I ate it. I ate it with my partner and made soup the next day. Damn, I hate spoilers. However, here are all the details on how to stage a simple food shoot when you technically have to cook dinner in a small kitchen.
1. Distracted by sunlight
Harsh darkness is in. They are at the point. They are trending in the commercial world. So when it spills through my kitchen window, I’m using it a lot. I don’t have a room in my January 8 grandma bed, for a nice big studio layout, so it’s all ready to go solar. I’ve spent the morning starting to create some nice textured backdrops to warm up, so things should be out of the way by 2pm.
My strobe light and (stupidly large) softbox were placed at an indirect angle to simply reflect the light around the kitchen and soften the darkest areas of the still life I had set up, just a little. We don’t want to end up being too uneven here. The sun is really shining through so it’s important to just lower the intensity a bit. Trial and error ensues.
Nobody ever talked about that, right? More power, less power, one meter closer, half a meter back. Use rosemary to add shadow? No, doesn’t work, put it back. The sun is down! The sun has receded out! Replace the battery on the trigger. And that’s it! 63 raw photos later and 167 calories burned for 1 edit! Anyway, I like it a lot. Comments are welcome below.
2. Chill the white wine and prepare the green beans
I fry the beans in a little olive oil with red onions and garlic, seasoning to taste and adding fresh thyme before serving. Oh! Sorry, back to taking pictures!
The end result is actually pretty dull here to begin with. I’m more interested in working with soft, uniform light from the softbox and using the 105mm macro, no micro (sorry Nikon) to shoot. Anyway, the sun was already setting at this point so a boring pile of old beans with translucent onions on top didn’t really appeal to me. Cue style!
Now, believe me, I’m not a stylist at all. But introducing a few knobs of butter, a sprig of thyme, and using my partner’s torch to blow out burnt areas and melt the butter a bit in this case, makes me look like a style god. / budget Gordon Ramsey / mad scientist.
The resulting images were captured with a simple left-to-right, steep-angle softbox light, and the 105mm lens worked its magic, all with very little editing. Yes, I can set up the C-stand and the arm to position the camera directly above it. I was also able to connect to help with setup and styling through Mr. Macbook, but I can’t stress how small this kitchen is. Also, the goal is to have a healthy Sunday cooking, not to slowly turn every available space into a “The Bite Shot” video. God, I love Joanie Simon, who’s with me?
3. Enjoy wine and potatoes
If you’re not from the UK, you’re probably not familiar with baked potatoes. We British admire them. Ideally, they should be roasted dry in tallow, ideally from the fattest part of the fattest animal. Honestly, I can’t stand baked potatoes. So, to safely keep my countrymen and women out of the prying eyes, I’m going to make a Mediterranean/French variation with lots of herbs and garlic, crushed and lightly fried for you to enjoy. still get crispy pieces but no rims. Oh, and it’s a delicious, rich little South African sauvignon if you care.
I like to use cast iron pans for cooking and shooting. They are wonderful, structured, heavy pieces of history. They can go through generations gathering spices and absorbing memories. Perfect prop for food shots. This time, a reasonably simple setup using a 28mm lens! Can you believe it? Not a convenient 50 in sight! I have an 85mm lens to close the gap but sometimes the close distance and width that a 28mm lens offers is a breath of fresh air. Sue me.
If we were really analyzing hairs, we could certainly see how distortion plays a small role by looking at the punch and mortar at the top right. I suspect this also has to do with not being 100% above the subject when shooting handheld. Again, lanyard, C-rack, yes yes, I hear you loud and clear, I gulped down “Sunday, wine and a lot of food, minimum heavy metal set on Holiday, if please.”
I still wanted to capture a scene with delicious crispy buns sizzling and popping from the bottom and sides of the cast iron, so not long after that, Mr. The microphone has returned to the body. Best bit though, right? Like a crunch of lasagne or the sticky underside of grilled chicken thighs directly on the tray. This photo, I am a big fan of. Macro lenses will keep a much shallower depth of field during the narrowing of the aperture, but I like a bit of focus falling here. Perhaps the food photography trends of 2023 call for a flat style from one angle to another. Think?
4. Chicken!
My partner informed me that she was coming back late from a friend’s place and asked for a ride from the subway station. Luckily I only drank 1 glass of wine and now have 2 hours to kill. The chicken is almost done at this point. It is simply roasted over a bunch of vegetables and garlic, with the broth on the bottom. Oh, I made a quick prosciutto butter with the bits we had left and spread this evenly over the brisket, between the skin and the flesh, keeping it moist.
It came straight out of the oven and I struggled with the evaporating lens for 3 or 4 minutes before having to constantly blow on the object while shooting to get what I was after. Note to self: there is a fan in the living room.
At this point it’s pitch black in the kitchen – it’s pitch black outside and I’ve smashed my guide light on the flashing light within 48 hours of having it, which shouldn’t and won’t come as a surprise to anyone. anyone reading this knows me. Luckily, the infrared on the trigger helped lock focus in place, and I came with this naughty little figure:
The delicacy, juice and broth are ready to be drizzled and a perfect bird, resting and ready to be the icing on the cake. I reduced the strobe power a bit here and activated the shutter higher to reduce those dark areas and keep all the warm tones that embrace the chicken and grilled veggies, with the 105mm really coming into play. its own. I played around with photos that involved more context and style but the sheer blackness of the baking box and all that caramel layer just called for a deep and dark look at the finished product, from a humble standpoint. my desires and my desires. A meal fit for a king nothing more and nothing less!
I was pretty disappointed when we finally sat down to eat, but anyway, honestly, I can call it a pretty perfect little Sunday.
I’m thinking about doing this quite often — pick something to evoke in the kitchen and walk you through my photography process. Sometimes it is very successful, sometimes it is an inevitable disaster. But it’s all good fun and hopefully it’s an insight into a personalized process, done candidly for the sheer joy of it! If you guys have any suggestions on what you’d like to see me tackle, I’d be more than happy to take suggestions. Send me an email or comment below
