I was going to title this when seemingly intelligent people do dumb things.

I have been trying to isolate the special of the night at work. Ultimate goal is make some money with food, without having to buy it and cook it myself. Nice deal?

So I tried the table cloth on the cart. Nah, too much texture. Then I did glass tables, silver trays, counter tops and a sheet of white plastic. I did soft flash, back lighting, all kinds of things.

One day, I was struck by the obvious. Isolating a white dish on a light background was plain stupid!



I could edit and paint and erase for 30-40 minutes and get some jagged edges, something that was driving me nuts.

So I ordered a 12x24 sheet of black plastic. (also green, blue, red, yellow, translucent white and bronze as long as I was paying the freight) I would have liked sheets twice as large, but at $24 a pop, I thought I'd better stick with the $12 size...

On camera flash, pocket Powershot, test photo. I use the Canon A400 for testing, so I don't have to carry around the DSLR. Quick and dirty. Reduced to 640x480 from 2026 image. Minimal editing for reflections and the counter top that showed on the edges, also did some spot sauce removal with the cloning tool.



What do you think. Am I ready for the real thing? :-D Where's the smilie for slapping oneself in the forehead, or the little light bulb.

Light plate - dark background!

Now, do I want to do a soft box or to diffuse the flash, so I don't get the sparkles and reflections? Moving up towards some serious micro.

ps I didn't stay at a hotel last night, but I work at one. ;-)

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Nice start on your food career. I have a few comments that may help.
I like your choice of a dark background with the white dish.
The challenge is to "see" the dish, not just a white circle. How about an off-white dish or white with some texture? Or maybe your final lighting will not wash out the dish to totally white. And I'd experiment with a background that's not so dark. To me it looks like a black fill. Maybe a dark fabric that your lighting may reveal as something with a texture.
You might want to keep some sauce spotting on the dish for extra realism.
I think the food image is a good start. Tasty even. I think we'll eat out tonight.

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Sounds good. I bought 7 colors of Plexiglas, so that gives me some range of colors. Smoke might work (they call it bronze, and it's translucent) I hadn't thought that pure black background was not good.

I need to work on softer flash, so the plate doesn't wash out. Thanks for pointing that out. Also I just don't like the reflections and glistening. Am I correct thinking that?

Plate? Ha! That is slightly off white, hotel service. :-D I don't have a choice, unless I get the chef to use my plates. Good news is, he wants copies of the photos for his portfolio, so he's willing to be helpful.

As usual, with multiple employment, seven days a week, time to shop and build is limited. coming up is a four day weekend... working 7am - after 5pm, so it's going to be another week before I can start building the soft boxes for the side flashes, get the wiring done, then move forward another step.

Tonights test shot. Apple on green Plexiglas, white tape over flash (actually translucent white contact paper) to soften the flash. I used color balance in camera, color adjustment with Elements 5, magic healing brush to remove spots on the green and flash reflections on the center of the apple. Otherwise, nothing else. 3mp pocket P&S Canon A400. Cropped and downsized for the forum.

Proving the need for off camera flash or some sort of side fill.



"I'll be back!" ;-)

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