Hey everybody!

We saw, in the previous post, how we can successfully mix natural light daylight and flash to photograph food, and how we have a choice as of which one to use as the main light and which one as fill; this is of course valid if we are shooting during the daytime, but WHAT IF.... we were to shoot at night??

Well that is my case : I shoot at night...often ; I work at home and I have 2 children so I let you imagine what a challenge it would be to get done with my assignments if they were not both sound asleep. So, I often shoot late at night and I can't count on any daylight. And this is too bad!

Still, I frequently need, or want, to recreate that " natural " look that food has when it's photographed at daytime, by the window or outdoor.

Food just looks good when it's captured in that warm and soft light that has a kind of morning or late afternoon feel; it's about the mood, it's about the story we want to tell.

Good news is: in the studio, we do have the possibility to " fake " daylight; sometimes the result is so good you could not tell the difference.

Now, before we go on and explain how this is done, we need to introduce the concept of colour temperature and talk about the Kelvin scale.

The idea of colour temperature originated with Lord Kelvin in the 19th century: because colours look different under different light sources (which have different color temperatures), the colour variation is referred to as the colour temperature and is measured in degrees Kelvin.

Technically, colour temperature refers to the temperature to which one would have to heat a theoretical "black body" source to produce light of the same visual colour.

The kelvin unit is the basis of all temperature measurement, starting with 0 K (= -273.16° C) at the absolute zero temperature.

The scale ranges from the flame of a candle at around 1900K to deep blue sky at around 10,000k.

The colour next to the average noon daylight (5500K) is white. This is the colour temperature that colour film is balanced to which means that when shooting using daylight film the photograph will record white objects as white and all the colours in an image will appear natural on the film.

What's interesting to note here is that electronic flash units emit light which is very similar to photographic daylight; and it's even more interesting to observe that battery powered electronic flash ( speedlights ) measure 6000 K which is precisely the same measurement as that of a overcast sky.

Which is why we can't sometimes tell the difference between daylight and flash.

I took this picture late at night     a few days ago; it's 100%            artificial light. The same  exposure could have been taken   at 12.00 a.m. using daylight.

You wouldn't know the  difference.

The lighting diagram reveals why :

one light source, coming from the rear, diffused , actually double-diffused ; if I was to shoot the same scene at noon I would do the same thing : diffuse the light coming from my big window.

It depends what the weather is like outside and how the light is falling into the room : if it's a fine day, the light is strong and I can't back up into the room away from the window, I will use a white linen to soften my source; it's a very cheap trick and it works. It's just like a huge soft box.

For this particular shot I also needed to have a very soft light source so to properly expose my subject without loosing details on the shiny lemon skin. I like to keep my highlights under control.

The reflector does a very good job of filling the shadows, although you can notice how the shadow of the lemon in the background is darker than the one in the front; something to take into consideration when assembling the scene.

One could always use an extra reflector.

From a styling point of view, just take into account the use of a basically duotone kind of  colour palette: both the flowers and the tablecloth main colour is yellow. Yellow on yellow we could call it.

They add to the scene without taking the attention away from the main subject; this is how props should be used.

And there is just enough red in the flowers so to create a " balanced " contrast. Lovely !

Posted in Food, Photography

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