Sunday, March 17th, in beautiful Florida it’s 70 degrees, overcast/rainy but low humidity, thank goodness! It’s a day of staying home, opening windows and having a nice cup of hot tea. Oh and PHooD Photography is a must BUT I need help with the overcast natural lighting! I have a remedy to share that if you are new to my blog you will see PHD Remedy, which is my acronym for PHooD aka food. In each blog and at times throughout, I post these remedies to help followers with their photography. Some are notes and others will be detailed. Most of my high level (not so detailed with settings and processes) blogs will be followed up with a more detailed version to follow. I will reference them as such. For now, enjoy this blog that talks about the importance of light and on camera flash. Details on my next blog will outline how I made this happen as well as the pros and cons.
PHD Remedy: I used on camera flash, which allowed me to focus light on my subject tilting the flash head so light would bounce to achieve a softer less harsh look in each photo. This is done so no one can tell flash was used in lieu of natural lighting. It’s great fun and I highly recommend adding this to your next practice portrait and/or food session. It’s a game changer!
In this series of photos, I want to take you back in time. For me it’s a simple time when the days moved slowly and the small joys of life felt like an eternity.
Let’s start with a hot cup of lemon tea. This beverage takes me back to Sunday mornings with my mum. We would share a cup of hot tea and watch old movies. I thought I would select a tea cup that takes me back to that date and time!
Notice the soft light coming in on the left and falling off on the right. Such a great moody technique achieved with on camera flash. As you can see, light at times falls off very fast, which was the look I was hoping to achieve.
Of course, no cup of tea is complete without the fresh lemons and some crisp biscuits. My mum was born and raised in England and I had the privilege to live there for a period of time and attend school. My mum passed away in 2006, this blog is for you Nanny Doris<3.
Take note of the reflections in the tea cup photos to follow, strategically placed. This is important to your PHooD story. More important than your camera type or settings because people who are not photographers cannot always tell professional photography gear and don’t really know about settings but they do know a good visual story. Capture the visual mood.
In this shot the entire shot is lit up but softly with bounce of flash. Photography is always about the story and PHooD (food) Photography is no different. The placement of food and good light is key. Just like with any good hot beverage, a semi sweet delight go hand in hand. So to follow I incorporated that necessity.
Below in the next photo is a Vanilla Bundt Cake dusted lightly with powdered sugar and a side dish of cherries. If you know me then you know this is courtesy of Betty Crocker. However, if you love to cook or are looking for some fabulous, easy to follow around the globe recipes I highly recommend you visit Let’s Dish with Linda Lou at http://lindalouhamel.com for some great recipes. I plan to learn to cook using this blog in the future but for now, I will continue to learn, teach and be the best at taking PHooD Photos.
PHD Remedy: Textures and colors allow for more depth and creativity in your photo and add to your story but be aware that too much can be just that, too much. Sometimes less is more! The sweet and tart of the tea. cherries, and cake are full of delight, not only taste but they compliment each other in this photo team of textures and colors.
In the scenario below I chose to keep the cherries at bay in a dark atmosphere but with a small bit of post processing I could lighten them with an inverted radial filter (easy peasy). More topics regarding flash and post processing in future blogs, stay tuned!
I hope you enjoyed this short sweet photography story and the PHD Remedy (s).
I’m Tina Coe and this is PHooD Photography with a PHD. Please check out future blogs. Until then, Let’s Make Memories….and EAT!