More Rainbow Chard

[Mike Buckley]

Another photo to add to my collection of food displayed in a context we don't normally experience or notice.

When I made my first photo of rainbow chard, the vegetable was new to me. All of the chard in the grocery store at the time had red stalks as displayed in that photo. It is now three months later and I noticed that the stalks in the store have so many colors that I finally realize why the vegetable is called rainbow chard.

The saturation was not pumped up; the color is naturally this intense when the vegetables are lit this way.

Please click the image to view at a larger size the detail in the stalks created by the back lighting.

Setup
The chard is hanging from a boom. The background is black velvet. A medium continuous-light lamp lights the subjects from the rear and below to take advantage of the translucent areas of the vegetables. A flag positioned just in front of and below the lens eliminates flare created by that lamp in the bottom of the scene. Another medium continuous-light lamp on the left front brightens the leaves on that side and in the center. A flag covering up the bottom one-third of that lamp's reflector prevents light from landing on the stalks. (The translucent characteristic would not have been displayed if too much light had fallen on the stalks from the front and overpowered the light shining through from the rear.) A small lamp above and to the right of the camera brightens the leaves on the right side. A polarizer minimizes glare.

[GBO25]

Worth the effort. I like the bright colours and backlight translucency. Maybe I'd clone out that stray shard at the bottom of the orange/yellow stalk but otherwise it's nicely different.

[John 2]

Looks like an enchanted forest Mike. The lighting is very dramatic and works well.

[Shadowman]

Very nice.

[madcrow]

Awesome, colourful, eye catching and very interesting.