Have your cake and eat it

[Josh Bear]

Dear All,

Got a interfit 150ex studio kit on Saturday. Here are my first pictures taken with it. (well not the actual first cause they were rubbish , underexposed massively).

Crtique welcome. especially on exposure and colours hence posting 3 pictures to give you a feel for where I am with the kit.

Best Regards

Josh

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[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Have your cake and eat it

I love the colours & clarity of the 2nd pic. Mind you, the pastels of 3rd pic great too....looks just ready to bite.....hhhap!

[Autumn]

Re: Have your cake and eat it

I also love the colours and the clarity, particularly set on a white plate.


I don't know whether these are real cakes or those artificial ones for display. The first and the third look very real, but the middle one doesn't to me. The bun case or outer part of the cake looks grey (of course it could be my monitor! It's about time I recalibrated it I think) and I can't think I have ever seen grey cakes.

I love the composition particularly of the last one.

Overall they are a very professional set of photographs and I think you must be very proud of your new kit.

[spl]

Re: Have your cake and eat it

I am a complete newcomer when it comes to studio photographic techniques. From a cursory glance at the web it would seem that your new kit involved lighting equipment and it is interesting to see how you have redistributed the shadows so that they fall evenly to each side of the objects.

[Blithe]

Re: Have your cake and eat it

The last one in particular looks as though I could pick one up from the plate. Just the right amount of sheen on the icing. They look like a certain Mr. K's and the pink is very good colour wise if they are. The central one made me smile - looks like a silver bun case - more for decorative purposes as has been said. I like the coloured strands in the middle one, an E number nightmare

[Tinka]

Re: Have your cake and eat it

Hi,
Clear sharp and scrumptious, thats an extra couple of pounds on the waistline, Could make great promotion/advert shots,I prefer the second and third, in the first image the whites seem a little grey/blue and even in the third the plate seems a little off white, could be this monitor though.

[Archangel]

Re: Have your cake and eat it

Dear All,

Got a interfit 150ex studio kit on Saturday. Here are my first pictures taken with it. (well not the actual first cause they were rubbish , underexposed massively).

Crtique welcome. especially on exposure and colours hence posting 3 pictures to give you a feel for where I am with the kit.

Best Regards

Josh

Josh,

All photos look very nice in terms of colors and lighting.
The 2nd one stands out more for me just because the texture detail is more visible than the rest two.
I could eat any of them, preferably all of them regardless of the texture detail variances


George

[peter]

Re: Have your cake and eat it

It has to be the 3rd one for me. I will say the plate does not look as white as it does in the first one. Those are some of my favorite cakes pity they are so small

[Bearface]

Re: Have your cake and eat it

These are great considering it's your first effort. How did you diffuse the light - was there a softbox or similar in use? Anyway, here's my feedback:

The first one is a little "safe" for me in terms of the composition and perspective, plus the multi-directional shadows detract from the clean, uncluttered feel. The whole thing is flat to camera, so there's no sense of depth. Quirky angles often work better for this kind of thing.

The second one is better, although for my tastes it's a tad busy and the paper "cup" holding the cake looks to be a strange colour. In fact, it doesn't really look like a "real" cake! Technically though, it's good.

The last one is brilliant. In many ways it addresses my criticisms of the first one, so clearly you picked this up really quickly. This shot could easily be used in an advert or in POS material, so you should be pretty pleased with yourself.

Out of interest, do you have a light tent? I recently started shooting watches and jewellry for a client and the difference in terms of control and evenness of light is amazing. Saves a load of time too.

Got mine here, and it's made life much easier. It wasn't expensive and compared to rival products, you get a lot for your money. Just a thought

[Josh Bear]

Re: Have your cake and eat it

Dear All,

thank you for the comments and critique. Apologies for the late reply but I have been away. I will have a look at the white balance I used in RAW conversion. I had the 5d set to flash wb so thought It would be fine. That said I am finding the Wb more "problematic" on the 5d vs the 20D.

The middle picture was actually a candle with the wick removed! This might amount to the comments on the colour.

As regards the questions from Bearface

"How did you diffuse the light - was there a softbox or similar in use?" - Yes. On one light i used a soft box on the second I had an umbrella and was firing through the umbrella. I think this caused the multidirectional shadows you mentioned. Thanks also for the critique about the flat look. Very useful.

"Out of interest, do you have a light tent?" Yes I have a lastolite one. Would you advise using the softbox and also the light tent or removing the softbox and just have the flash head going straight through the tent?

best regards

Josh

[Bearface]

Re: Have your cake and eat it

As regards the questions from Bearface

"How did you diffuse the light - was there a softbox or similar in use?" - Yes. On one light i used a soft box on the second I had an umbrella and was firing through the umbrella. I think this caused the multidirectional shadows you mentioned. Thanks also for the critique about the flat look. Very useful.

"Out of interest, do you have a light tent?" Yes I have a lastolite one. Would you advise using the softbox and also the light tent or removing the softbox and just have the flash head going straight through the tent?

Thanks for the info. TBH, I'd have probably used the light tent (assuming it's big enough..?) and a single light. The skin of the tent acts as a diffuser, so you can shoot straight though it; no need for a softbox as this will just filter the light and compromise you an extra stop or so.

Generally I position the light - fitted with a standard dish - about a foot above the tent, but slightly off-centre (a few inches backwards and to the right as you're facing the front of the tent) to give a realistic-looking shadow and a nice, clean distribution of light. The walls of the tent reflect the light nicely and you get a far more even and polished looking result.

Keep posting your stuff

[Josh Bear]

Re: Have your cake and eat it

thanks,

I went out a got a studio lighting book today and have just started going through it but so far the tips you have given are much easier to understand and are very useful.

Best regards

Josh