Photographing (and eating really good) food...


A recent job had me photographing the entire sushi menu for a Thai restaurant here in southern Maine.

Lucky Me.

;)





Several things I liked about it - the setup was simple, the food itself was very visually pleasing, and I got to sample every single dish we shot.

I used two Nikon SB800's (set to manual with power ranging between 1/16 - 1/64 power) triggered by Pocket Wizards, two softboxes, a GamiLight Square 43 and a Photoflex LiteDome.

Throw in a couple "A" clamps and bounce cards and the setup is complete. (Just in case you are interested you can get the Photoflex LiteDome XS Kit here)

Here are two pictures of the setup.

The first without any text so that it is easier to view:



The second with text identifying all of the components used for the shoot:


The hardest thing about the shoot was determining the most complimentary angle at which to shoot the food, the second was actually fitting into my van when it was all done.

Lastly, if you live in the area (or are traveling to it) the restaurant is Thai Me, great food and even better people.







2 comments:

Miguel Palaviccini said...

Looks delicious Scott. Yeah, lucky you!!!! The pictures turned out great - any chance you used some tips from Nicole Young's book?

Also, quick question: do you think you would have gotten similar effects with umbrellas instead of softboxes? Just wondering.

Miguel Palaviccini said...

Sorry to leave two comments, but the A-clamps for the bounce cards were a genius idea!

And if you ever have the time, I would love to see an "Anatomy of the Shoot" where you walk us through your set-up (why you placed the lights where you did, why you chose your lens/aperture combo ...), and how you decided to compose. Even if you just did one image it would be awesome!