Portfolio Week 2: Nick T Visit.

Food Photography:

-Natural: Indirect natural light is what is recommended for food photography. Finding information on the pros and cons was hard because a lot of people preferred the natural light as it was softer and created room for adjustments in post production. What was suggested was the use of a diffuser and reflector to adjust the light to how you wanted it, if of course, you couldn't get indirect light by using a window.

-Studio: I actually found a link that was quite useful in creating natural light in situations where you cannot use natural light. Here is the link to a blog that created natural looking light, from artificial light, as they cannot shoot during the day. The blogger uses one specific light, a non-kitchen light as they provide the wrong kind of light- a reflector, the use of side or back light, use 'M' mode, and something white in the photograph.

From the research I've done it would seem most photographers would prefer to use natural light in photographing food as it is softer and doesn't discolour the photograph. The artificial light proved to have more problems than it was worth, the discolouring, the lack of directed light- unless of course you use a separate light source like above. Using natural light coming through a window, it's not only easier, but they required less post processing than the artificial light. I prefer the natural light approach, there is a little less thought involved with natural light, there is enough to think about and taking the light out of the equation, not entirely, gives more room to think about all the other factors involved. The light is a big part of photography, natural lighting is beautiful and soft and using a table on the window is quite simple. There's something a little more natural about using non-artificial light, it gives a better feel, although if you didn't know it, those photographs in the link above could give you the same feeling. They work well with light source the photographer chose.

Experimentation with a natural light source:

 My experimentation with a natural light source was kind of thwarted by the weather. The light outside wasn't very bright and what I really needed to do was turn my ISO up a little bit to get some brightness back into the photograph. All in all it came out pretty well and if it was a little brighter it definitely would look better than it does now. I do however like the contrast between the colours and the angle. The angle was something I had a little difficulty with because of what was in the background, I didn't want to show too much of things that didn't add to the pictures so instead I chose this angle which incorporated the plate and the table. The colours work well together and the contrast between dark and light is what really makes the picture.






Experimentation with an artificial light source:

My experimentation with an unnatural light source turned out a little differently. The light was quite bright and because of it, there is far more light in this picture than what there is in the above one. I like the difference in angle, this angle is a little more interesting although you can see the lining of the board that's around it which I didn't really want. Still, the contrast between the white and the dark works well for this image as well and the narrow depth of field gives you just enough of the image.

I do prefer the natural light approach, I feel like the light used above was a little harsh, but it works well for this experiment and I'm definitely not ruling out the use of artificial light when it comes to photography like this, maybe if there was more of a shiny surface then it would work so well, but for the purpose of this experiment it did work quite well.