Pairings - Studio Practices

We were to select an object and match that object with a person.  The goal was to light the object and the person the same way and to move the image from a completely flat two dimensional image, to one that popped from the paper because of the ratio and position of light and shadow.  


I asked Lauren if she would model for me and then spent several days trying to find the right bunny.  I wanted one that was not too big, and not two small, and it had to have  long floppy ears.  I never found the right bunny in the store, so was really lucky that Lauren's mother remembered where she had seen a bunny I could use. Once I knew the color of dress Lauren planned to wear for our shoot, I bought the pink ribbon....

A fun day - Lauren did a really good job, and I earned an A, well, really an A- but I was pretty happy - did not want to re-shoot.

Instructors Comments:  A very lovely job here.  I find an immediate connection between the two subjects.  Light works very well for both, including the nice backlighting for the bows and the side lighting for the arms and shoulders.  Good roundness on face.   I would have considered a darker clothing choice for the girl as I find the light colored dress a distraction from her cute face. Be careful to crop image neatly at bottom....

Food Photography

Our Studio Practices class had a food photography assignment at Cafe Mocca in Encino last week.
We had a consultation meeting with the managers to learn about the restaurant and the kinds of items they offered and the ideas they had for the use of the photography.  Finally, they told us which dishes they wanted photographed:  two salads, two dinner entrees, two luncheon entrees, French Toast, deserts (cheesecake and cupcakes) and a cup of cappuccino .

After the consultation meeting I spent a lot of time searching the internet for photographs and information I could use as a guide for capturing mouth watering food images.  Up to this point, the only food photography under my belt was the images I captured of my own plate, when we went out to dinner.  Stand up - pull out my point and shoot and "Voila" - a great food shot, or so I thought.

We gathered at the restaurant around 4:00 and arranged the set for our dishes. We were assigned the two dinner entrees.   It took us forever to get the  computer synced to the camera - and then it was on to the lights - we started with strobes and a reflector.  Finally we were ready and  the manager brought us our first dish.  We were working without a stylist so that part of the job was our responsibility too.  After four hours, we finally had an image we were satisfied with.

Our next capture was a Salmon Steak.  It did not take us quite as long to get set up for this dish - practice make perfect, or perhaps it was the close assistance of the instructor.....

  Great going Daisy, Mary, Stephanie and William - we make a great team - a special thank you to John who served as our Digital Tech when we were pulling out our hair, and Cliff who encouraged and supported us until the wee hours of the night.  

I packed up my car and started the long drive home around 11:30.