Steam in a food shot...how to make it show up

[tonyarnold]

<p>Hi<br>

I am playing around with photographing some sizzling food in a wok. I cannot get the steam to show up.<br>

The wok is black so i thought it would show up in the photo. is there a knack to this?<br>

Thanks for any info or help</p>

<p>Tony</p>

[pmj]

<p>I would try a dark (black) background and light from the side. Set it up in advance, camera on tripod, perhaps even pre-focus on some temporary subject, then place the work "on stage" and take the pictures.</p>

[eddes]

<p>Hi Tony<br>

I am not an expert in ford photography. I do know that many tricks are used and good food pictures is seldom of actual edible food. From substitutes for ice cream, plastic ice cubes, glycerine, coating in oil, seering with an oven heating element, there is a gamut of cheats. Here is an article describing how to get steam.<br>

<a href="http://www.foodportfolio.com/blog/food_photography/steam.html">http://www.foodportfolio.com/blog/food_photography/steam.html</a><br>

Yo can also try microwaving wet cotton balls or a small piece of dry ice. (though dry ice does not tend to rise).</p>

<p>Good Luck</p>

<p>Edmond</p>

[aldrich]

<p>Are you using flash? Perhaps the power from the flash is overtaking the steam?</p>

[Jeff Lear]

<p>The most important thing is for you to have contrast between the steam and the background so as Patrick suggested, a black background will work best. In order to enhance this contrast, you have to light the steam. It should be lit from the side (not the front) using a spotlight or even a flashlight (torch for you Brits) with some control over it's beam cast. You could use some fill flash from the other side to balance the exposure but you'll have to experiment and see what works best for you. You can also experiment with exposure time for different effects, just be careful to not splatter oil on your lens.</p>

[tonyarnold]

<p>Thanks for that info. I should know but dont...ama professional photographer but haven't specailised in food..though am working on a book with my french wife so need to know this. have tried all the obvious ideas..slower s/speed and dark b/ground. Shall look at your web link Edmond...have tried other ideas Patricku thought your ideas would work .like yo..but they dont!.<br>

many thanks<br>

tony<br>

[Matt Laur]

<p>Here's a simple one. Basic ambient kitchen light with some overhead incandescents. I used a remote speedlight to throw some backlight on the steam, dialed down just enough to light it up and freeze motion. The key is that the wisps of steam have <em>edges</em>, and you won't see those if you use a long exposure - that just blurs it into a light-diffusing fog.</p><div></div>

[Charles_Webster]

<p>Matt has the key, back light. Notice how it also makes the food glisten. Those specular highlights are what makes the food look fresh and appetizing.</p>

<p><Chas></p>

[Ian Taylor]

<p>Yes, back light is the answer for steam. (or smoke etc)</p>

[john v.]

<p>I don't know about still photography, but I think a standard trick for shooting commercials (video) involving food was to put a lit cigarette behind (and out of view) the food you wanted to "steam". With the right camera angle and lighting, it would look like the food was steaming. </p>

[Ian Taylor]

<p>Smoke doesn't look like steam though.<br>

I spent years on set making TV commercials and saw a few tricks used by food stylists. One involved some sort of toxic chemical they would paint on roasted meat. It went on in 2 layers to create a nasty reaction. I doubt they still use it. (It was called "A-B solution")<br>

The funniest was a trick for getting veggies to steam. They would boil tampons and bury them under the peas (or beans etc). They are so dense that they hold heat and moisture for much longer than food. Works a charm.</p>

[Wayne Melia]

<p>Matt; thank you for once again sharing and providing your insight.<br>

Your comment and illustration about the edges so definines the issue, and makes it so obvious that it seems almost trivial.<br>

Contributions such as this from people like you are what makes photo.net the best that it can be.</p>

 

[tony_arnold]

<p>Given the general 'hassle' of showing steam and the limited time one has to do so it would perhaps be easier to produce a series of steam 'only' shots and then save them and layer them in Photoshop. I may try this and see how it goes.<br>

Tony</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>Tony: I've tried fake steam. It's VERY hard to get it right (meaning, convincing-looking). On the other hand, I've tried (with much greater success) to learn how to very quickly operate on the site of such material. In the shot below, I was actually thinking about this very discussion thread (what the hell is <em>wrong</em> with me?) while a friend was making us dinner. Steamed talapia with Chinese bean sauce and asparagus. Now <em>that's</em> starting your New Year on the right dietary foot!<br /><br />But I made a bit of a mistake on this one. Though I used the usual remote speedlight (which takes me literally seconds to pop on its flat table stand across the room and turn on in slave mode) and chimped two shots to get the light right (so far, not even a minute elapsed time - compared to a LONG time trying to get fake steam right in post)... I was in enough of a hurry (hell, I was hungry!) that I didn't think to stop down my lens.<br /><br />But why does this matter? I <em>had</em> been shooting at f/1.4 so that I could do some available light stuff, and throw the busy background clutter of the kitchen out of focus. The problem with that, of course, is that the focal plane - especially when you're working close - is <em>very</em> narrow. When you're doing the back-lit steam shot, that has the odd effect of showing you a slim cross section of the steam cloud in focus. To the eye, that looks a little odd. You can look at the food on the plate to get a sense of how much (little, really) I had in sharp focus. I have no problem with that - I like the look. But in this case, the steam takes on the look of a single frame out of brain CAT scan, or a thin slice of tree rings... something your eye would never normally see in the structure of the steam cloud.<br /><br />While most people wouldn't know <em>why</em> it doesn't look right, they'd know it doesn't look quite right somehow.<em> </em>I should have upped the ISO and shot at closer to f/5.6. Live and learn! That's exactly why I torture my dinner companions by dancing around them in the kitchen and saying things like, "Will it ruin your fish dish if you keep that lid off for just a moment longer?" After a couple glasses of wine, we all end up looking at pictures of asparagus and saying, "Ooooh!" OK, maybe three glasses of wine.</p><div></div>

[tonyarnold]

<p>Hi Matt<br>

great stuff and amusing too...ounds to me your are in US of A. My son is making the pizza as i write this...fresh yeast etc...excelent. Wife has gone to France for a couple of days to see her mother as she is unwell(ish).<br>

Now...this is a good shot with blurring of b/ground and is how i shoot food for the book i am working on with my wife. All large aperture stuff and available light.<br>

What suprises me is that your expoure works OK with the backlight. Are you taking a reading of the intensity of it and balancing it witht he daylight reading?<br>

In studio set up it would be more controllable though getting to large f no. would mean using ND filters OR using long lenses (180mm say) and then one would achieve the shallow d/field.<br>

I'll add a fof shot i have recently done for the book-though there's no steam-hence why i posted in the first instance.<br>

Enjoy your meal! My pizza is in the oven......and red wine from France..where else?!<br>

Many thanks<br>

Tony</p><div></div>

[Matt Laur]

<p>Hi Tony--<br /><br />What you're seeing there is the nearly miraculous behavior of Nikon's CLS and iTTL systems dealing with the light balancing. Since I was shooting in aperture priority mode, wide open, the camera did a fine job of moderating the strobe output for me. If it can't read my mind well enough, I just use the flash compensation adjustment a stop or so one way or the other ... season to taste, as it were. But the system gets it very close to perfect under all sorts of circumstances.<br /><br />If your lens is dragging in enough ambient light for it to meaningfully contribute to the expsoure, the iTTL programming in the system really keeps the strobes under control quite well. If I have anything at all like a little more time, I'll set the flash power manually, and check the results before continuing - it's all the more consistent that way. But with CLS and iTTL, I can pretty much waltz into a kitchen and start shooting, no (or, little) fuss. Enjoy that pizza!</p>

[tonyarnold]

<p>Hi again Matt,</p>

<p>Started looking into using my D200 with the flash last night (late) but haven't explored this aspect before-using it as a main flash off the camera with Nikon CLS etc. Need to tweak camera menu and flash menu i believe when mor time allows....am sorting my VAT return out for my photo business.....<br>

Will look into it again at some point today......<br>

Tony<br>

PS Made a really good loaf of bread last night! Stumbled on a unique recipe via making too much pizza dough. Rather like photography...learning through mistakes sometimes brings amazing results! I need to do a rerun though to ensure i can do it consistently</p>

[tonyarnold]

<p>Hi again Matt,</p>

<p>Started looking into using my D200 with the flash last night (late) but haven't explored this aspect before-using it as a main flash off the camera with Nikon CLS etc. Need to tweak camera menu and flash menu i believe when mor time allows....am sorting my VAT return out for my photo business.....<br>

Will look into it again at some point today......<br>

Tony<br>

PS Made a really good loaf of bread last night! Stumbled on a unique recipe via making too much pizza dough. Rather like photography...learning through mistakes sometimes brings amazing results! I need to do a rerun though to ensure i can do it consistently</p><div></div>