Quick tips for overhead food photography
I was in Colorado Springs sharing some overhead food images methods for industrial pictures with the Specialist Photographers Guild of Colorado Springs (PPGCS). I really recommend their team if you are living everywhere close to the space to community and study images abilities. They deliver in speakers from all-around the country with loads of distinctive specialties. A quite lively and welcoming group!
Overhead food items pictures
This can be a terrific set up for capturing a good deal of food items dishes in a shorter period of time. After the set is in put and the lighting is correct you are superior to keep relocating distinctive dishes by way of. You are going to continue to need to have to work on the photos in postproduction but your time in the restaurant will be fairly small. And, purchasers like it when you really do not impede on business enterprise hrs.
To make this overhead foodstuff images set up do the job nicely, not possessing a tripod on the established is critical. It is way much too quick to bump a leg whilst you are creating illustrations or photos. The cleaner the set, the faster the job goes.
I use a Platypod Extraordinary as the base. You could also use a Platypod Ultra as perfectly. Two Platypod Handles are attached to the base for the increase. This can give you a digital camera top between 14 inches and close to 22 inches. Depending on plate measurements these heights are perfect. A Platyball or other solid ball head is on prime of the Handles and one more Cope with is utilized to move the digicam more than the solution. An added ball head supports the digital camera.
Critical to this set is to have a woodworkers clamp to secure every little thing to the table. Without the need of the clamp the weight of the digital camera will be far too major to remain in location. This is an economical established of clamps. The squeezy handles are the sort I propose as you can tighten them quickly and release them with a faucet as perfectly. By the way, you can hardly ever have ample clamps on a professional set!
Charcuterie board
Part of the elegance of a excellent meals shot is the styling. If you can work with a specialist stylist all the much better. But typically, you will uncover by yourself styling the foods even though functioning with the operator or chef. If you have warm food stuff coming by in the beginning you could want to operate with a stand in plate of meals then when the lights has been perfected it’s time for the hero to arrive underneath the camera.
One of my students, Tara Patty did a excellent occupation of sourcing the components to photograph! Meanwhile Elane Graves, did a fantastic position of styling the board with the fruit, tomatoes, bread, cheese and sliced meat. Although waiting for the meals to total, I also finished the lights. You want to have mild crossing the food to give it condition and kind with tender shadow edge transitions and lovely highlights. A solitary light-weight powering a diffusion scrim achieved this. You come across all those within a five way reflector. A piece of white foam main can provide as the fill light-weight, angled opposite the most important gentle. If you want further shadows, a black board can support with that.
Submit production
You will want to maintain your established as clear as attainable. For the reason that we ended up working fast to present as numerous unique setups as probable, some crumbs ended up permitted throughout the shot. No worries. Making use of the Dust and Scratches filter in Photoshop cleaned that up with a click. I chosen the charcuterie board applying Photoshop’s “Select Subject” and put it on a layer higher than the Dust and Scratches filter layer.
Final submit creation tweaks
To total the picture, finishing touches included working with the Clone Tool to remove stray breadcrumbs on the reducing board, a sharpening layer for selective sharpening and a Tender Gentle layer to refine the emphasize and shadows. NIK Filters Colour Efex Pro 5 additional some Tonal Contrast for structure with some Glamour Glow to add some nummyness. By the way, nummy is a technological expression I use to describe heat and yummy in a scene that receives truly tasty!
Let me know if you have any issues or other concepts for making this variety of impression more robust in the opinions section down below.
Your in Artistic Pictures, Bob
