Food Tips

M

mdrpreditor

New member
I'm shooting a project next week with the DVX100b which will focus on food in specific cookie baking. My executive producer wants it to look like a food network program (which is usually hd with a set and lots of lighting) but I'm going in with a dvx100b and possibly 1 lowel tota flood to regular people's homes. Lots of beauty shots of the ingrediants, food, etc.. Can anyone give me any tips on how to make this stand out and get close to a food network looking show? Thanks so much in advance!

Shot list example:

Interior of Fridge
Close ups of preparation process
Interiors of cupboards
 
I've shot for Nestle, In 'n Out Burger and others. The one major tip: always backlight food.
 
I tend to agree with Cyclone. Not an absolute but you can't go wrong with one directional soft bank, with some mirrored fills and a nice backlight. A Fresnel works nice or a spot for the backlight..If you want some ideas, I have a pretty big food and beverage section on my website. www.sjbaraophoto.com

Good luck.
 
I can tell you for sure that 1 light isn't going to make your footage close to anything on the food network. I shot some some last april for a local fast food chain and it took min 4 lights to get things looking good (fairly even with a little highlight sparkle.) But of course, I was also shooting the food on bluescreen, so that made things more difficult.

If push comes to shove, I'd like to have a chimera with a 650 or 1k and a 250 fresnel for your backlight.

Matthew
 
yes, I do tons of food work and you are definitely going to need at least one large soft key source, and definitely a back light.

also, here are two hints I use when i shoot food.

First,

when you do your lighting set up, make sure the counter or table you are shooting on has something large and white on it. I can't tell you ow many times I did a set up, and then once we roll, a white platter comes out and it totally blows out. Now, when I'm setting up lights, I just lay out a white tablecloth on the surface and light to that.

another thing that sometimes comes in handy is to have a small source with a dimmer on it, like a 150 ,on a C stand. that way you can always put it where you need it. for example, if you need that shot down into the pot, just swing it over and aim it straight down.


Also, pick your produce wisely. For example, I always go for red onions over yellow, they are easier to light to.

-c
 
That's an interesting thought exercise (thank goodness I have a set of kinos at my disposal...)

If I had to shoot food shots with just a tota, I'd bounce it off a bounce card above and slightly to the back and side of the product. Like this: (but not with dog food)

1201282078.jpg
 
Ah, yes - what Jokerswild said...I forgot about the little tiny mirrors to reflect back nice hard light for little accents and details. Excellent! And I agree with the large soft source. Sometimes, depending on the food, it can be a huge 4x4 directly over the top with a large light source behind it. Yes, Dimmer = good. Love i's diagram! (i? - what's that stand for - I know..."me")
 
a good food stylist is alway helpful as well, the good ones have all kinds of tricks to make the food glisten, steam, shine or whatever you want. They help you (DP) look good
 
I'll second the food stylist, they are amazing at what they know. You rarely see food photographed without a stylist that looks really appetizing.

Dan
 
I worked on a cooking show and the DP lit the food beauties with a 6x6 silk backed with a 6x6 black and bounced 2x 1K's into it in a book light configuration. Some negative fill and the occasional finger (thin flag) was used to break it up.
 
These tips have been really helpful. Thanks so much everybody. I, your diagram is awesome.. really took the low budget light that I have and helped me get an idea of how to take it to the next level. I'm going to push for a simple bounce card and do my best. I wish I had all the other lighting options everybody else mentioned, but my producer is only letting me have a tota!
 
Then you should smack the producer and tell him thats just not going to do it and put the money in for at least 2 more lights. To rent a kit is like only $50 from some places. We use 3 1000k soft boxes and tons of tiny little lights sprinkled through out the studio to give pools of light so its not just flatly lit. Yes, white plates suck!!! The white table cloth is a good idea but then again shooting on the DVX is going to be harder especially with the reds. You are going to have to bring your chroma way down in the settings and bring the color back in post so you don't get the banding on tomatoes and red bell peppers. For the close ups, a food stylist is key because its not easy to make something look like the food networks. There is a lot of smoke and mirrors when it comes to making food look good. Most of it you can't eat because of the stuff they do to make it look good.
 
you know, it's funny, I always thought that food stylists' food was inedible, and I imagine on commercial shoots that's probably the case (ie. glue is used for milk) but In the food work I do, which is mostly how-to and recipe based stuff,, we use some of the most well known food stylists in the biz and I'd say about 90% of the food is edible. which is great because we usually get to bring it home after.
 
This is kind of like that I guess. Isn't every cooking show like a how-to in a way? A lot of times the food will have been left out over night or it gets the blow torch to make it look cooked to speed up shooting. I don't know if the food stylist we use is well known or not but he has his "tricks". The pilots we shoot we usually can eat most of everything since its not as polished in the presentation and the cook usually presents the dish themselves. My favorite guy so far is this dude called The Flaming Greek, he cooks everything with a big torch at super high temps so you know it gets cooked enough.
 
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