#2 – The Magic of Light In Food Photography

Light is everything in photography. It is the backbone of a picture.

We can make our audience experience taste, colors & textures just by looking at a photo, through light.

We can make a 2-D picture look 3-D, with light.

Bringing out the photogenic side of food that leaves folks drooling is dictated by the way light falls on the food & how it’s shaped.

When we see photos with glowing honey, specular highlights on glistening blackberries or shiny glossy chocolate, we know light is doing its magic & the food is coming alive.

STORYTELLING WITH LIGHT

Light is key in storytelling.

Imagine, I am a photographer sitting in Singapore. I have the beach, coconut trees, sand & tons of sun. I’m tanning in the tropics but sitting here I can create photos for a brand based in Scandinavia where the feel is completely different.

How do I do that? By working with light.

To recreate the feel of Scandinavia, I can create moody lighting & bring warmth to the frame with food, like a tea pot brewing by the window. The steam warms up the frame & the light cools it down.

Light is that powerful!

It brings out mood, emotion, stories & feelings. We have to get intimate with our light & think about it emotionally when we work with it. How else do we create those stories through our photos?

Storytelling is a big part of food photography because we want to transport our audience into the frame & make them experience the food through the photo but often, we get so bogged down by compositions & other aspects that light takes a back seat.

A good photo does not need to be elaborate in composition, but a good photo must always have good lighting.

THE POWER OF OBSERVING LIGHT

We need to train our eyes to observe light. If we work with natural light, there is a charm in observing how it changes through the day, how the morning light is cooler than afternoon & how the golden hour can bring out such magic in photos. The real power is in harnessing that light to create our vision.

Then there is harsh light. I love observing harsh light.
Around 10 am, I get beautiful direct light in my living room. I keep bottles, glasses, objects of different heights, shapes & colours, just to see how the shadows dance & the colour reflects – gives so much inspiration.

Each time I want to create dramatic photos or shake up my creativity, I fall back on my learnings from the bottle experiments & apply them to my photos.

So, depending on your style, story & food you can always choose between a soft diffused light that is versatile OR harsh light that is dramatic.

HOW TO MAXIMISE AVAILABLE LIGHT  

A question I’m often asked is how to maximize light for photography with only evening light available to shoot.

My suggestion would be to make use of the golden hour, or the hour after the golden hour by changing your camera settings to add more light into the scene.

The other way would be to harness the available light by creating the mood in your photos that comes naturally with the quality of light available.

If you’re shooting at night, it’s best to stay away from ceiling lights since they make our food look unappetizing by creating flat light.

If shooting at night, it’s best to invest in basic artificial lighting gear.

HOW TO CHOOSE BETWEEN DIFFERENT TYPES OF ARTIFICIAL LIGHTS

When I started photography there was a lot of buzz around natural light. People almost looked down upon those using artificial light.

But then the trend began to shift. Many influential photographers began to talk about it.

Today, so many photographers want to learn artificial light & not just because they’ve constraints but because it is a skill. Every kind of light in photography has its place as does artificial light.

The investment in artificial light, assembly, interface, controls & shaping can seem daunting when beginning but just like we learn our camera’s manual mode, the same way we learn artificial light.

You can always continue shooting in natural light as you gradually learn to use artificial light.

TYPES OF ARTIFICIAL LIGHT

 There are 3 main kinds of artificial lights – continuous light, speedlight & strobes.

The type of light depends on your budget, style of photography & professional goals.

Continuous light is great for videos and also, stills but the light quality is not as sharp as flash. If you want to invest in one light that works for both video and stills, then continuous light would be a good choice.

Speedlight is an off-camera flash. It is great for still photos, has many options in the market, is budget friendly, pocket friendly & can be carried to shoots easily. So, if you’re doing a simple restaurant shoot, pack a speedlight in your bag & you’re good to go esp. if natural light is not available on the set.

Strobes, my favorite kind of off-camera flash. They’re powerful & their light rendering is gorgeous, but they can be bulky. They don’t fit in the pocket, need to be carefully carried to shoots also because they’re expensive.

I wanted to work with both, commercial & editorial clients which is why I made the investment in strobes.

Speedlight to strobes is a good transition if you plan to take up food photography professionally.

Irrespective of the light you use making sure your fundamentals are strong, is key. Working with natural light before artificial light is helpful because there are a lot of complexities that come with artificial light & you want your fundamentals strong so that you can shape the light while learning the technicalities.

Just like camera doesn’t take photos by itself, even light doesn’t shape by itself. We need to do that part.

Think of where you want to take your photography in 5 years, what is a reasonable investment & whether you will want to upgrade later. If you buy soft boxes & light stands that go with artificial light, think about how you will carry them to your shoot locations & where you will store them in your house.

If you have an option to rent lights & try them out before buying, it’s a great way of gauging what works for you.

Understand your light, observe it, get emotional, get intimate with it, get your fundamentals strong so you can nail your vision every time no matter what kind of gear you have.