edible homework – shadows
March 10, 2011 I’m so excited about this post! I’m going to show all of the edible homework submissions I received and talk a little bit about each one. First, before I do that, I’ve had some emails asking about my photography set up.
In all honesty, it’s a little shoddy. I give myself about a 3’ x 2’ workspace by the sliding glass door, just like I showed you in my sweet paint drawings last week.
My light bounce is a large piece of foam board, that I prop against a super small $8 table. You can find the foam board at Michaels. It’s about 1/4” thick and is a fairly stiff material that stands well. You could also build a little arm off the back or prop it with a box.
So, in this position, the light is coming from the right. I take 90% of my photos this way. It’s pretty funny to see this photo. It looks SO small, and it really is. It’s the best light in the house though, so I make the space work.
This is the black surface I shoot most of my photos on. Sometimes I use towels, but I really like how the black background makes food pop! I don’t use any type of background behind the table, except the white cupboard. Sometimes, I have a hard time keeping that blue wall out of shots.
So this is it! Fancy, huh? I’m already nervous about finding a good spot in the new house. The best light is in one of the spare bedrooms. We’ll see how that works!
I keep a pretty tight angle on my food when I shoot it. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get a bit more legit setup at some point, but this will have to do for now.
Oh, and the black tile thing? That’s a slate cheese plate from crate + barrel. :)
And now to all of your submissions!
This first submission, comes form the lovely Janetha, from Meals & Moves. I loved looking at Janetha’s simple coffee photos. She played with the camera angle and 3 different kinds of light.
She posted about “playing with light” in this post. Be sure to check it out!
This first shot is taken with backlight.
This second shot is as well. I love that she took 2 photos, at 2 different angles, using the same light. It’s fun to compare what look a different angle can give you in the same type of lighting condition.
I love this photo! The angle is pleasing to the eye and it looks like the bright morning sun coming in from the corner.
Side light. Not too much different from the back-lit photo, but not quite as bright.
Now this, I love! The angle again, is great. I love that the side light is hitting the front left area of the mug, but also hitting the back right side, inside of the mug. Beautiful!
Now for front-lit photos. Still, fairly similar, for this overhead shot.
My favorite of the bunch! Another front-lit photo. I love that the front-light brightens up the right side of the mug, in comparison to the more shadowed, side-lit version.
Thanks Janetha!!
This next submission comes from Kath, from Kath Eats Real Food! I love that Kath’s photos are always full of COLOR! Everything always looks so fresh + delicious. I also love that she takes morning photos outside. They just feel so crisp and morning-ish..if that makes sense. :)
Another coffee submission!
Kath, took what looks like a front-lit photo on the left and a side-lit photo on the right. Do you have a favorite?
Mine is the side-light. I love the shadowy effect on the left side of the mug. I also prefer this angle, where you get to see a bit more of the coffee. The curvy mug she used also looks like it’s pulling to the light, reaching for that morning sunshine! Thanks Kath! :)
Mmmm, apples. I definitely eat one almost every day! Thanks to Michelle from A Voracious Appetite, for submitting these next two photos. You can check out her post about it here!
Michelle uses a Canon PowerShot SD1300 IS as her photo taking device. I loved her take on the “homework.” She photographed the apple at the exact same spot, at 2 different times of day.
This first photo was taken around 11am.
The 2nd photo was taken at 2pm. Only 3 hours later, and such a difference. Can you see it? The top photo has much more shine on the front of the apple. It’s much brighter in general. The top of the apple on the first shot is shinier as well. The light looks stronger coming in from the right, with the 11am light.
Pretty amazing how a few hours can change things so much! I’m having so much fun with this!!!!
Thank you Michelle!
I loved that this next submission was of an object and not food. I’ve never seen a state shape, made into a cookie cutter! This comes from Kelly, over at Brownies and Zuchinni.
Kelly’s photos are really interesting because of the light bounce from the shiny object.
She said she wasn’t expecting the light to bounce so much, because she typically doesn’t think about what the light will do. I love that it’s casting shadows and bouncing light all at the same time! Now where are the cookies that go with this cookie cutter? ;)
Thanks Kelly!
Light is such a fun part of photography, but also confusing. The best thing you can do is play with the light and see what you can do. Even if you create a bad photo, you learned something!
Similar to the apple experiment, the orange photos are of the same object, in the same spot. One is taken with a light bounce and one is not.
These come from Heidi at Food Doodles. Heidi plays with her photography a lot on her blog and seems to really have fun with it.
The first photo is taken with a light bounce. I love the strong shadow! The light is coming in from the right and the bounce is helping to light the left side of the orange.
Here is the photo with no light bounce. Quite the difference! The light on the right side of the orange is much more harsh and obviously the shadow is much stronger because there is no white surface bouncing it back onto the orange. Heidi said that learning to bounce light allowed her to find a new photo spot in her house, that works much better.
Yay! Thanks, Heidi!
This fluffy, delicious looking basil plant submission, came from Michelle from Gold-Hearted Girl. Michelle’s blog is really fun and I love her photographic eye!
Michelle took this first photo with no light bounce.
In the 2nd photo she bounced the light using a paper plate! I love it. I used paper towels for awhile. It definitely works and you can clean up any messes after. ;)
The light in this photo is more balanced and brightens up the plant all around. The plant looks shinier and more alive! Thanks Michelle!
I want to eat this next submission from Molly at Doughing Rogue. [love the blog name!!] The muffins are sweet potato graham muffins. Yummmm. Molly is new to the blog world as of March. Welcome!
This first photo does not use a light bounce. The photo looks somewhat back-lit but also like light is coming from the left side. I love the light hitting the tops of the muffins in the back. They look sun kissed!
For Molly’s with light-bounce photos, she wrapped foil around foam board, for a super intense bounce! Check out the difference! She said she didn’t like this at all. She felt it looked fake. Using just the white surface of the foam board, may have softened up the bounced light a bit. But, as I’m learning, sometimes no light bounce is better!
2 more, 2 more!
Lauren, from The Spiced Plate, sent over this next submission. Lauren informed me that she is new to taking food photos and uses a Canon Powershot. She’s been playing around with light at different times of day and in different rooms where she lives. Looking good so far, Lauren!
The photo is of a charoset. What is that? I know I know! It’s an apple-raisin-walnut mixture, typically eaten during Passover.
The first photo is on a cloudy day, with light coming in from the right.
In this second photo, Lauren turned so the light was coming in from behind her. As Lauren said, the light is a bit harsh, but I do like that the charoset is brightened up in this second photo. My favorite angle + photo setup, between the two, would be in shot number one. Thanks Lauren!
Last but not least, Averie from Loves Veggies and Yoga, wrote a fabulous post on her light study. She took a LOT of photos that are really worth checking out. You can tell she definitely had fun playing with light, during all times of day, in different spots of her house.
As she moved around her house, even though it was the same time of day, she noticed the light was much more yellow in certain areas.
She also played with different angles and vertical shots. I tend to not take many vertical food photos, but want to start playing with them more. I love how the food is coming right at you in this photo.
This was my favorite from Averie’s bunch. The angle is lovely, the colors are great, and the light is nice and bright. Averie said she learned 3 main things from this exercise.
“Lighting matters.
Angles matter.
Cropping matters.”
I couldn’t agree more! Thanks Averie!
*Edited to add* I completely missed one of the homework emails. I’m so so sorry Marci!! Marci from Marci Gilbert’s Blog sent a few photos, of a deeelicious looking recipe. I love that she also sent a photo of the window with the light coming into the room. The angles she chose are very pleasing to the eye. All of the photos were taken with her new 50mm lens. Love that lens!
Here is her lovely photo spot.
The first shot is from an above angle with the light coming in from behind + above. You can tell the light is coming in from behind because the front of the bars are in shadow. If you want more light to be thrown back on the bars, you could set up a light bounce right in front of your body but before the bars.
The light coming is so soft and pretty!
The second shot was taken from the exact same spot, but at eye-level. You can really get a sense of the texture of the bars.
In this last shot, Marci turned the tray and moved her position. The light is now hitting the bars from an above-left angle. I think my favorite angle is the first photo, but I like the light in the last photo the most. Thanks so much Marci and sorry I forgot to post your photos!!!
Phewwwww! That was a long one, but so much fun for me to type up. It was really different to use YOUR photos and write up a post to go along with them. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did and learned something along the way too! I definitely want to assign more edible homework soon. Be on the lookout!
Keep playing!!
Ashley
Photography 101
Reader Comments (53)
I LOVE THIS! Lighting is truly fun to play with, I loved seeing all these girls' submissions. it drastically changes photos so much!
I just wrote a post on my novice and completely noobie camera skills! :P Thanks for the pointers here Ash! Take care <33
wow this was amazing to see! I love good photos but I have no skill whatsoever haha
I love love lovee photography! I need a DSLR so I can take even better ones. Currently my point-and-shoot is sufficing:)
This was so fun to do -- thanks for sharing -- it's also fun to see what other bloggers have done!
I've been using the technique of taking a photo from various angles since doing this experiment, because I was so happy with my results!
I want to try setting up a foam board box to see if that helps with the horrible lighting in my apartment.
Cheers Ashley!
So much fun! Best homework assignment ever. :)
very cool post. love it
I loved seeing your photography set up! Thanks for sharing everyone's photos, too. This was really helpful.
Glad you posted your photo set up. I was wondering what the black mat was too. One of the pictures I sent you for homework made Tastespotting today. Yippee.
Thanks for your comments on my photos. I had so much fun with this project. I love that you included everyones submissions into one email so I can learn from what others did! It was also really fun to see your set up. I'm going to try to recreate something similar. Thanks again for the photography inspiration :-)
This is really neat and very helpful!
Love it! This helps so much!
Everyone did so good with their homework! It's fun to see the variations.
I really liked this post, Ashley. Thanks.
Very cool photos! It is amazing what light can do!
omg...I totally missed your homework email!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so so sorry!!!
Ugh...I starred them all, but yours came in first and I must have forgotten. I'll definitely put it in the next post! Again...major apologies!!! Congrats on getting a photo on TS too!
So glad it was helpful to you!
Awesome..I'm glad it helped!!
That's awesome!! Gotta start somewhere...I just started really photographing about 1.5yrs ago. So much fun!
Such a great idea! You're the photography guru of the healthy living blog world : ) So neat. Thanks for sharing this!
I find that it is close to impossible to set-up good photos in our little apartment. We have absolutely terrible lighting, so my photos are really inconsistent... My brother is in town and we are adamant that we're making a real lightbox finally this week : )
Awesome! It's great seeing everyone else's pictures! Thanks so much for doing this :D
I love seeing all of the different photos! I look forward to the next assignment :)
P.S. Don't worry, there will be cookies. :)
Welcome...thank you!
Thanks for being a part of it!
Oh gosh...I'm flattered. There are some great food bloggie photogs out there for sure!
What fun photos indeed! Not sure if my photo submissions would've made your blog, as they don't look blogger worthy :)
Thanks for the infomative post and taking the time to talk about everyone's pics. I always love your photog. posts!
Thanks for featuring my work! It's fun to see what everyone else did, too! I love your little photo station. I used to have those folding tables - clearly they're good for lots of things! Haha
You ARE the guru, I agree! What I love most is that you taught yourself.
Thanks for putting my photos up!
I am sooo glad you showed us your setup! Mainly because I was never smart enough to realize I can buy a little table like that and take it anywhere in my house. Um, duh. I always use the kitchen table because it's by the sliding glass door (and I have daylight bulbs in there for night time shots).. but there are times of day where I'd much rather shoot on the west side of the house! Thanks for showing your setup. It goes to show that you really don't need a lot to make great photos. I already have some foam board so I will have to snag a table. I always thought you were using some hefty, nice black table. Who knew.
Are you going to be talking about RAW sometime? That is still something I am scared of, even though you went into detail about it at Foodbuzz.. I still haven't bothered to even mess with it. I know it would be beneficial.. I'm scurred ;)
It's the warmest day of the year here today! I saw you mention that it snowed and then it was 50 and then supposed to be 60.. same here in the SLC. We have such similar weather. Too bad we can't go spring riding together.
XO
This was a fun project! I'm happy to see I'm not the only one who struggles with finding the right lighting or making shots look good. And maybe just some white foam board could help my pics a whole heck of a lot!!
Love love LOVE this post. I get so overwhelmed with the "science" of picture-taking. Seeing examples helps a lot.
Thank you, Ashley, for allowing my lettuce photos to grace your site :) And to be in the company of your photos, Kath's photos, and in the company of other people's photos who are such great photographers!
I am so glad I participated in the homework because it really DID help me solidify concepts in my own mind and just have fun playing around with things.
I can't wait for the next homework assignment :) Thank you for helping us all learn!
I love this!!! :D I love playing around with the light in my pictures!!!
xoxo
Kathleen
So much fun!! I have a couple of favorite spots in my house depending on the time of day and/or if its sunny or cloudy outside to really maximize the colors of my photos! :)
You're welcome Averie...thank YOU for submitting! :) A+
Awesome..I'm so glad it helped!
LOL..nope just a cheese plate and a tv dinner table...hahaaa I will go into RAW photos...there isn't anything to be scared of. It doesn't make the photo-taking any different, just the post processing. You'll be able to edit your photos to a much higher degree without seeing degradation int he quality. I'll go into it more sometime soon. I love writing the photog posts but they are a bit time consuming...and right now I don't seem to have a ton of time! BAaah! :) Yes, it's gorgeous here too..in the 60's! Wish we could ride together too!
You very welcome!
Oh gosh..your photos are great!
You're so welcome..thanks for participating!! :)
Great pictures! I need to start considering perspective more :)
Awesome examples. I got to get a plain background for my food photos as well :)
These look SO yummy! I need to figure out a way to make these without eggs(I don't eat eggs).
Umm I think maybe I posted this comment on the wrong post, lol! Sorry!
If you figure it out, I will declare you a genius!
when will you post the next assignment? I'm excited to participate - I finally got my paws on my boyfriends camera (ehm...I mean he lovingly passed it along into my careful hands!!).
These shots are fabulous.
[...] nothing about photography, but I’m slowly learning to pay attention to things like this from this blog. Anyway, I’m not taking credit for this recipe because the heart of this dessert is a key [...]