Food Strobist Test Shot

Food Strobist Setup

After watching the Strobist Lighting Seminar, I decided to apply one of the lessons to see if it could be done with food photography. Since it was a proof of concept, I just grabbed a can of nuts that was just sitting around. I wanted to have two different lighting tasks. Light only the item on display. Light the background separately. My camera gear for this setup is the following:

  • A – Canon EOS 1D Mark III (manual mode: 1/250th second, f/5.0, ISO 200)
  • B – Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro Lens
  • C – Pocket Wizard MultiMAX (master)
  • D – Pocket Wizard MultiMAX (slave, channel A)
  • E – Canon Speedlite 580EXII (manual, 1/4th power, 14mm zoom)
  • F – LiteDome Q39
  • G – Pocket Wizard MultiMAX (slave, channel B)
  • H – Canon Speedlite 580EX (manual, 1/8th +0.7 power, 50mm zoom) (Roscolux #4790 90 magenta)
  • I – gobo (which stands for go-between) (a punchcard of all things)
  • J – foam-core board with black foam sheets taped to the visible top
  • K – Sekonic L-758DR light meter
Food Strobist Test Shot

And this is the final result! How cool! It is the first time that I have used two different zones of light, the first time I have used a color gel on a flash, and the first time that I have used a gobo to block the light from hitting something (in this case, the can).

Lit with front strobe

Here is how it looks when it is lit only with the front strobe.

Lit with rear strobe

Here is how it looks when it is lit only with the rear strobe.

Using white foam core

By the way, this is how it looks using a white foam core board. Which turned out to be too bright white and not enough magenta.