story_teller
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 p.2 #2 · p.2 #2 · Lights for the small food photography workshop | |
jlafferty wrote:
I agree with you in the abstract, it’s the details that matter though. The things I’m advocating for couldn’t be cheaper or simpler: a window, done. My wife is a food photographer and has built a career from scratch using just a window and, for a good 90% of her work, just one lens. And now clients will often ask that she forgo her SLR and instead provide them images straight from her phone. So I get the concept of minimalism, I get the idea that “these people want to do anything but become experts in gear” (you’re painting with a broad brush there 
But what others have said, and what I’m agreeing with, and not to press too much because in the end I don’t really care if you’re persuaded, is that food photography, and *especially* most food photography since, like, 2008 is about organic mood and style (and when it isn’t it’s about on axis, hard flash). A light tent is about the absence of style. It’s about objects, and rendering them in a clinical, sterile way absent of intention, commentary, connection to community, whatever. To be quite frank, food photography is about story telling (*wink wink*), it is *not* simply about even exposure. And I think if you’re teaching people, you need to frame photography, especially food photography, as principally about the story their work is telling, the ways we try to draw someone in to anticipating the dish, getting their salivary glands going, telegraphing to them a score of ideas about why the dish was prepared the way it was, who did it, and the context surrounding it (is this a quiet picnic for two or the smash-grabbed remnants of a raucous dinner party?) And the funny thing is you’re right and we agree on this whole line that the gear isn’t the key here, but I’d say the mistake you’re making is that “it’s not about the gear” only so long as the gear you’re settling on doesn’t run contrary to the purpose of how the photos need to look and feel for the subject at hand....Show more →
Apologies if I inferred that your approach wasn't a very good solution. A lot of excellent fine art, still life images have been taken using a single light source and a diffuser such as velum or even a bedsheet. When I looked at the 10,000-ft view of non-photographers wanting to take smartphone images of food, process the images on their smartphone and post to Instagram, high-quality wasn't my first thought. Many would want the equivalent of food-selfies and wouldn't want to invest several hundred dollars in equipment or the time to do it right.
It would be great if the OP came back and told us his experience with the class and their solutions. In, addition, I like Rico's challenge of getting a light tent just to see if you can get any decent results with them. It would be interesting to play with, but not for production work.
It might work for headshots..... just stick your head in that hole and smile! (lol)
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