | 02:21 | And now when we look at the strawberry
in the strudel we can see that the little
| | 02:26 | mirrored speculars have disappeared,
and we get this very smooth highlight,
| | 02:31 | created by the reflection
of this onto the strawberry.
| | 02:35 | So let's take a look and see how this
looks. We'll get a frame of this and that
| | 02:42 | looks really pretty nice.
| | 02:44 | One of the things I want to do is use a
little crinkled gold material, and this
| | 02:50 | is going to give me a little bit of
specular reflection back into the strawberry,
| | 02:55 | and it's also going to fill a little
bit of the darkness up here in the front.
| | 02:58 | So I'm going to place this in here,
and I'll look through the camera when I
| | 03:02 | do it, about right there, and
we'll take a frame there. And that looks
| | 03:10 | really pretty nice.
| | 03:11 | Now I'm not going to use this large
fill because that would overdo it, so we're
| | 03:16 | just going to put that back over here.
I have it here just incase I needed it.
| | 03:20 | All right, so let's take a look at
another option, and this time I'm going to
| | 03:24 | pull out the plexi. And we're going to
take our specular light source and just
| | 03:33 | spin it around, and we're going to use it
bounced off of this piece of foam core.
| | 03:38 | I'm also going to move this light a
little bit forward, like this, and that
| | 03:44 | gives me the ability now to
feather this light off the foam core.
| | 03:48 | Now, this might be a wall at your
house, or it could be any other type of
| | 03:53 | reflective surface.
| | 03:55 | If I wanted to warm this up a little
bit, I could take a piece of gold material
| | 03:59 | and stretch that over the piece of
white foam core, but I'm just going to leave
| | 04:03 | it like this for our photo.
| | 04:05 | So you can see I can have sort of
infinite possibilities of feathering this
| | 04:09 | light on this foam core.
| | 04:11 | So I'm going to find a little sweet spot
here, so it's going to hit here and
| | 04:16 | then bounce over to our subject.
| | 04:18 | So let's take a look at that,
and that looks pretty good.
| | 04:27 | I'm going to add a little bit of
freshness to this by taking our little bottle
| | 04:32 | of oil and brushing on--
food photographer's friend--
| | 04:37 | a little bit of oil onto the surface
here to make this look a little bit
| | 04:41 | fresher. So remember that the specular
surfaces usually would require a diffuse
| | 04:49 | kind of light. That's sort of one of
the general rules that we would go by.
| | 04:54 | And the opposite, a diffuse
surface can use a specular kind of light.
| | 04:59 | All right, so I'm going to move this in
here because our light is a little bit--
| | 05:04 | needing some fill on this side and
again I'm going to be using our gold
| | 05:09 | crinkled reflector.
| | 05:12 | We'll put that in, and we'll take another
frame, and that looks really pretty nice.
| | 05:19 | You know, we've talked about certain
rules for using specular light on diffuse
| | 05:23 | surfaces and diffuse light on specular surfaces.
| | 05:28 | But you know, the rules are meant to be broken,
even in food photography, so try both
| | 05:33 | specular and diffuse lighting.
| | 05:35 | And as we continue on in this course,
you'll see both types of light being used
| | 05:40 | in a variety of situations.
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|
|
4. Setting Up the ShotComposing a point of view: Profile or overhead| 00:00 | One of the first things we need to
consider when setting up the shot is where
| | 00:04 | is the camera? What's our point of view?
| | 00:07 | This is an important
decision, as it helps tell the story.
| | 00:11 | We previously talked about a graphic
approach versus an emotional approach as a
| | 00:16 | starting point in setting up our shot
and establishing that point of view.
| | 00:20 | It's important to stay flexible in
thinking about point of view and explore
| | 00:24 | other possibilities as we
look through the viewfinder.
| | 00:27 | In this example, I started with a
higher point of view because I thought the
| | 00:31 | subject lent itself to a more graphic approach.
| | 00:34 | The graphic approach emphasizes
line, shape, color, and texture.
| | 00:40 | Looking through the viewfinder, I
noticed a small detail, that the dollop
| | 00:45 | itself became compressed.
| | 00:48 | However when I dropped the point of view
to a lower position, I found the light
| | 00:53 | hitting the subject
became much more descriptive.
| | 00:57 | So you can see the light as it hits the
chocolate and becomes more descriptive,
| | 01:02 | and you can also see how the dollop itself
separates itself out from the rest of the story.
| | 01:07 | It may seem obvious, but take the time
to pay attention to the details that your
| | 01:13 | point of view gives you.
| | 01:14 | It's the small differences within
that point of view that can make the big
| | 01:18 | difference between a good and great image.
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| Finding creative backgrounds| 00:00 | Even in the simplest of
setups, the background is a key element.
| | 00:04 | The background helps set the stage and
also is a way for us as photographers to
| | 00:09 | express our individual styles and tastes.
| | 00:12 | Backgrounds can come in from all types of
materials: paper, wood, plastic, metal, even dirt.
| | 00:19 | Here are some that I brought in today.
| | 00:21 | From a skateboard deck, torn paper bag,
a piece of old metal, and a piece of found wood.
| | 00:32 | All of these have the advantage of being cheap.
| | 00:36 | In advertising, backgrounds have a
tendency to be more clean and proper, while in
| | 00:40 | editorial work we can be a
little bit more adventurous.
| | 00:44 | We can break backgrounds down
into three general categories.
| | 00:48 | First, environmental. An example would
be shooting in a restaurant where we
| | 00:53 | see part of the environment out of focus in
the background, and it helps tell the story.
| | 00:58 | Second, stylistic:
| | 01:01 | a setting that you most likely
would not find in our everyday life.
| | 01:05 | For our studio example, I brought in a
torn piece of bag, put that underneath a
| | 01:11 | plate that has a couple of croissants
on it, and surrounded that with some sheer
| | 01:15 | curtain. This gives us a very nice
stylistic approach to this little scene.
| | 01:21 | This style is used quite often in
editorial work and offers the most
| | 01:25 | creative direction.
| | 01:26 | Our last category is called limbo.
| | 01:29 | This is where the subject is isolated
on white or some other nondescript value.
| | 01:34 | We could see this used
quite a bit in catalog work.
| | 01:38 | Sometimes the best backgrounds are the
ones that we find in someone's backyard
| | 01:42 | or in an alley. Don't be afraid to use those.
| | 01:44 | Here is an example from my neighbor's
backyard where his house is being demoed,
| | 01:51 | and I saw this old piece of wood with
peeling paint and knew this is going to
| | 01:55 | be a great background.
| | 01:56 | Here's the results of using that, with
some organic radishes and putting that
| | 02:02 | against the texture of the peeling
paint and the beautiful old wood.
| | 02:07 | Backgrounds also offer us
the opportunity to be creative.
| | 02:11 | As an example, here are two found objects,
an old piece of wood and a bunch of old
| | 02:18 | leaves, that I put together with some
spray adhesive on this board to create a
| | 02:23 | really beautiful stylistic background.
| | 02:26 | So don't be afraid to explore the
unexpected and combine elements to create your
| | 02:30 | own unique backgrounds.
| | 02:32 | However, as a photographer, you need to
consider how the background element fits
| | 02:37 | into your overall concept and
does not become the subject.
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| Styling napkins, tablecloths, and utensils| 00:00 | Another element where we can add a
little bit of our own personality is in the
| | 00:04 | styling of the objects around the food.
| | 00:07 | When we are photographing food at a
restaurant or in the studio we can create
| | 00:12 | a little bit more storytelling by what we
do with the napkin, tablecloth, and utensils.
| | 00:18 | This could also be extended to the
rest of the objects on the table, but the
| | 00:22 | ones that are most commonly in
view are the napkins and utensils.
| | 00:26 | In this movie, we're going to look at
some of the techniques for styling that can
| | 00:31 | help you improve your food photography.
| | 00:34 | With napkins, it's important to use ones that
are iron or steamed and do not have creases.
| | 00:40 | So let's take a look at a few things.
| | 00:42 | Here is one that hasn't been ironed or
steamed, and you can see that that's not
| | 00:47 | going to be very appealing when
we have that in our photograph.
| | 00:50 | So let's look at some options to that.
| | 00:54 | So here we have a napkin that has
been steamed and iron, and you can see it
| | 00:59 | renders really nicely.
| | 01:01 | So our photograph of the croissant on the
plate with the napkin would go really well.
| | 01:05 | We could also just move this around,
putting that under the plate itself, to help
| | 01:12 | create a little bit more design interest.
| | 01:14 | All right, so we've got that shot. Let's move
on to something a little bit more exciting.
| | 01:20 | Let's take this napkin and we're going
to twirl it and play with a little bit to
| | 01:24 | try and create a little bit more of
an interesting shape and the look of
| | 01:29 | spontaneity to our image.
| | 01:31 | So what I'm doing is just taking and
playing with the lines of the napkin, running
| | 01:36 | it under the plate, trying to get the
curves to make the eye follow and at the
| | 01:41 | same time keep the viewer locked in on the
center of interest. So that's a good option.
| | 01:49 | Our last option that we want to talk
about is working with the armature wire.
| | 01:53 | So the armature wire, we discussed
previously, is being used here under the napkin
| | 01:58 | to help create this shape.
| | 02:00 | So let me just pull this back, but
first, let me move this over, and again you
| | 02:05 | can see how with this point of view we
are able to place our napkin under it,
| | 02:12 | and we can actually shape the napkin the way
we want with that armature wire underneath it.
| | 02:17 | Okay, so let's take a look at how that
was done. And you can see that I just used
| | 02:22 | some double-sided tape and
also those little makeup sponges.
| | 02:30 | The thing that I do is to try
and make this look very natural and
| | 02:33 | spontaneous. This is something that
you can do easily on location with a
| | 02:37 | little bit of practice.
| | 02:39 | Now let's switch over and look at some utensils.
| | 02:42 | I'm going to slide this in here.
| | 02:52 | For utensils, we want to keep things
natural and spontaneous; we don't have to
| | 02:57 | have everything lined up all the time.
| | 02:59 | We will use them as a design element
and work them into the storytelling.
| | 03:04 | There are some angles that will look
better than others, so let's take a look at
| | 03:08 | what we have in front of us.
| | 03:10 | So we have a nice setting and if our
food was here, we would be ready to shoot.
| | 03:15 | Everything is lined up
really nicely, and we get our shot.
| | 03:19 | But let's push things a little bit
further. We want to go back to that "how can
| | 03:23 | we get this to look a little bit
more natural and spontaneous?" idea.
| | 03:27 | So if I take the fork and I use it to
break this line of the plate, it will help
| | 03:34 | make this look a little bit
more spontaneous and natural.
| | 03:38 | The next thing that we can do, as we're
looking through our viewfinder on the
| | 03:41 | camera, is start to move this fork
around into different positions.
| | 03:45 | Now in this case I'm laying the fork
all the way on the top of the plate.
| | 03:49 | So again, I'm breaking the shape of it.
That's going to also help the viewer stay
| | 03:54 | focused on the food.
| | 03:56 | So looking through the viewfinder, we
would move this around to different
| | 03:59 | positions on the clock. And if we
needed to, we could use a little double-sided
| | 04:05 | tape to hold this in position.
So we're just going to move it around to
| | 04:08 | different positions and find
a really sweet spot for it.
| | 04:12 | One other things that I would really
suggest that you look at, and maybe
| | 04:17 | stay away from, is when you have the fork
right side up, this can catch a lot of reflections.
| | 04:23 | So you want to be aware of what's
happening on the surface of this fork.
| | 04:27 | Now if there was a little bit of food on this,
this could conceivably work in this direction.
| | 04:32 | All right the last thing that I want to
look at is looking at stacked utensils and
| | 04:38 | how to make them look a
little bit more interesting.
| | 04:41 | So we could just shoot the stack of
spoons stacked up, but I think when we fan
| | 04:46 | these out they becomes a little bit
more descriptive and little bit more
| | 04:50 | interesting to our design.
| | 04:53 | So when working with your shot, think
about how you can make the elements, such as
| | 04:57 | the napkin and utensils, be more of the story.
| | 05:00 | Don't be afraid to go further with
these elements and push past what you might
| | 05:05 | think is too far in styling;
| | 05:07 | you might be surprised at the results.
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| Adding props to a set| 00:00 | The topic of props for your food
photos could be a whole course within itself.
| | 00:05 | There is so much to look at and talk
about and take in when thinking about
| | 00:08 | props for your images.
| | 00:10 | I think this is also one of the
more individual aspects of the food
| | 00:14 | photographer, your choice of props.
| | 00:16 | The question is, where do we start
when thinking about where and what kind of
| | 00:21 | props do we want to use in our photo?
| | 00:23 | First of all, I'd want to define what we
were talking about when we refer to props.
| | 00:28 | To me, it would cover the following:
utensils, napkins, tablecloths, dishware
| | 00:33 | which covers all types of sizes and
colors, and various types of glasses,
| | 00:38 | whether for water or drink, cooking utensils,
condiment dispensers. On and on and on it goes.
| | 00:43 | You can see by what we brought in here
today, this is just an endless topic.
| | 00:47 | Where do these props come from,
and do we have to buy them new?
| | 00:52 | The answer to that question is yes and no.
| | 00:55 | Some of the best props that you
will have come down from your family,
| | 00:59 | things like this that I got from my family.
| | 01:01 | So I've used these both in the
foreground and the background,
| | 01:05 | and they have a lot of
storytelling quality to them.
| | 01:09 | Props do not have to be new. In fact,
having props that are not perfect helps in
| | 01:14 | your storytelling qualities.
| | 01:16 | It's not to say that you won't want to
visit the specialty cooking stores to buy
| | 01:20 | new perfect-looking props.
| | 01:22 | But going to thrift stores or
estate sales can be very rewarding, and
| | 01:27 | it's also a lot of fun.
| | 01:29 | Now here is a couple of tips that I
think that are more specific to start
| | 01:33 | with about propping.
| | 01:34 | So first, we are going to
discuss the color palette.
| | 01:37 | So get your color
wheel out and start looking at it.
| | 01:40 | So we are going to start with our green
placemat, and I am going to take one of
| | 01:44 | these dishes and put it over here.
| | 01:47 | And let's just to take a look at it
for a second and talk about some of
| | 01:50 | the attributes of this.
| | 01:52 | So we have the green, which works
pretty well with the yellow in here.
| | 01:56 | When we get to the inner part of this
plate where we have some blue in it, that
| | 02:01 | really conflicts with the
green, as far as color harmony.
| | 02:04 | So this plate really wouldn't be
the best choice with this background.
| | 02:09 | Let's talk about our utensil for a second.
| | 02:11 | So the style of this utensil does not work
really well with this particular kind of plate.
| | 02:17 | This style of utensil may work well with
this because of the color values. Again,
| | 02:22 | referring back to the color wheel,
this is going to work pretty well.
| | 02:26 | So let's take this away and bring
in another option with this plate.
| | 02:32 | And we can see right away, the
color makes a lot more sense.
| | 02:38 | When we add in the utensil we have, we
can see that this style works with this
| | 02:42 | plate and this background mat.
| | 02:44 | So together now, we've got something
that is more uniform and really well styled.
| | 02:50 | All right, so let's this out, and
let's talk about this dish for a second.
| | 03:00 | So we have this dish which is a
nice-looking dish with our pastry on it,
| | 03:04 | and we are using this either in the
foreground or the background of our photo,
| | 03:09 | but we want to create a
little bit of more interest to it.
| | 03:11 | So I am going to take a couple of more
dishes and stack this on it, bring it in
| | 03:16 | here, square it up, and that looks pretty nice.
| | 03:19 | It gives us a nice edge here, a little
more depth to it, a little bit more height,
| | 03:23 | so that looks good.
| | 03:25 | Well, let's go one step further and fan
these out. So again, what this does is
| | 03:30 | it gets us into a little bit
more of a storytelling quality.
| | 03:34 | Okay, so let's look at cups for the background.
| | 03:39 | Let's just say our cup is in the
background and it's a single cup.
| | 03:42 | Now remember, this is all out of focus
in the background, so we're not seeing a lot
| | 03:46 | of detail. It's all about the shape.
| | 03:48 | So we have this shape in the background,
and our photo looks good, but we want to
| | 03:53 | try maybe to push it a little bit,
get a little bit more of the story.
| | 03:57 | Well, what if we bring in another cup,
and again we are sort of replicating what
| | 04:01 | we did with the dishes--we are
creating a different kind of shape back there.
| | 04:06 | Remember, this is out of
focus in the background.
| | 04:08 | All right, so I think with this, it's
another way that we can sort of use our
| | 04:13 | props to our advantage.
| | 04:15 | Something to also think about, in terms
of props, can be random sheer cloth or
| | 04:20 | curtain-type material.
| | 04:22 | And I would like to demonstrate how we
can combine some of these elements together.
| | 04:27 | So let me take this out of the way
and we will bring in our little mini set
| | 04:33 | here, just slide it in.
And let's talk about this for a second.
| | 04:41 | We can use a piece of sheer material
in combination with, say, our old rough
| | 04:46 | piece of wood, and it will break up the texture.
| | 04:49 | So when we look at the material compared
to the texture, it's sort of a contrast
| | 04:54 | between rough and something a
little bit more soft and smooth.
| | 04:58 | Also, with this material, I can lay it
over the plate and help drive the viewer
| | 05:05 | to what I want the viewer to look at,
| | 05:06 | keep their attention onto the
pastry, onto my whole little scene here.
| | 05:11 | So now that we have a little
mini-set consisting of our old wood, sheer
| | 05:15 | curtain material, and our pastry dish,
I have a nicely arranged set that's
| | 05:20 | ready for lighting.
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|
|
5. Styling and Shooting FoodStaging cereal on a spoon| 00:00 | In this chapter, I'm working with
Claire Stancer, a food stylist whom I've worked
| | 00:04 | with for many years.
| | 00:06 | Claire is going to show us a few
situations over the next few movies where you
| | 00:10 | might want to have a food stylist on set.
| | 00:13 | In this course we've been exploring
many ways of styling and shooting for the
| | 00:17 | food photographer, but now let's stop
and take a look at what a photographer
| | 00:21 | does when we need the help in producing
something beyond our own capabilities.
| | 00:26 | Sometimes there are times that we
need a food stylist to help make the food
| | 00:31 | perfect for the camera.
| | 00:33 | You'd find this to be done in advertising,
packaging design, cookbooks, and editorial.
| | 00:39 | So our first setup looks
simple, a spoon full of cereal.
| | 00:43 | So why do I need a food stylist
to help put cereal on the spoon?
| | 00:48 | Let's look at this before and after, and
you'll see a big difference between the two.
| | 00:54 | Before we move ahead, I just wanted to
take a look at our little set that we put
| | 00:58 | together, and you'll notice the
C-stand that has my spoon attached to it
| | 01:03 | so that the spoon is going to be
stable the whole time I'm shooting.
| | 01:06 | Also, instead of bringing in another C-
stand with a reflector, I'm just using some
| | 01:11 | armature wire with my little alligator
clip at the front of it, so this gives me
| | 01:16 | a lot of control, very tight in.
| | 01:19 | My frame is very tight on the end of
the spoon, and I'm using our macro lens.
| | 01:24 | All right, so let's get started.
| | 01:27 | Claire, do you want to show us what the cereal
looks like when it just comes out of the bowl?
| | 01:34 | Okay, let's take a look at that, and
maybe explain why we would need you to
| | 01:40 | help us create that.
| | 01:41 | Claire Stancer: Well if you will notice here that
the cereal is kind of soggy. The milk is
| | 01:46 | kind of translucent. It's got a natural
and casual feel, but why we're doing it
| | 01:51 | the way I do it is because
there's staying power. Here
| | 01:54 | it just looks soggy and old, and it
doesn't give Bill whole lot of time to short
| | 01:58 | of capture and rework a shot willy-nilly.
| | 02:01 | Bill: So when we're done with what Claire is
going to do, we'll be able to shoot for many
| | 02:07 | hours without having a problem
with the cereal looking old and soggy.
| | 02:12 | So let's start with what
you have setup over here.
| | 02:15 | Claire: I have a lot of cereal which I've
sprayed with a fabric-resistant product.
| | 02:21 | And the reason I do that is is because
what it does is it give staying power to
| | 02:26 | this cereal so that the milk-like
products that I'm using don't absorb in.
| | 02:32 | You'll notice in the spoon that
there is a vegetable kind of hydrogenated
| | 02:37 | shortening, and the reason that I use
that is it gives me the ability to take
| | 02:42 | perfect circles and then set them up
with angles, so that Bill has the option, and
| | 02:49 | I do, to give the illusion of a
looseness to our cereal product, but that we
| | 02:57 | have the ability to hold different angles.
| | 03:00 | Sometimes instead of this vegetable
hydrogenated product, I use a paddy-
| | 03:05 | like product, like this.
| | 03:08 | And it also gives me the ability to
move these little blueberries, or cereal, in
| | 03:16 | the way that I like.
| | 03:17 | You'll notice that the blueberries have
a perfect helix to them and a nice bloom.
| | 03:23 | One of the reasons is is that I've
sorted through for perfect blueberries, as
| | 03:27 | I've done for the cereal.
| | 03:29 | I'm looking for shapes that appeal to me,
that give a natural-but-perfect look
| | 03:37 | to what we're doing.
| | 03:38 | Bill: So I just want to mention that
I'm looking through the camera and it will
| | 03:42 | give Claire some direction, but she's
also going to look through the viewfinder
| | 03:45 | herself because she wants to see and make
sure that what she's applying is perfect.
| | 03:50 | Claire: Do you see any changes
that I might want to put in here?
| | 03:54 | Bill: I think we need to turn this
guy a little bit away from the camera.
| | 03:58 | Bill: Oh, that looks good.
| | 03:59 | Bill: Yeah, and maybe just one more
right in the back to break the line up in the
| | 04:04 | back, and I think we're good.
| | 04:06 | Now we can go onto the next
stage, right, which is the milk.
| | 04:11 | Claire: All right, okay.
Bill: Okay, let's do that.
| | 04:13 | Claire: So I have a couple of
different products that I use. I use a yogurt.
| | 04:19 | Now you will notice that this one is
sort of a yellower white, and this is a
| | 04:24 | vanilla yogurt that's been mixed with
cream, so that it's made to a consistency
| | 04:28 | that I like, so it'll hold its shape and
not absorb into the cereal, but it gives
| | 04:33 | sort of a warmer white.
| | 04:34 | Sometimes I use glue, and it's a nice
light white that I like, a blue-white, but
| | 04:41 | today and most often my preference
is a hair grooming product I use.
| | 04:46 | I've putted in an eyedropper that
appeals to me so that I have control as I'm
| | 04:50 | spritzing it through, and
whenever you're ready, okay.
| | 04:53 | Bill: Okay, let's go ahead and put some down.
| | 04:56 | Oh, that's a good spot
right in there, it's great.
| | 05:00 | So coming more towards you and
then between the berry and the cereal.
| | 05:05 | That's good. Nice, pretty.
Here, take a look.
| | 05:09 | Claire: Okay, great.
Bill: Looks good?
| | 05:13 | Claire: Yeah.
Bill: Okay, let me get one good little real frame here.
| | 05:17 | So before we stop, let's
just push this a little bit.
| | 05:20 | Do you think you can get a drip for me?
| | 05:22 | Claire: Sure, let me see, let me
push right there. Okay, there we go.
| | 05:26 | Bill: It goes.
Claire: Beautiful!
| | 05:27 | Bill: Come on drip. It's going.
Claire: More?
| | 05:32 | Bill: Just a little bit more. Oh, wow!
| | 05:37 | That was perfect.
| | 05:38 | All right, that's great Claire.
| | 05:41 | The cereal looks ready to eat, but
I think I'm going to take a pass.
| | 05:45 | It always amazes me what
our food stylists can do.
| | 05:48 | So now I can spend hours shooting
this spoon and the cereal will never get
| | 05:53 | soggy or look old.
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| Preparing ingredients for a salad| 00:00 | For this movie, I want to show you,
with our food stylist, Claire Stancer, what
| | 00:05 | to look for when you put salad ingredients
together from the store or farmers' market.
| | 00:10 | Having fresh ingredients is the
key to making your salad, or any food
| | 00:14 | photography, look great.
| | 00:15 | So before we put our salad together,
here are some tips on want to look for.
| | 00:20 | Okay Claire, let's see what
you brought in from the store.
| | 00:23 | Claire: Okay, well, I think the idea is to
either go to a farmers' market if you have
| | 00:29 | one handy and it's convenient, or to a
high-end grocery store, because what you
| | 00:33 | get is flawless vegetables.
| | 00:35 | In this case, there is beautiful
radishes. They look like they've just
| | 00:40 | been pulled from the garden with these stems.
The leaves are fresh. The color is uniform.
| | 00:44 | Next, I'm going to our onions.
The little red onions that I brought are really
| | 00:48 | tight--that's how you
know that an onion is fresh.
| | 00:52 | If I was to cut this onion, the
circles inside would be really tight and
| | 00:57 | very deep in color.
| | 00:59 | I'm going to go next to my frisee
lettuce, which is this unusual lettuce here
| | 01:05 | that looks like it was
just pulled from a garden.
| | 01:09 | It's beautiful, it's fresh. I could put
it in some fresh ice water and it would
| | 01:15 | give it some new life.
| | 01:17 | I love the watercress because it still
hanging together. It's hydroponic, so
| | 01:22 | it's still tied by its roots. And if I
was to pull it off, because it's living,
| | 01:27 | each leaf in its entirety is beautiful.
| | 01:30 | I love to shop for herbs at the
nursery, because as you pull them off, they
| | 01:36 | looks so different than when you get
them at the grocery store. Look here, how
| | 01:41 | beautiful each individual leaf of this bud is.
| | 01:45 | The raspberries over here, here is what a
raspberry looks like when you pull it off.
| | 01:50 | This is how it emerges.
This little thing comes up.
| | 01:54 | Now this raspberry here is not perfect
because the center is not perfect, even
| | 01:59 | though the little buds are beautiful.
| | 02:01 | On the other hand, what we're looking
for is this simple yet perfect little
| | 02:07 | circle and the buds around it, all uniform.
| | 02:11 | I'm looking for the same thing with
the blackberries. I'm looking for a nice
| | 02:17 | little center hole, and then all
these little buds around it to be even in
| | 02:22 | color, not too dark, and perfect.
| | 02:25 | Similarly, the blueberries over here,
it's this tight little helix, which is the
| | 02:31 | center little tight thing here and the
white bloom that's on the blueberry is
| | 02:36 | what shows you that a blueberry is fresh.
| | 02:38 | I have these perfect farmers' market
fresh tomatoes over here, but you'll notice
| | 02:45 | that this little green helix is dried.
I love that look, but you could also take
| | 02:52 | it off and put it in some ice water to
refresh itself, and then put it back on
| | 02:56 | with the pin if you want to.
| | 02:58 | Notice the beautiful array of colors,
some orange tomatoes, some yellow, some
| | 03:02 | teardrop, some pear, and then here I
have a hydroponic set of tomatoes that
| | 03:08 | are still attached to the vine.
I would cut them off individually and look at
| | 03:13 | the uniformness of the color, the perfect shape.
| | 03:17 | Over here I have some mesculin lettuce,
which is a grouping of different baby
| | 03:21 | lettuces all put together.
| | 03:23 | I love to put them in some ice water
just before, maybe an hour to twenty minutes
| | 03:28 | before, so that they regain
that life that they once had.
| | 03:31 | Bill: So if you were planning the shot,
say the day before, you wouldn't leave this
| | 03:36 | in the ice water the night before.
| | 03:39 | Claire: No, I like to put it in maybe an
hour. You could put it in the fridge in
| | 03:42 | some nice cold water, maybe twenty minutes in
some ice water, just until it gets that life.
| | 03:48 | If you were to leave it in overnight,
it gets that wilted kind of moldy look
| | 03:52 | again, so it's really just everything needs
to look like it just came from the garden.
| | 03:57 | Bill: Yeah, great!
All that's great to know.
| | 04:00 | Now we're really ready to put
a great salad shot together.
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| Creating different looks with a salad| 00:00 | I'm working with Claire Stancer,
our food stylist, to create a salad shot
| | 00:04 | that looks like it took place on a kitchen
counter with some window light as our light source.
| | 00:09 | We're going to get two looks out of our
salad, one that will be fairly static and
| | 00:14 | the other that'll have a little
bit more call to action, a drizzle.
| | 00:17 | I've set up my lighting to capture
a certain feel for the light, late-
| | 00:22 | afternoon direct light.
| | 00:23 | So let me go over what
I've done with our lighting.
| | 00:26 | So I have a strobe light that's off
camera over here to the left, and it's using
| | 00:31 | the direct head to give the feel of
direct sunlight coming in on our countertop.
| | 00:36 | So I've got a little stand in, and I'm
just going to test the lighting right
| | 00:41 | now, one more time. And I'm looking at
it to see what our lighting ratio looks
| | 00:48 | like, and I can see our
light's a little bit harsh.
| | 00:50 | So I'm going to pull in a little fill
card, and I'm going to use our mirrored
| | 00:55 | surface fill card and see how that works. Okay.
| | 00:59 | Okay, so that's a little bit of an
overfill, a little bit hot, so I'm going to
| | 01:09 | bring in just our white card, which
should soften that look a little bit. And I
| | 01:14 | think this is going to work pretty nicely.
| | 01:16 | All right, so that's going to
give us that feel of the light.
| | 01:23 | So now I'm going to have Claire
talk to you about building the salad.
| | 01:26 | Claire: Well, we started out with a fork
that's already in place, and it's held with
| | 01:30 | that tacky tack that I love to use, just
so that I can build around. And we have
| | 01:35 | a spray atomizer here in case we need
to have our ingredients sort of livened
| | 01:40 | up. It's some cool water
that we can use at all times.
| | 01:44 | I've sliced some radishes into some
water with this mandolin here, I've cut some
| | 01:50 | red onions into some cute little wedge,
and I have some sliced cherry tomatoes.
| | 01:56 | We've started out with our little stand
in, upon which I'm going to build from
| | 02:01 | the back of the camera,
| | 02:03 | just to give it some height. But I
like to look through the back of the
| | 02:07 | camera as I'm going, just to see how
everything is, because it really, that's a
| | 02:13 | different vision, a different visual than if
we were to do it just set up from the front.
| | 02:18 | I'm just going to use some
watercress leaves now, randomly placed,
| | 02:22 | maybe one this way, maybe another
this way. It's about the beauty of each
| | 02:30 | individual leaf in this case,
because through that, that's what gives so
| | 02:36 | much life to the salad.
| | 02:37 | Bill: So also you're seeing Claire look
through the viewfinder of the camera,
| | 02:42 | and working with a food stylist, that's
very common that we work as a team. So
| | 02:47 | it's not just me, the photographer, looking
through the camera directing the food stylist.
| | 02:52 | So she is using her own judgment, and
then I'm sort of looking through and
| | 02:57 | seeing, do we need to tweak that?
| | 02:58 | Claire: I am thinking of putting a
little bit of a red here on the left from the
| | 03:03 | radish, and I'm using the tacky tack to
hold it up so that we can get some light
| | 03:09 | coming through the back, and it gives
me the opportunity of having it be a
| | 03:14 | little bit more vertical.
| | 03:16 | Bill: Okay, let me just grab a frame there.
Claire: Okay.
| | 03:19 | Claire: Now I'm thinking of putting a little red
onion. Where do you think that should go?
| | 03:24 | Bill: Maybe right back over
here on the right hand side.
| | 03:27 | Claire: Okay, let's try that
over here, maybe another over here.
| | 03:36 | Bill: So take a look when you put that down.
| | 03:38 | Claire: Yeah, it's got a casual feel, but
I feel like we need something in and around
| | 03:43 | here. I have a perfect little leaf.
| | 03:47 | Bill: So I'm shooting with a macro lens
again, so I have a shallow depth of field,
| | 03:52 | and the tomatoes that you see on the
countertop go out of focus, and so all of
| | 03:57 | our focus is really right here,
right where the fork is. That draws your
| | 04:02 | Bill: attention and keeps you right there.
Claire: Okay. I think that's good.
| | 04:05 | Bill: Okay, so let me just
get a frame right here. Okay.
| | 04:11 | So that sort of gets our static shot--
nice, clean, all the ingredients
| | 04:16 | showing--and now Claire is going to add a
little bit of drizzle, which is a salad dressing.
| | 04:20 | Claire: Okay, we're going to drizzle some
salad dressing just to give the feel as if
| | 04:25 | you're already there.
| | 04:27 | We'll put a little bit of salad
dressing, at which point I'm also going to spill
| | 04:31 | some pepper in those same areas.
It makes you feel as if the dressing is fully
| | 04:38 | dressed, even though you've only
placed it in a few small areas, like that.
| | 04:47 | Let me take a look.
| | 04:49 | Yeah there's one really big peppercorn
right here that we need to get rid of.
| | 04:54 | Bill: It looks nice, it's great!
| | 04:58 | Claire: Well okay, let's have them close a little bit more, okay.
Bill: Take a look.
| | 05:02 | Claire: Lovely.
Bill: Okay.
| | 05:05 | Bill: So let me get a fill shot of this. Beautiful!
| | 05:09 | Okay let's try one other thing and
push this a little bit further, and I just
| | 05:13 | want to capture the salad dressing
coming down out of your applicator,
| | 05:18 | without seeing that. So you're going
to start up here and I'm going to--
| | 05:21 | Claire: How am I up here,
is this good? Bill: Right!
| | 05:23 | That is good, okay, go!
| | 05:28 | So that's one of the advantages of
shooting with strobe is that I can stop the
| | 05:31 | action and we get a great shot out of that.
| | 05:34 | Well, you can see the results. It came
out great, and that is one of the many
| | 05:39 | advantages of working with a food stylist.
| | 05:44 |
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| Staging a grilled steak| 00:00 | In this movie, we'll have our
food stylist, Claire Stancer, put together a
| | 00:05 | steak that will look good enough to
eat, but this one is only for looking
| | 00:08 | beautiful for the camera.
| | 00:10 | What you are going to see is the steps
that it takes Claire to put together a
| | 00:14 | beautiful steak for my shot.
| | 00:16 | But before we go through that, let me
just explain what I have out on my set.
| | 00:19 | We are trying to recreate late-afternoon
direct sunlight that you would have outdoors.
| | 00:26 | So what I have is a strobe that's off camera--
| | 00:30 | you can see it firing there--and over
the face of the strobe, I have a warming
| | 00:34 | shell that's going to give us the
feel of that late-afternoon direct light.
| | 00:39 | So let me frame this up.
| | 00:40 | We are in fairly tight.
| | 00:46 | Okay, so I am looking at the back of
the camera, and I see that we have a
| | 00:49 | fairly contrasty scene.
| | 00:52 | So I am exposing correctly for the
highlights, but on the shadow side, the side
| | 00:57 | facing the camera, it's going quite dark.
| | 01:00 | So I am going to take a little fill
card, put that in here, and let's see
| | 01:05 | how effective that is. Okay.
| | 01:10 | So that looks pretty good.
| | 01:11 | That gives us a nice ratio for our fill,
but I want to try something a little
| | 01:15 | bit different, and I am going to
use this gold crinkled fill card.
| | 01:21 | Now this is going to give us the look
of light that's bouncing off of another
| | 01:24 | surface and then back into
the shadow side of the steak.
| | 01:29 | So again, it's sort of consistent with
trying to make it have that warm afternoon feel.
| | 01:33 | That looks really pretty great.
| | 01:37 | So one other little thing I am going to
pop up here is a little mirror reflector,
| | 01:43 | and I want to use this to catch a
little bit more of a specular reflection just
| | 01:48 | right in here on the shadow side again.
| | 01:50 | The little specular highlights that I am
creating help make this look really fresh.
| | 01:55 | That's sort of the key to a lot of food
photography are the little speculars
| | 02:00 | that we see on the surface of the food.
| | 02:03 | We get that a lot of times by
using small surfaces such as this.
| | 02:08 | Okay, so I am ready to go, and I am going to
have Claire now explain what she is going to do.
| | 02:13 | Claire: Okay, so I've taken this New York
cut steak and I've browned it, as you can
| | 02:19 | see, in a small pan, a nonstick pan,
all over the place, just so that it's
| | 02:25 | graying on the outside.
| | 02:27 | I do this on a fairly low heat so that
it doesn't really get too brown, but it
| | 02:32 | just gives me the feel of
the beginning of cooked.
| | 02:35 | Then I am going to take a
paintbrush and gravy browning.
| | 02:40 | I like to use Kitchen Bouquet, a gravy-
browning product found at the regular
| | 02:45 | grocery store, to brown my meat.
| | 02:48 | So I am just going to give it a bit of
a look of cooked, and in this way, I have
| | 02:54 | a lot of control with the color that I
want and where exactly I want that color.
| | 03:02 | To give the feel of barbeque, what I
am going to do is I am going to start by
| | 03:07 | taking this butane torch, thank you,
and I am going to brown the meat in areas,
| | 03:14 | particularly around the fat area,
because that's what we do want to see for sure
| | 03:20 | cooked and just give it the look of barbeque.
| | 03:23 | Bill: So, one thing, while Claire is
doing that, is that we always want to have a
| | 03:28 | backup plan, so with the butane, a lot
of times you can think that you are all
| | 03:33 | set, turn that on, and it will
go for 10-15 seconds and run out.
| | 03:38 | So you want to have a backup plan to go with.
| | 03:41 | Claire: Well we have another thing that I
am going to make my barbeque lines with and
| | 03:47 | also use to brown this piece of meat and
that's this barbeque starter. And if you'll
| | 03:55 | notice, it gives me the line, but if my
butane were to run out, it's what I could
| | 04:00 | use to brown my meat, and
I'll show you that in a minute.
| | 04:04 | So we don't want the lines to look too
perfect. We are trying to match what we
| | 04:10 | would see on an actual barbeque and
the separation and the distance that you
| | 04:16 | would see the actual lines on your barbeque.
| | 04:20 | So you want that imperfection a little
bit here and there, so I like to rub this
| | 04:24 | a little bit here and there
to give the feel of barbeque.
| | 04:31 | Now to finish this off, I am going to
sprinkle some pepper here and there.
| | 04:37 | Bill: That looks great.
| | 04:39 | Claire: Maybe brush it with a
little oil for that juicy feel.
| | 04:45 | Now you'll notice the areas that have
a little bit more Kitchen Bouquet, you
| | 04:51 | want that uneven look.
| | 04:53 | If it's not good enough, maybe I'll
add a little bit more Kitchen Bouquet in
| | 04:57 | areas that I feel it needs.
| | 04:59 | I am going to just, because it's not
cooked, I am going to just dry it off a
| | 05:06 | little bit before I add it to my
prop over there for Bill, okay.
| | 05:11 | Bill: Here it comes.
| | 05:15 | Claire: Here we go, take a look at that.
Do you see anything different, more pepper?
| | 05:19 | Bill: Now we'll get a test shot here
just to make sure our light is firing, okay.
| | 05:25 | Claire: How does that look?
Bill: It looks good. Let me just adjust this a little bit to the camera.
| | 05:29 | Now that we have the real thing in there,
we'll have to look through the viewfinder.
| | 05:34 | Bill: Could you sprinkle a little bit of
the pepper along the board too, so we make
| | 05:43 | it look a little bit more
spontaneous by doing that.
| | 05:45 | Okay, let's see how that looks.
| | 05:50 | Beautiful!
| | 05:52 | So this is kicking a little bit of
gold light into here. This is giving me a
| | 05:57 | little speculars here. My strobe off the
camera is mimicking that late-afternoon light.
| | 06:02 | So it looks delicious. Well, here it is.
| | 06:06 | You can see how delicious the steak
looks in our photo, right off the grill.
| | 06:10 | Now it's your turn to try some of
these tips in your food photography.
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| Making fake ice cream| 00:00 | For this movie, I'm working
with food stylist Claire Stancer.
| | 00:04 | Claire is going to show you the steps to
create real-looking ice cream that won't
| | 00:08 | melt in front of your camera.
| | 00:10 | By using fake ice cream, it will give
the photographer as much time as needed to
| | 00:15 | light, compose, and shoot.
| | 00:17 | But before we do that, let me give
you a little info about my setup here.
| | 00:21 | So you can see I have a strobe head
over here that's going through the
| | 00:27 | plexi, onto our scene.
| | 00:29 | I have a stand-in for our ice cream
that's just basically wadded-up paper towel
| | 00:33 | to give me sort of the size and
area that the camera is going to see.
| | 00:38 | I have a couple cards here that are
normally used for reflecting, but in this
| | 00:44 | case, I'm actually
subtracting light from my set.
| | 00:48 | I don't want to have so much light
spilling over to the front or the back,
| | 00:52 | so I am keeping that light off and
having the light just hit right in here.
| | 00:57 | So I am going to take a little bit of
a test shot right now, just to see how
| | 01:03 | things are looking. And when I look at
this on the back of the camera, I am
| | 01:07 | noticing that my light is
still a little bit harsh.
| | 01:11 | So the idea of the plexi is that it
softens that direct head and as the light
| | 01:18 | comes through the plexi, it spreads it out.
| | 01:21 | So we don't have a real harsh highlight.
| | 01:23 | So in order to help this a little bit,
I am going to add another piece of
| | 01:27 | diffusion right over the head directly.
| | 01:32 | So you might think about this when
you are buying equipment from the store,
| | 01:38 | that instead of just using things as they come
out of the box, try modifying them a little bit.
| | 01:44 | So in other words, I modified the head
originally by going through the plexi
| | 01:48 | and then by adding another piece of
diffusion over the head, it modifies it still more.
| | 01:55 | So now I am going to take another test shot.
| | 01:59 | And I see that on this side, the
shadow side, I am going to need to fill it
| | 02:04 | a little bit, so the ratio between the
highlight side and the shadow side is a little bit high.
| | 02:10 | So I am going to use this card
with the white side out first.
| | 02:14 | I am going to put it back here,
so it's going to light up this.
| | 02:17 | So it's getting the light from here,
hitting the white surface, and bouncing back
| | 02:21 | in. And it's doing pretty good, but I
am going to spin it around and use the
| | 02:28 | mirrored surface, and that's going to
kick a little bit more light in, because I'm
| | 02:33 | concerned about the light down in here also.
| | 02:36 | I'm shooting fairly tight.
| | 02:37 | I am catching the lip of the dish, and
I'm seeing our berries down in here,
| | 02:42 | so I want to make sure I have just a
little bit more light down in there.
| | 02:45 | Okay, that looks pretty good, but still,
I am going to add one more supplemental
| | 02:52 | reflector right in here. And again,
you see how small this is. And in food
| | 02:58 | photography, we use a lot of little,
small reflectors, and that adds our little
| | 03:03 | specular highlights, but we don't have
to use a huge light to do that. We
| | 03:08 | are using small cards.
| | 03:10 | So let me take a test shot of this, and I
think that's going to work pretty well. Okay!
| | 03:16 | So I'm going to let Claire get started now.
| | 03:18 | Claire: For fake ice cream, what I
do is I make a mixture of shortening.
| | 03:25 | In this case, because I am making
vanilla, I am going to take white shortening
| | 03:30 | and butter shortening and
I'm going to mix it together.
| | 03:35 | It's really at this point that I
would be determining the color of the
| | 03:39 | ice cream that I was doing.
| | 03:40 | If I was going to be making
strawberry ice cream, I would at this point add
| | 03:46 | some strawberry jam, maybe some red
food coloring to enhance the color of this
| | 03:51 | shortening product. But since I am
making vanilla, I'm just going to add an
| | 03:56 | equal portion of corn syrup to the shortening
that I already have, so they are the same amount.
| | 04:03 | I am going to stir that in.
| | 04:10 | Now that this is fully incorporated
and at a texture that's smooth, little bit
| | 04:16 | by little bit, I'm going to initially
stir in some powdered sugar and eventually
| | 04:22 | knead in the powdered sugar, until
I'm at a texture that works for the scooping.
| | 04:29 | The interesting thing is is that
the amount of powdered sugar changes
| | 04:34 | day by day depending on what the weather is.
| | 04:37 | So if it's a humid day, you would
find that I might add more powdered sugar
| | 04:43 | because that there is oil being
released from the shortening product, and on a
| | 04:49 | less humid day, I might add less powdered
sugar, but it's the texture that I'm looking for.
| | 04:56 | You will notice the texture that I
am starting to get. Now that looks like
| | 05:02 | thick ice cream. That looks beautiful.
| | 05:06 | And I like to use a scoop that's nice
and dry with this mechanical movement.
| | 05:14 | I like to dry it before I scoop it,
and I'm going to push and pull, and that's
| | 05:22 | what's going to give me my texture.
| | 05:26 | Look at that texture, beautiful!
| | 05:29 | Now, I'm going to make the little
collar with the texture, and you achieve that
| | 05:37 | by just pulling, ripping this
beautiful texture out of the ice cream here, and
| | 05:43 | adding it around.
| | 05:47 | This is just to give the look around
the area. I've got a little bit more on my
| | 05:55 | shape, put some ice cream, I am
going to take this out, our stand in.
| | 05:59 | I am going to put a little ice cream in the
bottom of our bowl to support this ice cream.
| | 06:04 | I am going to place this in.
| | 06:08 | I am going to add a little fruit here and there.
| | 06:21 | Bill: I want to grab a test shot while you are doing that.
Claire: Okay.
| | 06:27 | Claire: Oh, great.
Bill: Yeah, it's looking good.
| | 06:28 | Bill: It looks coming alive. Wow!
It's really looking good.
| | 06:35 | Claire: I am going to add a little sprig
of mint, and you will notice that I love
| | 06:40 | having herbs that grow fresh from the
garden, or in this case, fresh from the
| | 06:44 | little pot, because they look beautiful and
alive. And then I'm also going to add some melt.
| | 06:51 | In my case today, I'm going to add
some vanilla yogurt. Wherever ice cream
| | 06:57 | touches the bowl is where it would
actually melt, or where the fruit is actually
| | 07:01 | touching the ice cream.
| | 07:02 | If I was doing it with chocolate
ice cream, like I had made a fake chocolate
| | 07:06 | ice cream, I would use melted chocolate
ice cream because I am usually matching to
| | 07:11 | a color that already exists.
| | 07:12 | So what I am going to do is add this
melt to any area that's close to either the
| | 07:21 | fruit or where it's touching the bowl
or some of the ridging, and it's what gives
| | 07:26 | the impression of reality. How's that?
| | 07:30 | Bill: Oh, let me look through
the camera. That looks good.
| | 07:34 | I think we just need to turn the--just
a little bit to the camera, and it looks
| | 07:39 | great, really looking good. Here we go.
Let me get a test of that.
| | 07:46 | Yeah, nice.
| | 07:48 | Claire: Nice.
Bill: Really nice.
| | 07:49 | So I am just going to make a little bit
of adjustment with this card down here,
| | 07:53 | this reflector, to get a little
bit more on that berry down there.
| | 07:59 | Wow! Look at that. That's great.
| | 08:04 | You can see the great
results we've got working with Claire.
| | 08:07 | Now you go out and give it a go.
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|
|
6. Staging and Shooting DrinksCreating a chill effect| 00:00 | In this movie, let's look at how you
can create your very own real-looking chill.
| | 00:05 | So what I have here is an example of
the chill effect that we are going to
| | 00:10 | create in this movie.
| | 00:11 | We're working with bottles from
Island Brewery, a great local Brewery in
| | 00:15 | Carpinteria, California.
| | 00:18 | So the first question you might ask
yourself is, well, why do you need to create
| | 00:22 | chill? Can't I just pull it out
of the refrigerator and shoot it?
| | 00:26 | You can do that, but you better be quick,
because the chilled look will go away
| | 00:30 | within a few minutes.
| | 00:31 | What we want to do is create a
situation where we can take our time and then
| | 00:36 | light, compose, and tweak.
| | 00:39 | We can do that, with a few easy steps,
by creating different layers that will
| | 00:43 | give us the chill look.
| | 00:46 | So what it does, in essence, is gives
you a lot more control. All right!
| | 00:50 | So let's get started.
| | 00:52 | So first let's take our bottle.
| | 00:55 | We're going to do a little prep
work actually when we go to pick up the
| | 00:59 | bottles at the store.
| | 01:00 | We want to find bottles that the label
is on straight, and we also want to look
| | 01:05 | for the glass seam that happens on
every bottle and try and find the seam
| | 01:10 | where it runs down the side of the bottles as
opposed down through the center of the label.
| | 01:16 | Okay, so that's our first
thing that we want to look at.
| | 01:20 | Now the first layer that we are going
to do is going to give us the frosted
| | 01:23 | effect that comes right out of the refrigerator.
| | 01:27 | So I am going to use, to begin with, on
our bottle, some surf wax, and I am just
| | 01:32 | going to apply it, and we want to use
cold-water surf wax, which I found to
| | 01:39 | work really well.
| | 01:41 | So we are going to just put a little
bit on here and then the next stage -- and
| | 01:45 | I would do the whole bottle--the next
stage is we'd rub this in using our body
| | 01:49 | temperature to help smooth it out, and
you can see, that starts to give us a
| | 01:54 | really nice frosted look.
| | 01:55 | Now, I have one over here that I am
going to bring in, that I've done that whole
| | 01:59 | process on, and you can see how good
that looks. That looks like it just got
| | 02:03 | pulled out of the refrigerator.
| | 02:05 | So we're going to come back to this in a minute.
| | 02:08 | First, let's talk about another way of
creating a frosted look. And on the glass,
| | 02:14 | I am going to use some dulling spray.
| | 02:17 | So we can use dulling spray or matte spray.
| | 02:21 | One of the first things we want to do
in prep, you'll notice, is put on some
| | 02:25 | masking tape where I'm figuring the
head of the beer is going to be, because
| | 02:29 | we wouldn't have the
condensation up there when we do the pour.
| | 02:34 | So first I put the can in a little
lukewarm water to help refine the spray as
| | 02:40 | it comes out, it will be a finer spray, and
we don't want big globby spray on our glass.
| | 02:46 | So part of the technique of this is to
keep everything moving as we spray. And we
| | 02:51 | are constantly moving the glass, we
are moving the spray, and we don't want to
| | 02:57 | bring this too close because
that will give us that clumpy look.
| | 03:02 | I think we've got a pretty good layer
down there, and we'll put this on here so
| | 03:06 | you can take a look.
| | 03:08 | I think that looks really
pretty nice. All right!
| | 03:11 | Let's go to our second stage, and I am
going to come back to our bottle of beer.
| | 03:15 | And the second stage that we want
to do is add water droplets to this.
| | 03:20 | So I've got two different ways of doing that.
| | 03:22 | The first one that we are going to
look at is with this small atomizer, and
| | 03:26 | again, these come in different sizes.
| | 03:28 | The different sizes are going to
give you different-sized droplets.
| | 03:32 | So our first solution that I have in
here is Karo syrup mixed with water.
| | 03:37 | I use probably anywhere from a
15% to 20% mixture of Karo to water.
| | 03:43 | You have to be sort of careful an
experiment with this depending upon the
| | 03:46 | size of the atomizer because the Karo can
clog up the nozzle if you use too much of it.
| | 03:53 | The advantage of the Karo syrup is
that when it goes on the bottle, or any
| | 03:57 | other surface, the water is going to
evaporate and leave you the Karo droplets,
| | 04:02 | which look like water.
| | 04:03 | So, make sure that you get the
clear Karo syrup and we'll spray.
| | 04:08 | Again, the spray technique
| | 04:10 | you can play with, and you'll find that
if you bring this in really close, you
| | 04:14 | are going to get some bigger drops; if you
pull it back, you get a little finer drop.
| | 04:19 | So we've got a really nice surface going
there, and you can see how genuine that looks.
| | 04:26 | Let's go to our glass.
| | 04:27 | We'll set this over here, bring our glass out,
and we want to hold the glass by the inside.
| | 04:34 | In this mixture, I am
going to be using glycerine.
| | 04:35 | Now, glycerine and water mixed at a
50-50 relationship--and it's the same
| | 04:41 | thing, you don't want to put too much
glycerine in with the water or it will clog the nozzle.
| | 04:46 | So, it's just an alternative to the Karo.
| | 04:50 | Again, we are going to spray in tight.
| | 04:52 | You can see the droplets
are a little bit bigger.
| | 04:55 | If I pull this back, they are
going to be a little bit finer.
| | 04:58 | So you can sort of play
with how you want this to be.
| | 05:02 | So that's what that looks like.
| | 05:03 | Let's go to our next stage.
| | 05:07 | We're going to use something called crystal ice.
| | 05:10 | So, crystal ice we are going to put on the
surface of this to enhance that chilled look.
| | 05:16 | This is a commercial product that's
sold by Trengove Studios in Chicago.
| | 05:20 | So let me just take a little bit of
this, and we'll just place it onto our glass.
| | 05:30 | And we don't want quite too much.
| | 05:33 | You have to be careful that we don't
smudge the surface that we've sprayed on,
| | 05:39 | but you get a nice look with the crystal ice.
| | 05:44 | Let's go over here, and we'll do the
same thing with the bottle of beer, add on
| | 05:49 | the crystal ice, and we are just
going to place a few ice chips in the
| | 05:56 | strategic spots.
| | 05:58 | Okay, so you can see that it starts to
look nice and chilled. You can even
| | 06:04 | put some up here on the cap, along
the neck--gives us a really nice look.
| | 06:10 | So our last layer is to create a run,
a droplet run, going down the front or
| | 06:16 | the side surface, and we are going to do that
with another commercial product called Aqua Gel.
| | 06:22 | Aqua Gel is also distributed
by Trengove Studios in Chicago.
| | 06:27 | So the technique with this is going to
take a few times of practice, but we're
| | 06:31 | using a wooden skewer. We dip into this Aqua
Gel, which is a really thick gel and will not run.
| | 06:39 | So we are going to actually create the run.
| | 06:41 | So we are going to start down here at
the bottom and as we bring this up, we are
| | 06:45 | going to twist and move this around a
little bit to make it as real as possible,
| | 06:50 | because a droplet wouldn't
necessarily go down in a straight path.
| | 06:54 | You can see down here that that looks
really very real, how the run goes down
| | 07:00 | the surface of the bottle.
| | 07:01 | Okay, let's bring in the glass and
we'll do the same thing. And we are going to
| | 07:09 | create that run going down the glass.
| | 07:11 | Now, you want to be also planning, by
looking through your viewfinder, where you
| | 07:17 | want this run to happen.
| | 07:19 | I found that the side, like where
I have it here, or right down the center,
| | 07:26 | gives a really nice effect to the
camera, and you can see how nice that looks.
| | 07:30 | That's just going to stay there. All right!
| | 07:32 | So there you have it.
| | 07:34 | That's how you would create an
artificial chill effect so you can have bottles
| | 07:37 | and glasses that look like they are ice
cold in front of your camera for hours.
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| Creating ice shards and water| 00:00 | For this movie, let's take a
look at how you might create the look of ice
| | 00:04 | shards from wax that looks so
real they will actually melt.
| | 00:08 | All the special effects products that
we're going to look at can be bought from
| | 00:12 | commercial supply houses for film
and theatre production, but sometimes we
| | 00:17 | come across a way to create
a look for a lot less money.
| | 00:21 | Now here is our hero setup with a
bottle of beer that looks like it's just been
| | 00:25 | pulled from the cooler and has some
of the ice shards around the base which
| | 00:29 | have started to melt.
| | 00:31 | So let's take a look at some of the
commercial products that can make that happen.
| | 00:36 | The first thing that we're
going to look at is acrylic shards.
| | 00:40 | So you can see they come in different
shapes, different sizes, but these are
| | 00:44 | clear, and you can see they look very natural.
| | 00:48 | Our second product is the Poly shards,
and these are a little bit different in
| | 00:54 | that we can split them and resize them.
| | 00:57 | So you might wind up using both of
these in the same photo, as we did in our
| | 01:02 | little setup over here.
| | 01:03 | Our third product that we're going to
talk about is the aqua gel, and you might
| | 01:09 | remember the aqua gel from a previous
movie that we did on chill where we had a
| | 01:13 | really beautiful drip run
coming down the side of a bottle.
| | 01:17 | This can also be used for
creating a pool of water out on our set.
| | 01:24 | Our next product is something called Poly Gel.
| | 01:28 | Poly Gel is somewhat similar to the
aqua gel, although it's not quite as thick.
| | 01:34 | So we can take a little sample here,
and we'll just plop it down on our set,
| | 01:39 | and you can see that it's pretty
pliable. And this will also form into a pool of water.
| | 01:47 | We can manipulate the edges to
create any shape that we want with it,
| | 01:52 | so it's a really great product.
| | 01:54 | Let's move to our next example, which is
the gel wax that we can get from any art
| | 02:02 | supply or hobby store.
| | 02:04 | The thing with the gel wax is you want
to make sure you get the clear gel wax.
| | 02:08 | So this is the same wax that people would put
in a pot, melt, and pour into a candle mold.
| | 02:14 | So we're going to use it for a
little bit different purpose.
| | 02:17 | So I've torn off a piece from the main
body in here, and I'm setting it up on our
| | 02:22 | little platform. And I'm going to turn on
my little butane torch, and I'm going to
| | 02:30 | shape this, and you're going to watch
how the edges start to melt and start to
| | 02:36 | look more and more like one of our ice shards.
| | 02:40 | The cool thing about this is that as I
do this, the wax is melting, and it's going
| | 02:45 | to give me some really nice little
drips of water that come off of it.
| | 02:52 | So we can form this pretty much any way
we want, just with this little burner.
| | 02:58 | So we're going to let that set up,
because that's pretty hard right now, and
| | 03:02 | then we're going to move
it over here onto our set.
| | 03:05 | So you can see, I've used these
products and techniques, and they all have
| | 03:09 | their own unique uses.
| | 03:10 | So grab your gel wax, your Poly Gel,
and get busy making your own cool setup.
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| Creating hot drinks| 00:00 | For this movie
let's switch from cold to hot.
| | 00:03 | How can we make drinks like coffee look hot?
| | 00:06 | Here we're going to see a
couple of different ideas.
| | 00:08 | We're back in the shooting studio that
we used in the lighting chapter, because
| | 00:12 | we really need to control the
light in order to see the steam.
| | 00:17 | With a drink like coffee the thing
that triggers to the viewer that the
| | 00:21 | coffee is fresh is that it looks hot and
makes it so that we can almost smell the coffee.
| | 00:27 | From the visual side of coffee, it's
going to be the steam and the bubbles that
| | 00:31 | make our sense of smell kick in.
| | 00:34 | So here's a few ways to make this happen.
| | 00:37 | But first remember that to make this
steam stand out from your set you'll need
| | 00:41 | to have a dark value behind the
coffee cup so that the white steam pops out
| | 00:47 | from the background.
| | 00:49 | We also have to light for the steam,
and we're going to do that by having our
| | 00:52 | light 90 degrees to 130 degrees off camera.
| | 00:56 | Try to keep your light off of the
coffee mug, because we just want to light the
| | 01:01 | steam with our designated light.
| | 01:02 | All right, let's get goin' here.
| | 01:05 | So I've already made up my mixture, and
this isn't real coffee that we have in
| | 01:09 | front of the camera right now.
| | 01:11 | I'm using some of this, which is the
browning and seasoning sauce mixed in with
| | 01:17 | water, and I use about probably a
teaspoon of the seasoning sauce with about 10
| | 01:22 | ounces of water, and that gives
us a nice dark-looking coffee.
| | 01:27 | The other thing that you're seeing is
that I have a little aluminum-shaped boat,
| | 01:32 | and in that I've got
something called steam chips.
| | 01:36 | So the steam chips are activated with
water, which I'm going to use my eyedropper
| | 01:41 | to put in, and that's going to create the steam.
| | 01:44 | This is a commercial product.
| | 01:46 | I've also learned that if I add a
little bit of salt into that, it helps spread
| | 01:51 | it out and slow it down.
| | 01:53 | So let's see how that's going to look.
| | 01:56 | Now before we activate the steam chips,
I'm going to slide this over. And this is
| | 02:01 | a mixture of my base mixture of coffee
with a little bit of photo flow, and the
| | 02:09 | photo flow is going to give us the
bubbles that we want to have on the surface,
| | 02:14 | and it will last a little
bit longer with the photo flow.
| | 02:18 | So I've made it so that the bubbles are
going to have a little brown edge to them--
| | 02:22 | that's why we used the mixture--and I'm
just going to place this along the edge
| | 02:27 | and try to get some
different-sized bubbles working.
| | 02:33 | There is one there, and there is another.
| | 02:38 | So that's starting to look pretty good.
| | 02:40 | I'll slide this back over.
| | 02:41 | I'm just going to test our light to
make sure it's on, because this is going to
| | 02:47 | happen fairly quickly.
| | 02:49 | All right, now we're ready to add our
water onto the steam chips itself.
| | 02:53 | I'm just spreading that around, and it's going
to activate, and there it goes, and we're
| | 02:59 | just going to shoot a couple of frames.
| | 03:00 | And we want to try and get the steam to
roll over the top over the coffee, so it
| | 03:10 | doesn't look exactly like
it's coming from behind it.
| | 03:14 | So that's one of the things that we
really have to be concerned about when we're
| | 03:17 | using the steam chips behind the coffee
is that we want it to make it look like
| | 03:21 | it's actually coming up from the coffee.
| | 03:24 | So again, that's something you're
going to have to experiment with.
| | 03:27 | Let's go on to our next possibility.
And this is going to smell really good
| | 03:32 | because we're going to use an incense stick
to create the steam coming off the coffee.
| | 03:39 | What we're going to see on this is that
this may have a little slight color to
| | 03:46 | it, the stick, so we have to try and
keep this moving around so that we avoid
| | 03:52 | just sort of a straight-up flow of what
would be the steam, because that's not
| | 03:56 | going to look very real.
| | 03:58 | So we keep this moving around and
when I get it down over the surface and
| | 04:02 | then pull this out at the last second
before we shoot, and I'm not looking
| | 04:07 | through the viewfinder.
| | 04:09 | I've already pre-focused, and I've
also taken the auto-focus off so that the
| | 04:16 | camera doesn't misread where I want this focus.
| | 04:19 | So I've focused right here, basically on
the handle, so that plane is where it's
| | 04:23 | going to be sharpest. And there's
a pretty decent one right there. Okay.
| | 04:30 | So that looks really pretty good.
| | 04:32 | I think we are good to go on that.
| | 04:34 | Now what we're going to do is actually
use real coffee that I've put into the
| | 04:37 | microwave, and it's going to come out
steaming hot, and we're going to pour it
| | 04:41 | into a new cup that I have over here.
| | 04:43 | So let's put this in. And we'll take out
our steam chip holder, and I'm going to
| | 04:51 | just frame this up real quick,
looking through the camera.
| | 04:59 | So here comes our hot coffee, and
we're just going to get it in here.
| | 05:03 | We are going to shoot some
pours while we're doing this.
| | 05:07 | It looks pretty nice.
| | 05:13 | You can see that's working really well.
| | 05:16 | Now you know how to create some
steam for your coffee, without burning
| | 05:21 | your fingers.
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|
7. Shooting at a RestaurantFinding the right location and lighting| 00:00 | In this movie I'm going to give
you some pointers that you might want to
| | 00:03 | follow to help get some great food
images with either your point-and-shoot or
| | 00:08 | your smartphone with its camera.
| | 00:10 | There are many times I'm out on the
road and want to capture the beautiful food
| | 00:14 | that has been put in front of me, and
in these situations I'm not carrying
| | 00:18 | supplemental lighting, assistance, or
even my pro DSLR--just my point-and-shoot,
| | 00:24 | or some variation of that.
| | 00:26 | So what are the things that we want to be
more aware of to make our photos better?
| | 00:31 | The first is location, location, location.
| | 00:35 | In this case, it's where we sit in the
restaurant to have the best-case natural
| | 00:40 | lighting possible. It would be best
to avoid direct sunlight on your table,
| | 00:45 | especially in the hours between 10 and 2 p.m.
| | 00:49 | For our best results with food
photography, having the light source come from
| | 00:53 | anywhere 90 degrees to 130 degrees to right or
left of the camera is going to be the best case.
| | 01:01 | Like many of you, I enjoyed finding
eateries that are the hidden gems.
| | 01:05 | A while back I found one in Santa
Barbara, California, the Petit Valentien.
| | 01:11 | So when you're entering the restaurant,
look around and try and find a table by
| | 01:15 | the window that will give you the
ability to have the light positioned at either
| | 01:19 | side or slightly back to your point of
view and does not have direct sunlight.
| | 01:25 | The best case is for us to use
reflected light or light that is coming through
| | 01:29 | a window that faces north, which will give us
a softer overall light, without harsh shadows.
| | 01:36 | Once you're at your table waiting for
your food to arrive, take some time to look
| | 01:40 | through your camera and find your
framing. Consider what might be in the
| | 01:44 | background of the shot.
| | 01:46 | So you can use a stand-in when your food
is being prepared, which again will make
| | 01:52 | you more aware of what's going to be
seen in your frame besides the food.
| | 01:57 | Sometimes I'll use bread as the stand-in to
set up my frame before the entree arrives.
| | 02:03 | With a stand-in, you can test what
the light is going to look like.
| | 02:07 | Look to see how the window is creating
a highlight on the subject and how the
| | 02:11 | shadow side of the frame is looking.
| | 02:14 | When the food arrives, start looking
for the hero position of the plate.
| | 02:18 | This is going to be the angle where the
food flows best of the camera position.
| | 02:23 | And let's take a look at this photo.
| | 02:25 | So remember, when the waiter brings
you your food, he is just going to put it
| | 02:28 | down in front of you.
| | 02:29 | He is not a photographer.
He is not setting up your shot for you.
| | 02:32 | So you're going to have to physically
move the plate to get the best angle.
| | 02:36 | So after I found that angle with
this plate, I wanted to also think about
| | 02:41 | breaking the line of the
plate up with the utensils.
| | 02:44 | So I took the fork, placed it over the
lip of the plate, and that contains us.
| | 02:49 | That keeps us interested in
what the subject matter is.
| | 02:52 | When I set this up I noticed the
windows back here and thought that would be
| | 02:56 | a great way to separate the salad
from the background is by using these
| | 03:01 | windows out of focus. But I also
wanted to consider this back wall that had
| | 03:06 | a little painting on it.
| | 03:08 | I think that that's starts to get a little
feel for the environment of the restaurant.
| | 03:12 | The next thing I did with this was
take the napkin and swirl it a little bit
| | 03:17 | and wrap it around the back side of
the plate so that it creates sort of an
| | 03:21 | interesting flow to the photo.
| | 03:24 | So now let's take a
quick look at these scallops.
| | 03:27 | So when this plate was delivered to the
table the waiter had put it down with a
| | 03:31 | salad facing right into the camera.
| | 03:34 | So I took the plate, rotated it slightly,
and got the scallops so that they became
| | 03:39 | the hero of the shot.
| | 03:41 | So that's one thing you always want to
remember is not to just necessarily shoot
| | 03:45 | the plate as it's put in front of you.
| | 03:47 | I noticed out in the back, on the
courtyard, there was a red phone booth, and I
| | 03:53 | saw the red as a possibility to create
color harmony with the tomato that was
| | 03:58 | going to be on the plate.
| | 04:01 | I also brought in this chair, the
background chair, to help keep the viewer
| | 04:07 | locked in to the point of
view that I wanted right here.
| | 04:12 | You need to be concerned about
too much shadow-to-highlight ratio.
| | 04:16 | If the ratio is too heavy, we're going
to need some fill on the shadow side.
| | 04:20 | You could use the napkin that's on the
table by positioning it and holding it up
| | 04:25 | to reflect light back into the shadow side.
| | 04:28 | You would not want to use the flash
that's on your camera for fill in most
| | 04:32 | restaurant situations, because that's going
to really distract the rest of the patrons.
| | 04:37 | You could also think about getting
some of the cool apps that are available
| | 04:40 | for the smartphones.
| | 04:42 | There are many apps that will give you
the ability to create filtered looks, such
| | 04:45 | as sepia or black-and-white.
| | 04:48 | Many of these apps have the ability to
upload your shot right as you shoot so
| | 04:53 | that you're able to share with your
friends or post to a blog right on the spot.
| | 04:58 | So in conclusion, you can see that
thinking ahead and doing some planning makes
| | 05:02 | the process work in a more
productive way, and the results will show that.
| | 05:07 | Now, bon appetit!
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| Creating a natural look with artificial lighting| 00:00 | As a food photographer, I'm often
asked to shoot at a restaurant to create
| | 00:04 | images for advertising, menus, web, or display.
| | 00:09 | For this type of location food work,
using a pro DSLR with a macro lens, along
| | 00:14 | with some supplemental
lighting, helps create great results.
| | 00:18 | Two types of supplemental lighting to
consider would be something like a diva
| | 00:22 | light, which is a continuous light
source, or a strobe, which has the ability to
| | 00:29 | stop action like in a pour shot.
| | 00:32 | Let's talk about the diva light first.
| | 00:34 | The diva light is made up of four
fluorescent tubes that are balanced at
| | 00:38 | daylight color temperature and
will give you a soft natural light.
| | 00:43 | You might also think about adding
additional diffusion to this light.
| | 00:47 | This will soften the light even more,
giving you many options for different looks.
| | 00:52 | For best results, use your lights between
90 degrees and 130 degrees to the camera.
| | 00:57 | A great advantage to this power
setup with the diva is that it draws very
| | 01:02 | little amps, maybe three amps.
| | 01:05 | This means that we will not be
breaking circuits when we're shooting at a
| | 01:08 | location as the amp rating is low.
| | 01:11 | Now here are some steps to
follow when you're ready to set up.
| | 01:15 | Look for a location in the
restaurant that will give you some options.
| | 01:19 | You may not only want to do close-up and tight,
but also includes some of the environment.
| | 01:25 | Use your zoom lens with a stand-in
dish to find good points of view.
| | 01:30 | Use your camera on a tripod after that
so that you will have consistent results,
| | 01:35 | and then work on the set details, what's
going to be out in front of the camera,
| | 01:39 | where is the main dish going to be, the
utensils, the napkin, win glass, water
| | 01:44 | glass, and any other background elements.
| | 01:46 | Create a shot list of what you want to
do during your shoot: move utensils around,
| | 01:52 | style a napkin around the dish, and so on.
| | 01:55 | You're creating a beginning,
middle, and end to your setup.
| | 02:00 | Have your tools handy.
| | 02:01 | This would include various reflector
cards, a small bottle of cooking oil, a
| | 02:06 | brush to go with that, and
tweezers for moving small elements.
| | 02:10 | Once your hero food comes out of the
kitchen, you may need to tweak your
| | 02:14 | lighting, or add or subtract diffusion,
flag off light from some of the areas,
| | 02:19 | and move your reflector
cards to become more effective.
| | 02:23 | Keep in mind the main objectives are to
create a natural-looking light and have
| | 02:28 | the food be the hero of the shot.
| | 02:31 | Let's look at some particulars.
| | 02:33 | For salads, try a low-profile point of
view. For cuts of meat, poultry, and fish,
| | 02:38 | try a three-quarter view, and for
desserts, look for a higher point of view.
| | 02:44 | Also be aware of the highlight-to-
shadow ratio, not too dramatic for most menu
| | 02:49 | and commercial food photos.
| | 02:52 | Another good light choice on
location is a strobe light.
| | 02:55 | Portable strobe packs offer the ability
to work on battery packs, and the light
| | 02:59 | can be easily modified with a soft
box to help create a natural light.
| | 03:04 | Just as with the diva light, think about
modifying the light. Try using a piece of
| | 03:08 | plexi in front of the soft box.
| | 03:10 | This will give additional softness to the light.
| | 03:13 | A big advantage of the strobe
is the ability to stop action.
| | 03:17 | This can be really helpful if you
need to stop action, such as a wine pour.
| | 03:21 | Both the diva and strobe are compatible
with daylight, which means that we often
| | 03:27 | do not need to bring so much
supplemental light as we can use a combination of
| | 03:32 | existing natural light
with our supplemental light.
| | 03:35 | So you can see there's a lot to think
about when shooting on location, and the
| | 03:40 | key is to pay attention to the small details.
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8. Creative Shooting TechniquesPlaying with your food| 00:00 | We call this movie "Playing with Food,"
but we're going to start by playing with a drink.
| | 00:06 | We're going to be doing a pour shot first.
| | 00:08 | Pour shots are always exciting, because
no two are alike and even when things go
| | 00:13 | wrong, things can be right.
| | 00:14 | So I have my beer glass here that's
already been prepped to look as if it just
| | 00:19 | came out of the cold box.
| | 00:21 | You might remember how we did that back
in the chill movie to create the chill.
| | 00:26 | Now, I've already taken off the masking
tape that we had on for the prep work and
| | 00:30 | remember, the glass is room temp as well
as the beer bottle. And you would do the
| | 00:35 | same thing if you were using,
say, root beer, or anything else.
| | 00:39 | You can see I'm using my strobe light
through a piece of plex, like I've shown
| | 00:43 | you in some of our other movies.
| | 00:45 | The plex is going to give us that
beautiful diffuse light on the specular
| | 00:48 | surface of the glass and the bottle,
and at the same time will light my
| | 00:52 | tombstones that I've placed out
here behind the glass and the bottle.
| | 00:57 | So let's take a look and see what they
look like through the camera, and you can
| | 01:02 | see that the tombstone reflects some of
the light from the plex back through the
| | 01:07 | glass and the bottle to the camera.
| | 01:10 | So everything is set, so let's give it a try.
| | 01:13 | Remember, we're going to be using warm room-
temperature beer, and our glass is also warm.
| | 01:19 | So the first thing I'm going to do is
I've got my beer over here and I'm just
| | 01:24 | going to pour in a dash in here to let
it start to set the bottom layer up. And
| | 01:31 | while we're letting that settle, you can
see that I've got some marks on my set
| | 01:35 | here that are indicating where, if I
had to pull the glass out or I had to move
| | 01:41 | my reflector out, where I would set it back in.
| | 01:45 | So lot of times when we were shooting
beer pours we have other glasses that are
| | 01:49 | already been prepped, lined up ready to go.
| | 01:52 | So we do this one, we pull it out, we
put the next one in, and it makes it a lot
| | 01:56 | easier to find the right mark for it.
| | 01:58 | So I'll pour a little bit more in.
| | 02:00 | So we're not shooting at this point,
because if we were shooting right now you
| | 02:05 | probably see the top edge of my reflector card.
| | 02:08 | So we'll just shoot one
so that we might see that.
| | 02:11 | So we want to get our hero photography
actually started once the level of the
| | 02:17 | beer without the head comes up to here.
| | 02:19 | So in my framing I'm fairly tight, so
I'm not seeing the whole of the glass or
| | 02:26 | the whole of the bottle.
| | 02:28 | I'm seeing the top of the glass cutting
into the bottle and then probably down
| | 02:32 | into this area right in
here, middle of the label.
| | 02:36 | So we're nice and tight.
| | 02:37 | So you can see the chill.
| | 02:39 | It's all going to happen.
| | 02:43 | So let's just see what this looks like
as far as lighting, and we start to see a
| | 02:47 | really beautiful glow on the beer
that's from our reflector in back of it.
| | 02:52 | So we're just about ready to
start shooting our sequence.
| | 02:55 | We'll just get this up a little bit higher.
| | 02:57 | And I think we'll go with a couple frames here.
| | 03:04 | So we want the head a
little bit more up over the top.
| | 03:07 | There is a good start right there.
| | 03:12 | So even if the head actually goes up
over the top and comes down the side of the
| | 03:17 | glass, that's going to be okay.
| | 03:20 | That's looking really good.
| | 03:22 | Now the other thing I can do is I can
let that settle. And I've got some salt
| | 03:27 | here and if put a little bit of salt
into our beer, it'll activate and react in the beer.
| | 03:36 | Let's get a little bit of salt here.
And even though that head is going a little
| | 03:40 | bit dead, we'll put a little salt in
there, and you can see what happens is that
| | 03:44 | the beer will start to get a
little bit more active down below.
| | 03:47 | Now I'll put that in.
| | 03:51 | You can see, right there, it gives a
nice little punch to it, and we'll add a
| | 03:57 | little bit more of the head on there. Oh!
| | 03:58 | Oh, look at that!
| | 04:05 | Well, let's wrap this up.
| | 04:06 | So of the things that we have covered
over the course have gotten you to light
| | 04:11 | it, shoot it high, shoot it low, and
modify it, strobe-light it, and tweak it.
| | 04:20 | After doing all of that, I hope you've
really come up with some great results.
| | 04:24 | But wait a minute. Go one step further
now with your food, to capture it in a
| | 04:28 | different way, like we did here in our pour shot.
| | 04:32 | Try to stir it, bite it,
spoon it, scoop it, and stack it.
| | 04:39 | You get my point, right?
| | 04:40 | Play with it!
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9. EditingExploring ideas for editing photos| 00:01 | Let's take a few minutes to look at
some post-production work, or as I like to
| | 00:04 | call it, color tweaking.
| | 00:06 | In this first example, I was shooting the
coffee sitting on the chair arm and the
| | 00:11 | light direction was perfect to
catch the steam coming off the coffee.
| | 00:16 | The thing that was missing was a
nice warm morning feel to the light.
| | 00:20 | You can see here in the original file
that the light is looking drab in color.
| | 00:25 | I found that Adobe Lightroom is perfect
for what I do in wanting to add my own
| | 00:30 | little tweaks to a photo like this.
| | 00:33 | Now in the final version you can see
that I added the warmth that the real time
| | 00:37 | light was not giving me.
| | 00:39 | Using the Color Temp slider, I was able
to dial in the color temperature that
| | 00:43 | gave me the best feel for
the warm look I was after.
| | 00:47 | A couple of other small tweaks were to
create a slight fill on the back of the chair,
| | 00:53 | again, just using the fill slider and
then using the Burn feature, burn in the
| | 00:58 | upper-right side of the image,
which is the back of the chair.
| | 01:02 | This took me about five minutes in
Lightroom, and it gave me the results that I
| | 01:07 | was seeing in my mind at
the time I was shooting.
| | 01:09 | Now, in this next example, I want to go
the opposite way in the field for the
| | 01:14 | color, more towards the cool, or
blue, for the feel of this image.
| | 01:19 | You can see here in my original file
that the direct sun is giving a great look
| | 01:24 | to the pastry, and the glass plate
creates a nice shadow on the tablecloth.
| | 01:29 | The problem is that the file looks pretty plain.
| | 01:32 | So I started to think about the
color palette being a cool versus warm.
| | 01:37 | When I came up with was taking the
color temperature of the daylight that had
| | 01:41 | been captured and converting it to a
tungsten-balanced color temperature.
| | 01:46 | Now this is something you can do at
the time you're shooting by setting your
| | 01:49 | white balance when you're shooting
in daylight to record at a tungsten-
| | 01:53 | balanced color temperature.
| | 01:56 | The effect of this will turn what would have
been recorded white in daylight to a bluish value.
| | 02:02 | In the case of this image, I did that
part in post-production in Lightroom simply
| | 02:08 | by using the dropdown for the
white balance and choosing Tungsten.
| | 02:12 | I really like the warm of the pastry in
contrast to the cool of the tablecloth.
| | 02:18 | So take some time and try some
post-production tweaks of different variations
| | 02:23 | with your food images.
| | 02:24 | These are simple tweaks, but are
also part of the way that I can make my
| | 02:29 | images more unique.
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ConclusionGoodbye| 00:00 | Thanks for joining me
for Food and Drink Photography.
| | 00:03 | I'd like to take this opportunity to
thank the people of Petit Valentein in
| | 00:08 | Santa Barbara, California, who welcomed
us into their beautiful restaurant so
| | 00:12 | that I can show you
techniques for shooting on location.
| | 00:15 | Not only did they provide the space for
us to shoot, but they also provided all
| | 00:20 | the delicious food that we
shot while we were there.
| | 00:23 | I'd also like to thank Island Brewery
who provided the bottles of beer that we
| | 00:27 | used to create the chill effect.
| | 00:30 | We used bottles of their
specialty ales from their tasting room in
| | 00:33 | Carpinteria, California.
| | 00:35 | As you continue to explore the art of
food photography, keep getting inspired
| | 00:39 | with all the great food blogs
out there, and also visit my site at
| | 00:44 | winefoodphotography.com.
| | 00:47 | If you're looking to sharpen your
photography skills in general, be sure to check
| | 00:51 | out the Foundations of Photography
series on lynda.com, and as always, be sure to
| | 00:56 | experiment and practice.
| | 00:58 | Thanks again for joining me!
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