Many of my students in the Food Photography Club and my Food Photography Club Facebook group struggle with artificial lighting because they are using really cheap (under $100), bad quality lights they found on Amazon or other market places. There’s a lot of reasons why the quality is bad – but the main reason is the manufacturing of the lamp, or housing is using crappy parts, and using crappy … [Read more...]
Artificial Lighting For Food Photography Behind The Scenes
In this post I will show you super easy artificial lighting for food photography that I used to take this picture of a bloody Mary and mini BLT. Many photographers are intimidated by artificial lighting, when the reality is that shooting with natural light is actually more difficult! Here's why. Natural light (the sun) is moving all day long! With that movement, your exposure AND your … [Read more...]
Easy Artificial Backlighting For Your Food Photos
Think that looks like natural light? Well it's not. It's totally fake. This is something that a lot of students struggle with, but once they get it, it will totally change how they see light. This is easy artificial backlighting for your food photos. I've never shared my signature lighting style before. I've had photographers pretend they were photo assistants just to get into my studio to see … [Read more...]
Four Types of Artificial Light For Photography And What You Need To Know About Them
You have a ton of options for artificial lighting these days, more than ever before. There are the very expensive pro, high end lights for $1000's of dollars, all the way down to a $20 softbox kit that's not worth the cardboard box it's shipped in. So how do you know what to get? The other confusing thing is that different countries have now outlawed some of our options. They try to do their … [Read more...]
Equipment Review – Artificial Light – Are the Cheap Soft Boxes Any Good?
I get equipment questions emailed to me weekly. The most recent was from a reader asking if the cheap soft boxes available on Amazon are any good. (Affiliate Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means we will earn a commission if you make a purchase. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Contact us if you have any questions.) I've written about a … [Read more...]
Food Photography Lighting – Easy Artificial Side Light Part Two
If you saw my other post about food photography lighting, you'll remember that it covered shooting with an overhead set. This post is about shooting on a tabletop with the same artificial light. Shooting food with natural light can be quite difficult at times because the sun is always moving on us AND changing it's color temperature. Not to mention, the whole getting dark at 4:00 pm issue in … [Read more...]
Food Photography Lighting – Easy Artificial Side Lighting
Many people are intimidated by artificial food photography lighting, but it really can be easy and necessary when we start losing light early in the evening. If you are trying to shoot food and you're only able to use natural light, this getting dark early thing can be a real drag. This shot above was taken at 7pm with one light. Easy! Artificial Food Photography Lighting I tell all my … [Read more...]
Easy Refrigerator Pickle Recipes – and How I Photographed Some of Them
What kind of pickles do you like? I love the tart, vinegary kind - not the sweet ones. A good friend of ours gave my boyfriend a great cookbook for his birthday. It's called, "This is a Cookbook, Recipes for Real Life". That was my inspiration for making pickles. They have some super easy pickle recipes in here (and loads of others too of course), and I have permission to share them with … [Read more...]
Behind the Scenes of the “Location” Shoot of a Little Fig Tree
Isn't he cute? My little fig tree? Think it was shot outside? See the lens flare? Gotcha! I shot this in the studio actually. OK, so here's what happened. I pulled this whole shoot together in a few hours. It all started Saturday. Now this is going to sound like I'm rambling here, but trust me, it will all make sense. My good friend and food blooger, Erika Kerekes of In Erika's Kitchen, had … [Read more...]
Behind the scenes of a food shoot – Angel Meringue Cake
Every month we do what we call "test" shoots for ourselves. These are images that we will use for self promotion, for our websites and well, really - its just a fun day to shoot food where we are the clients and we can do what ever we want! The "we" being Amy (prop stylist extraordinaire), Alise (food stylist extraordinaire) and myself. We figure out what day we are all free and then discuss what … [Read more...]