What kind of light for this picture?

[nadiaduchemin]

<p>Hello everyone,<br>

<br />Can you help me figure out how to reproduce this kind of light?<br>

<a href="http://www.twitpic.com/ae1056" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.twitpic.com/ae1056</a><br>

(See picture)<br>

<br />I have a Speedlite, Softbox kit, a big window, reflectors (5 in 1) and a diffuser for my flash. I also have white matte walls and a corner to bounce if necessary. <br>

<br />I just can't figure out what I need to do to achieve this kind of light like the one in the picture. </p>

<p>Thank you. </p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>This could be taken by simply bouncing the flash off of a standard white ceiling. The "look," here, is mostly seen in the pushed contrast that is blowing out the highlights and oversaturating the colors. That part would be done after the fact.</p>

[nadiaduchemin]

<p>Thank you Matt. <br>

I find it hard to understand light sometimes and always feel like I need 2-3 soft box to achieve something like in the picture. </p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>That's trying too hard for something like this. If you have a white ceiling and some bright walls, a single bounced flash (hitting those surfaces) will act like a very large light source. And that takes care of your shadows. But you'll still have to play with the tone curves and saturation in post in order to reproduce what we see there (if you really want that exact look).</p>

[mike dixon]

Thread has already been posted (and received responses) in the Beginner's forum: http://www.photo.net/beginner-photography-questions-forum/00afqt?unified_p=1

 

Please do not post the same thread in multiple forums.

[rodeo_joe1]

<p>It's not too hard to "read" light. The softness or hardness of the shadow edges tells you how big the source is (relative to the subject distance). The direction of highlights and shadows tells you the position of the light; the falloff gives you a clue as to the distance of the light, and the depth of shadows tells you how much fill or ambient light there was.</p>

<p>This looks as if a small soft box or bounce reflector was used just to camera right and slightly above the camera. You can see the highlights in the fork and foil dish are all reflecting from there, and the shadows are falling to camera left. The light is falling off quite quickly to the rear and left of shot, and the shadows on the T-shirt sleeves are quite sharp-edged. This shows the key light must be fairly close to the dish of food, and probably not very big judging by the specular reflections it gives on the surface of the liquid sauce. There's a lot of ambient fill, and the only saving grace of this lighting is the strong and even fill IMHO. There may be a weaker secondary light from behind and left of the camera, since I'm seeing a dimmer specular reflection from there.</p>

<p>At a guess, I'd say the key light was a simple on-camera speedlight swivelled to the right and maybe pointed at a white reflector or something like a Flashbender. The overall ambient light could be daylight, but the reflections in the dish and the wrinkled backdrop suggest a makeshift light tent has been constructed from sheets or somesuch and this will naturally bounce the key light around.</p>

<p>Having said all that. I'm at a loss why you'd want to reproduce this lighting Nadia. That's got to be one of the most unappetising food shots I've seen in a long time. If the idea is to show how disgusting a dish of obviously cold food can look, then it's certainly working for me.</p>

[tim_ludwig2]

<p>I've got to totally agree with Rodeo Joe, this lighting is dreadful for food or even for just about any subject. If you are after good food photography, head for any good national chain restaurant such as Red Lobster, Ruby Tuesday's, etc. and just sit there studying the lighting in the images. Same with any of the great magazines based on food and lifestyle.</p>

<p>You will see that the main lighting is almost always coming from a position far away from the camera, often nearly at 180 degrees, and is used to highlight the shape of the plated items. Most often this will be from a broad and delicate source such as a big soft box, but not always. Any light from near the camera will only be fill light so that the food is illuminated, but only highlighted from roughly behind or far to the side.</p>

<p>It's that highlight position that creates the "sizzle on the steak".</p>