Food Photography and food styling can be tricky at times, especially when you have to deal with highly reflective surfaces and objects; but i always enjoy the challenge and I always learn something new myself.

I posted an article on Bright Field Photography in July 2010 ( here it is ) with a few sample images and a lighting diagram that illustrates the setup I used for this particular technique. This post is a sort of follow up to that article; I spent the past few days photographying my new collection of retro-vintage 1950's hand-blown harlequin crystal glasses and I wanted to share some images with you - imagine drinking some nice wine out of these flutes?   

The great thing about the bright field technique is that it really captures the shape and textures of your glass objects; in my opinion it is the best way to photograph a glass since it also allows you to get rid of all reflections. One hundred per cent backlighting and one hundred per cent flash in my case.

 

The glasses are sitting on a sheet of black perspex which gives a lovely specular reflection; and you have to make sure there's enough separation between the subject and the background ( a plain white wall in these pictures ).

It's also important to shoot raw files so it's easier to recover the glass colour in case it appears a bit washed out. And everything must be absolutely simmetrical and aligned: tripod, perspex, wall, the glass with the camera and the black cardboard sheets perfectly equidistant .

 

I had a lot of fun taking these pictures; at the end of the day all you need, gear wise, is a speedlight, a black perspex and a white wall - totally doable right?

I am considering introducing a bright field lighting tutorial as part of my next round of Food Photography and Food Styling Workshops in Sydney and Melbourne next month ( follow the link for detailed info ); if youb were to attend would you be interested in learning more about this technique?

 

From Sydney, Dario Milano

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Posted in bright field photography, bright field lighting, food photography, food photography sydney, food photography melbourne, props for food photography, prop hire online, dario milano, Food photography workshop, glass photography, vintage glasses

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 I am very happy to announce a new session for my next Food Photography & Food Styling Workshop down in Melbourne on the 4th of February; the morning class went sold out in a blink of an eye, so we have decided to add an extra session, on the same day, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Details here ( and still a few seats available for Sydney on the 11th of Feb ).

The workshop will take place at The White Space Studio which is a beautiful, large space in Fitzroy, blessed with lots of natural light; those who follow me know that I am rather big on studio lights so this time we'll have a fun session mixing different sources.

The image below was shot just before Christmas, in Melbourne, in occasion of a private workshop I was commissioned by Coles; it's a simple one light setup, shot with a bare Nikon SB900 bounced off a white ( ish ) wall about a meter and half camera right.

As you can see the wall does a great job diffusing the hard light bursting out of the speedlight; no reflector was needed to fill shadows, as the light wraps around the food and props very gently.

Sometimes all you need is .... a white wall !

 

From Sydney, Dario Milano, professional food photographer and food stylist specializing in editorial and advertising photography and video for food and lifestyle.

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Posted in food photography, food styling, food photography sydney, Food photography workshop, videos of food, Food, advertising food photography, editorial food photography, food photography workshop melbourne

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Sooo, here we go! This is the first of the series and I'm still developing the skills and the format.... but you get the idea.

I'd love your feedback about it, in particular with regards to the topics covered, the quality of the video/audio and the duration

There are a few good tips about post processing here that can help you out in a lot of situations.

Enjoy it and pardon my italian accent :)

 

if you'd like to submit one of your photos of food for a critique, email it to me ( I prefer raw files ) to dario@foodpixels.com

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Posted in food photography, food styling, food photography sydney, food styling sydney, food pixels, dario milano, Food, post processing tips

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