It’s time for for the 2nd lesson in Food Photo 101! Without further ado, here it is, in Nika’s words:


I was so impressed by all of the work you all did on the last lesson, great job!We have begun to familiarize ourselves with our cameras with the last exercise (Food Photo 101: First Principles), putting your hands to work on the settings and knobs and dials and such. Its ok if it still feels overwhelming because familiarity through practice is the only way to master these things.
For me, as I put this course together, I feel this tension between getting people started on basics and helping people keep motivated by seeing improvement in their photos immediately. Today’s lesson should yield some positive changes for you.
So, in today’s second Food Photo 101 class we are taking a break from the camera-geek-speak!
(Cheers heard from the balcony)
We are also not going to be camera-specific. These ideas are common to any format, be it pin-hole, digicam, DSLR, Medium Format, Large Format, etc.
We are going to talk about how to harness the light we need to make good photos.
I like to visualize the whole process of playing with light as if I am redirecting streams and rivers of photons. With time and practice, you will see how these streams and rivers can work both for and against the beauty of your food.
Our goal is to harness or direct photons onto and around your subject in a way that is appealing in food photography (may not be appealing in portrait or product photography). We will go though various examples that hint at how to do this and then I am going to unleash you all to do it at home and report back!
Rest assured, there are many companies that make nifty do-dads that modify light for exorbitant prices. Another goal I have is to encourage a low-tech do-it-yourself approach to lighting.
Why?
Because that means more of us can afford it. Going DIY, we learn and experiment with a creative spirit, we feel empowered to make any sort of contraption that we might need to get the job done. You won’t be stifled by the lack of some expensive gadget that hasn’t been commercialized and sold at high prices in some 3 foot thick catalog. In this case, I can speak from experience because I try to use low-tech whenever I can, as you will be able to see in today’s post.





Not all bounced light is equal.
The styrofoam and other white materials that are not shiny will bounce a diffuse light. The light will be soft because it is composed of a group of photons that are bouncing in all sorts of directions.
If you use a shiny bounce like foil, mylar, or a mirror, you will get a different flavor of light. These will give you a specular reflection. See the glossary or those links for details!
In practical terms, the shiny surfaces will give you some intense focused light that you can direct onto a particular part of your subject. I like to use it on the front darkish part of the food if the light is coming from the back.
So, to re-iterate, today’s work will be on getting your subject lit with beautiful light that brings out the best of it’s qualities.

Lets get lit
For these projects you will need to look around your house or at a cheap art store for relatively lightweight light modifying materials.
Things you may want to experiment with:
- all sizes of white styrofoam blocks (teeny tiny to huge)
- a couple of super cheap silver and/or gold mylar emergency blankets
- scrap card board
- white foam core boards
- black foam core boards
- black velvet
- tape
- glue/gluestick
I am going to go through a few illustrative photos to point out some of the effects you can achieve with light modifiers. I am looking forward to seeing what sort of creative bouncers you all come up with!

Homework Task One: Make your own bouncing wonders and then take a photo of them, showing off any neato-keeno details that we all can learn from.

Using white styrofoam and a mirror
In the image below you can see a pie plate with a few eggs and some slices of bread. The light was coming in through a clear window on the left. I placed some white styrofoam on the right to bounce the window light back onto the subject.




Homework Task Two: Prepare or assemble a food that you have had difficulty with before and shoot various test shots with your styrofoam and mirrors. Share your images with us

Using other types of bouncers
You can step beyond the white styrofoam and use other colors to modify the lighting in your photo. You can use gold foils, you can use bubble wrap or lace or other semi-transparent veils. There is no limit beyond your imagination.
When I am feeling like changing things up, I sometimes use a black velvet background behind my subject. I have a black velvet dress which is excellent for using as a backdrop. The problem with MY velvet is that one or more of my 5 cats is utterly obsessed with sleeping and shedding on this dress. Photoshopping out any hairs or dust on the black background is very easy because the black is almost perfect so photo-repairs go really fast.







Homework Task Three: Find a simple food, maybe a raw vegetable or fruit, and shoot it on a black background and then on a white background. Do not forget to also use a bounce to brighten up areas that get too dark for you.


- Homework Task One: Make your own bouncing wonders and then take a photo of them, showing off any neato-keeno details that we all can learn from.
- Homework Task Two: Prepare or assemble a food that you have had difficulty with before and shoot various test shots with your styrofoam and mirrors. Share your images with us.
- Homework Task Three: Find a simple food, maybe a raw vegetable or fruit, and shoot it on a black background and then on a white background. Do not forget to also use a bounce to brighten up areas that get too dark for you.


Related Posts:
- FP101-1: Week 1 in review
- Food Photo 101: Photography for Foodies
- Food Photo 101-1
- Food Photography 101: Lesson 1 results
Class Resources
- My Food Photo 101 page
- Nika’s Food Photo 101 page
- Food Photo 101 Class Forum
- Food Photo 101 Glossary
- Food Photo 101 Flickr Group
- Food Photo 101 Newsletters
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