A Little News

Shooting food for our newspaper is a bit random. We are using mostly amateur cooks and usually photographing them in their home kitchens. We do have about three of four ladies we use from to time that are professionals, one even works as a contributing editor for a food magazine. These are the exceptions. The rule is most of the people we photograph are cooks just like your mom or wife or husband. Some of them can make great food that looks great and some of them make great food but the presentation can be a bit iffy.

Enter the food promo for a local seafood festival. A local Catholic congregation does a seafood festival every year as a fund raising event. My job was to photograph the food and a couple of the men who were involved in the cooking. They showed up with the traditional elements for a shrimp boil; shrimp, corn on the cob and potatoes. The men also brought their own plates and service items. Basically I had no control over any of the elements in the photo. I was assigned to do the shot in the studio but when I saw the items I knew that my best bet was to get outside and use the last light of the day and somehow work it into the photo. Our studio is small and very difficult to do much in other than a head shot or a table top setting.

When I saw the clear plate the creative wheels began to turn. I had to do a traditional food shot of all the stuff on the plate but I knew I could do better with the clear glass. I knocked out the traditional shot and then moved out from the table area and decided it would be very nice to shoot up at the plate. The ambient light was basically just dusk light in the sky. I set my main light, an SB800 in an umbrella on a light stand and extended it to just about its max height of 11 feet and tipped it so it would direct light straight down. I had some trouble keeping this umbrella out of the photo and ended up moving it back about two feet to keep it out of the frame.

A couple of test frames showed me I needed to add some light from beneath to keep from silhouetting the shrimp so I laid another SB800 on the ground pointed straight up. A few adjustments to the power ratios on the two strobes and I arrived at my final exposure. I shot two angles on this low angle shot, one showing the man’s face and the other here that does not. I really liked this one best but we ran the one where you can see the guy’s face in the newspaper. Not unexpected.

I really love to shoot food and not because I sometimes get to eat a few bites! That is just one of the occasional perks. Ummmmm. Food photography is the one thing in photojournalism that really stretches your lighting skills. If you look at some food magazines or mags that feature food, you will see some amazing craftsmanship in the photos. I really press to get better with each food assignment. Hey, a guy has to retire someday so why not retire into food photography? Now that is the life! Just joking but food photography gives you a great chance to try new techniques, new lenses, and just some new ideas. The food doesn’t run away, talk back or fight you. It just sits there and looks good.

Photos copyright The Decatur Daily, Gary Cosby Jr. The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.