How would you light a cooking video?

mcgeedigital said:
Food "photography" and "Cooking Show" lighting are two different things entirely.
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Excellent point. Then I'll go a step further, basing my comment on the frame grabs posted at the beginning of the thread, a much stronger backlight would help the entire look overall IMO. Everything could use a "kick." The only backlight I am seeing is the reflection off of the refrigerator (and, back to my first point, it completely misses the food).
 
Haha Jorn, is it safe to say "great minds think alike"...?!

But seriously, and slightly off topic for this--I can't stress art direction enough to all. I think very often backgrounds get neglected, especially in the "fuzz it all out" DSLR era. As an operator I was trained to look at everything in the frame and make sure that it all worked for the shot in terms of balance, color, tone, reflectivity etc. and move things around to suit the frame. Compositionally, one should take everything into consideration from back to front. You can move actors, but you can't move walls (and certain furniture etc) so cheat foregrounds as required to make the best possible frame.
 
mcgeedigital said:
Food "photography" and "Cooking Show" lighting are two different things entirely.
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Although I would suggest both have basically the same goal of making food look great and tasty. That means the fundamentals of good food photography lighting should be observed over the lighting fundamentals of shooting a "show".
 
Like all tabletop work, hero shots of food involve meticulous lighting with tiny snoots and gobos and from a few feet away resembles a science experiment. Cooking shows need to be lit much broader to allow the host room to move around. I do agree they are different animals. It's still possible to make food look good in the context of a cooking show, but not with the same delicacy and precision that beauty shots in a commercial would require.
 
Shooter said:
Although I would suggest both have basically the same goal of making food look great and tasty. That means the fundamentals of good food photography lighting should be observed over the lighting fundamentals of shooting a "show".
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Oh, absolutely.

Its just whenever i usually see food photography, or a commercial, i usually see a nice strong side light for dimensionality, and then some kind of rim or back light to give it furher pop, and in a cooking show that is somehwat harder to do with a talent standing right behind the product.
 
CharlesPapert said:
Like all tabletop work, hero shots of food involve meticulous lighting with tiny snoots and gobos and from a few feet away resembles a science experiment. Cooking shows need to be lit much broader to allow the host room to move around. I do agree they are different animals. It's still possible to make food look good in the context of a cooking show, but not with the same delicacy and precision that beauty shots in a commercial would require.
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That is what i was trying to say, yes.
 
I concur with you both. I shoot a lot of food. I have a regular gig (TVC) that always involves food preparation to final dish...and talent. I shot list and storyboard my shoot as much as possible to avoid both in the same shot but by necessity..I have to maintain the "geography of the location" and that includes.. I need the viewer to believe we are still in the same place (lighting wise). Consequently I avoid wide shots and shoot MCU talent and C.U food. Despite shooting the scenes out ofg shot order I give the feel of talent being connected to the food by connecting movements, looks, hand actions (pours, stirs etc). My food shooting preference is always ...no talent..just glorious food shots in C.U
 
OP - Take a look at Shooter's reel on his site. You will see that he has done quite a variety of food shots. Both food and talent. While the bright look prevails (similar to the previous post) he also has artistic, highly shaped light shots for food and talent. I think the OP can get a lot of ideas seeing that kind of variety on one reel.
 
There are many approaches depending on whether you are studio or location shooting. But if you are looking to track down some examples of fine work. Check out the shows done out of KQED SanFrancisco probably some of the finest cooking show lighting around has come out of this small PBS station. Check out Jacques Pepins's Fast Food My Way currently airing on PBS Creat and online. Excellent Studio lighting. I also agree that 24p along with shaky cam, wild focus have no place in food television.
 
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