We haven’t done a behind the scenes post in a while – so here are the details of this yummy pesto and pasta photo shoot.
I love testing with my friends and work colleagues whenever I can. Testing is vital for any and every photographer. I don’t get to test as often as I should or want to. Testing means you take photographs just for yourself. Hopefully your testing goes well and then you can use these images for your self promotion, and for all your social media channels.
On this particular day, I was testing with my good friend and prop stylist Amy Paliwoda. Amy also did the food in this too. Amy has an awesome prop house in Los Angeles called the Surface Library. So on this day, we shot at her studio with all her fabulous props. For more fun pics of Amy’s studio, see the blog post about her prop house.
The studio has huge windows that face the West. It also has several large overhead skylights that get way too bright compared to the windows, so there is quite a bit of light modification needed because of too much overhead light.
On this particular day, it was cloudy for my two overhead shots, so I didn’t have to block any light from overhead for those.
Below is the image from the set above. Amy has these beautiful metal backgrounds created and then rents them out.
Also, you can see that I am shooting tethered. My computer is attached to my camera via a USB cable. As I shoot, we see the image within seconds. It’s really the only way to shoot food.
Here’s a close up of my set up.
The details:
- Canon 5D Mark III
- Canon 24-105mm lens set to 47mm
- ISO 100
- F 16 (For overhead shots like this, I want all things in focus from top to bottom)
- Shutter is 1/6th of a second
- WB is set to 6000 in Lightroom
- Saturation was pushed to +11
- My tripod is a 25 year old gitzo with a lateral arm extension on it. For more details on this gear see my post about doing overhead shots.
Below is my set for the first Pesto shot.
In this shot, the sun was getting much brighter overhead and was causing a problem with adding too much light from the top. See the gold reflector on top of the set? That is blocking the light from the skylight above us.
That big black foam core is my minus fill card, I am keeping my shadows dark. If I wanted more light in the shadows, that would be a white card.
The details:
- Canon 5D Mark III
- Canon 100mm macro lens
- ISO 100
- F 5.6 (for selected focus/shallow depth of field)
- shutter is 1/3rd of a second
- WB is now 5500
- In lightroom editing – exposure was +.65, so almost 3/4 of a stop brighter, I took my highlights down to -34 points, Clarity is set to +10, and saturation is set to +16
Here was our last shot of the day. Same set as above with same camera settings and also same settings in Lightroom as well.
Fresh garnish just makes this shot. It would be so boring without that.
So there you have it! A little BTS for ya.
Are you are on the wait list for the Food Photography Club? We are opening doors next week and only those on the wait list will be invited to join. The Club is a membership site with multiple courses about food photography with live webinars and an awesome user forum.
Also check out my food photography ebooks.
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Healthy World Cuisine
Love your posts! Always insightful. Also have the same issue with light coming from everywhere but your idea for the light weight gold reflector on top to block the light. Always trying to artfully balance things over head in the shot and it never fails you just get everything into place and then….. in come the clouds… LOL Also love that black backdrop. Did you make this one?
Christina Peters
Hi there, yes, it’s important to block out your unwanted light. That studio has a ton of overhead skylights that make multiple shadows and are just too strong. I did not make that background that is a surface available for rent at The Surface Library prop house
Rob
As always, beautiful work Christina! Your images, especially those Kaleidoscope images (on your website) belong on the walls of the Chicago Museum. Amazing!!! As an artist too, I understand how much TLC and effort goes into creating images. It’s not a point and shoot kind of scenario as so many people (who aren’t artists) think it is.
Thank you,
Rob
Christina Peters
Hi Rob, thanks so much for the kind words and thanks for reading the blog.
Anna
Hello,
thanks a lot for this post, I loved it and it’s nice to have a look into the shooting of a professional photographer!
Do you happen to know what that metal background is and how to make it? I am not in the US so I couldn’t rent it but it looks really great for the food shots as background.
Thanks for your wonderful and insightful blog, I have read all your posts!
All the best,
Anna
Christina Peters
Hi Anna, that metal background is zinc I believe. Amy uses professional artists that fabricate these for her. I know it takes several days to make that background and they are very expensive to have someone make because of the time involved. They use chemicals on the surface to get the metal to oxidize like that.
Anna
Dear Christina,
thanks a lot for your reply. Well, I think I will stick with my slate backgrounds then. Anyway, it is really good to know for future reference, one never knows…
Happy shooting & good luck,
Anna
Christina Peters
Sounds good!
Victor Belmar
So good post. I wish you could explain why you set different WB settings for each picture if they all are shot under the same window natural light.
Greetings!
Christina Peters
Hi Victor, that’s a good question and I should explain that. Natural light is shifting all the time, all day long. Then when you add clouds on top of that – that will also shift the color temperature of the lights. The day I was shooting this, clouds were coming and going so there would be blue sky outside, then white clouds – huge difference in color temp when that happens. It goes from blue light to neutral light, then I warm it up anyway.
Victor Belmar
Thank you so much, Christina, really helpful answer!
Christina Peters
Sure thing Victor – and thanks for reading the blog 🙂
Bhumi
Loved the insight. Will be checking out more often, love your blog 🙂
Christina Peters
Hi Bhumi, thanks for reading!