I'm going to be shooting some food, on location, at a Cafe'. Since I can't take the whole studio :wink: what would you suggest I do?

A dinner entre on a plate, possibly a table setting, but I think I can use a light box for menu items? Or am I better off going with diffusion screens and reflectors? Bowl of soup, or sandwich with fries. Very basic.

What I'm looking for is minimal equipment and using the space available. I'm just wondering the best way to address the lighting issues.

Anyone have ideas or experience with this?

Who would have imagined, me... shooting food!

I'll take pictures of me taking pictures when I do it and report back.

My intention is to make these into Micro submissions, since I'll own the rights.

Edit: I can set up one of the tables in the corner in advance. Did I mention that customers, may be present during the shooting, but it's off hours, so there might be only one or two. Not much interference.

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Any chance you can get a table near windowlighting? Might help set the mood your looking for too. Im no expert but I guess thats what I would do Perhaps use some reflectors etc to fill shadows and get the lighting even.Can you tell us what studio equipment you do have?

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I have some quartz lights on stands. They have barn doors and are fairly small. Aprox. 4 x 6 and that might be overkill. I have a super strobe unit (which along with the lights) is "somewhere" in my semi-trailer, that I use for storage. This is a problem, because I can only get there on weekends and have to empty out the center of the trailer, to get to things on the sides. Big Mess. :shock:

My goal was to go minimal with a light tent and two desk lamps. Use those from the sides with whatever bulbs work best for food. I've been looking at the daylight florescent tubes of recent design that screw in. Something that didn't exist ten years ago. The beginners basic lighting for isolation.

I tried using a white background in the form of a sheet draped and the plate of food sitting on it. Diffused flash. It worked, but it's still not acceptable. Too many shadows. Used Photoshop, paint bucket and eraser... the edges look terrible. (blame me, not the software)

Reflectors might be a good simple idea.

The photos are taken inside a restaurant, in the evening. Available lighting is non-existent, but that's not all bad. I won't have to worry about compensating for ambient light leaking in.

I'll keep at it.

What I was hoping someone here might do is advise me on, starting from scratch, small portable isolation setup. Then I could work with parts and pieces, or just start building. :wink:

I'm making another attempt at finding things at the trailer. Good Friday, might be good. When I find the flash unit, I'll take a picture of it. This is a leftover demo unit of a dual head, AC powered, printing press strobe. The thing can flash at a rate that none of us would ever need. Zenon flash tubes.

One of the issues was the pre-flash, triggering the slave unit, and then not having the flash re-cycle fast enough. That's one problem I will not have. Color balance? I'll find out as soon as I can find it.

I may be building a "home made" portable light tent over the weekend. That's why I was looking for ideas, in case I'm headed in the wrong direction.

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Hi,

Could you contact me at "nikond70 dot pat at telenet dot be" ... i've been working on a tutorial to build a small portable light studio. It is written in Microsoft word 2003.

I haven't post it yet, but i could send you the word file, supported with pictures. Maybe it can be of use for your weekend shoot.

Patrick.

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might be worth checking out strobist - http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/ not sure how appropriate but might give some ideas

rgds
Phil

Thanks! I'll look forward to the tutorial.

I see that the Strobist is pretty broad and has loads of creative ideas.

I really was wondering about second light on stand snooted with a spaghetti box because I never heard of a light unit called a spaghetti box? Then I saw it was, what it was...

The vote for the best book, was a perfect tip in itself, because instead of searching and searching, I see that the members there, have picked what they think is the "best" one.

Now I'm even more motivated to go dig in the semi-trailer (where, by the way, just about everything I own, that wasn't lost in the flood, is stored at present) and find that Press Strobe!

I made this unit last night, from old parts and pieces. Seems to be working OK. More testing needed. I used it for side fill on one shot and backlighting on another. Can't tell if it's always flashing or if the auto-exposure is getting tricked because of the diffuser? :wink:

My favorite mini tripod, from the 60s, I wish I could find another one like this, it's solid, not like the flimsy little ones I find now, legs slide into the black support, which makes it very compact. Strobe unit I found in a box of old camera "stuff", piece of pillow case / diffuser, scotch taped to the flash, and a slave unit that runs through the hot shoe, or cable. (If I could find a sync. cable in my junk?)



Working on the mini light tent over the weekend.

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Mini light tent project is completed. Wrong lights, I need to get daylight bulbs. The lamps are too much like spots and have black interiors, I need to paint them or open them up. (or both)

Now I see why people use paper instead of cloth for the backdrop. :???:

Any more suggestions or help with this, before I build the full size project. (or break down, just buy one, and stop all the fooling around.)

Found one press strobe head, two Quartz lights. No stands, no power unit. I dug about 50% into the trailer and saw a Power Instruments box, way up on top. Something tells me, I was organized and put all that stuff together. RATS!

This is the folding mini light tent for $4.98 that I was working on.


(Edit, added small image for those who don't want to click links.)

Oh yes, the pictures were taken with a hand held Canon A400 pocket camera, just to document it. No live Furby's were harmed in this experiment. ;-)

http://pages.prodigy.net/peteklinger/498

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Wow! Your light tent is FABULOUS! Best I've seen out of all the homemade light tents on the net. I was having a hard time figuring out how a hamper would work, never imagining it was one of those great fold-up types. Nice work, Pete!

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Thanks. I'm a project kind of guy. Fun taking things apart, and sometimes actually putting them back together.

Now I need to take some "real" photos and actually sell something? :-D

Tonight's Sample from the Four-Nintey-Eight light tent.



New bulbs. Daylight balanced this time. Used a piece of paper instead of the pillow case for the backdrop. Lowered the lights and removed the rings that went around them. I doubt that painting them white or silver will make much difference. They are 1" from the side of the tent in order to get some light in through the white cloth.

The base of this ET went on top of something, so he stands up about an 1/8" or more. Had to dodge in around the front edge. Used the soften tool around his left shoulder and elbow.

I am much happier with the color, and just hit Auto balance on Elements 2 to make the background white instead of off white/grey/blue-ish. Did pull the top end in a little.

Comments anyone, on what I need to do if I want to submitt something (not trademarked or copyrighted of course) to start my Micro Career?

I'll keep working on it.

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Looks great! I think you're well on your way toward starting your micro career. :-)

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