What's the best lighting for desserts?

[arvin]

Hi! I'm new to photography and I would like everyone's recommendation on what lighting I should get. I have a Canon Rebel T2i with an EFS 55-250 mm lens and an EFS 18-55 mm lens. What I will be taking photographs of are desserts like cakes, cupcakes, cake pops, cookies, and other desserts. I've been searching for what the best lighting is for what I will be taking pictures of and it seems like getting a pair of soft boxes is a great option with a white backdrop. One thing I'm mainly concerned about is if the heat from the light source will be too hot that it'll melt away the cake and other details such as fondant. I would greatly appreciate it if I can get someone's opinion on what I should get. Thanks for your time and I can't wait to see your response.

[rpcrowe]

Cool continuous lights would eliminate the melt down problem. I use studio strobes with umbrellas/softboxes to modify the light for virtually all my table top photography.. The modeling light of the studio strobe gives you WYSIWYG lighting.

A large softbox from overhead is a good start. With some fill light or reflectors controlling the shadows. Softboxes close up provide softer lighting than softboxes from a distance.

Many professional food photographers use substitutes such as lard for frosting. Inedible but good for photography...

Google "food photography"

One thing that is IMO quite necessary - a decent editing program (especially one that can adjust prospective) and the ability to use that program.

Always shoot in RAW since you can control the nuances of color, especially whites, better in RAW than shooting JPEG. Note: Adobe camera RAW has the ability to adjust perspectives...

[Mike Buckley]

Welcome to CiC, arvin!

The soft boxes by definition will utilize either a flash unit or a strobe unit, so heat will not be a concern if you decide to use a soft box. Depending on the dessert you photograph, the temperature of the room will be a concern if it is too warm.

Three of the classic lighting characteristics pertaining to food photography include photographing in natural light lit by a window facing north, to use that light when it generates really soft shadows (which means that the light should be diffuse for whatever reason), and to take advantage of backlighting when parts of the subject are transparent or translucent. That lighting effect can be simulated using diffusion material, soft boxes and the like but considerable care has to be given to simulating anything.

You mentioned a background, though a background may not be needed in a lot of compositions; depending on the situation, your composition may include only the subject and tabletop.

Your questions and thinking indicate to me that you've done minimal research about photographing food. So, my best recommendation is that you do considerable research including looking at lots of photographs of food to determine which styles you prefer.

Indeed, considering that you are new to photography, it's likely that you will need to first learn how to take into account many basic aspects that apply to all photography. That would be perhaps (or perhaps not) before taking on the specialty of food photography.

It would be helpful to you and others if you would edit your user profile to include at least your real first name and the general location of where you live. See Richard's information displayed to the left of his post as a typical example.

Hope this helps!

[Ken MT]

And I looked at the title and I thought that it said "Best lighting for deserts"!

[arvin]

Cool continuous lights would eliminate the melt down problem. I use studio strobes with umbrellas/softboxes to modify the light for virtually all my table top photography.. The modeling light of the studio strobe gives you WYSIWYG lighting.

A large softbox from overhead is a good start. With some fill light or reflectors controlling the shadows. Softboxes close up provide softer lighting than softboxes from a distance.

Many professional food photographers use substitutes such as lard for frosting. Inedible but good for photography...

Google "food photography"

One thing that is IMO quite necessary - a decent editing program (especially one that can adjust prospective) and the ability to use that program.

Always shoot in RAW since you can control the nuances of color, especially whites, better in RAW than shooting JPEG. Note: Adobe camera RAW has the ability to adjust perspectives...

Hi and thank you for your detailed reply. I've been getting many recommendations of getting strobe lighting and I will look into that. As for the program, I have photoshop. Thank you again for your reply!

[arvin]

Welcome to CiC, arvin!

The soft boxes by definition will utilize either a flash unit or a strobe unit, so heat will not be a concern if you decide to use a soft box. Depending on the dessert you photograph, the temperature of the room will be a concern if it is too warm.

Three of the classic lighting characteristics pertaining to food photography include photographing in natural light lit by a window facing north, to use that light when it generates really soft shadows (which means that the light should be diffuse for whatever reason), and to take advantage of backlighting when parts of the subject are transparent or translucent. That lighting effect can be simulated using diffusion material, soft boxes and the like but considerable care has to be given to simulating anything.

You mentioned a background, though a background may not be needed in a lot of compositions; depending on the situation, your composition may include only the subject and tabletop.

Your questions and thinking indicate to me that you've done minimal research about photographing food. So, my best recommendation is that you do considerable research including looking at lots of photographs of food to determine which styles you prefer.

Indeed, considering that you are new to photography, it's likely that you will need to first learn how to take into account many basic aspects that apply to all photography. That would be perhaps (or perhaps not) before taking on the specialty of food photography.

It would be helpful to you and others if you would edit your user profile to include at least your real first name and the general location of where you live. See Richard's information displayed to the left of his post as a typical example.

Hope this helps!

Hi, thank you for your reply. My real name is already shown and I don't understand why my location would be of any help. I can't use lighting from a window because I'm surrounded by buildings and other objects are obstructing a good amount of lighting from entering the window. I also mentioned getting a backdrop because if I don't want to see the background behind the desserts especially the large cakes. Again, thank you for your reply as it is helping me with making a choice of what lighting equipment to get.

[NorthernFocus]

Lighting for dessert? Hands down sunset rays falling onto an open air table. If necessary passing through a large window is OK but not optimum. Depending on location and/or time of year, candle light would be my second choice

[Manfred M]

I know a product photographer fairly well and with the exception of a few outdoor shots, all his product shots were done with studio flash / softboxes plus all of the usual light control tools (reflectors, flags, scrims, snoots). Lard was a favourite substitute for anything that melts in food shots. One of his favourite stories is when some took a big bite out of an "ice cream cone" when the shoot was finished. Apparently the look on the person's face was rather interesting...

[Mike Buckley]

I don't understand why my location would be of any help.

If you seek information about products, knowing the approximate location of your residence can be helpful because certain companies selling product are not located worldwide.

[Tronhard]

If you seek information about products, knowing the approximate location of your residence can be helpful because certain companies selling product are not located worldwide.

Absolutely... for example I suspect Mike's suggestion about North light will only work if you are in the northern hemisphere. I think the idea was to use non-direct light, so using indirect light (away from the equator) might be a good generalization.

I did some very amateur food photography and used LED continuous lights and reflectors (if you can't use natural light). They had several advantages: they offered essentially full spectrum light and they generated no heat. Being continuous, I could see what I was getting before the shot, and they were cheap as chips.

[inkista]

+1 on the LED panels. While strobe/flash lighting is more common, if you're specializing in food photography, then LED panels are a good fit. See: http://blog.mingthein.com/2012/10/01/lighting4/

[Tronhard]

The biggest problem I had with photographing real food was not eating it...

[Tronhard]

On the general subject of photographing food, this article and video on DP Review may be of interest...
http://www.dpreview.com/photography/...od-photography

[IzzieK]

I wish I can tell you, but my Sourdough bread bowl with Olaf (Disney's Frozen character) had to be thrown away because I used Ranch Salad Dressing with Bacon. But I only shot that with available light coming from my deck's door, a piece of foam board to reflect back some of the light to the other side subtly, a white backdrop and a bounce flash. Look here:

https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/fo...3-new-post.htm

Food photography is almost always the same, sometimes you want to incorporate your set with utensils and glasses, props...but the best I find is using a macro lens 105mm, small aperture, matrix metering, bounce flash, etc. Depending on your natural lighting, you do want to work on shadows, angles (shoot more on this) and I also use a handheld LED light every now and then. This is not a dessert but this is what I just did a while ago...

WHERE DID HE COME FROM???



Wish we could see some examples from you too so it will be easy to help you with your problem, if you have any....

[Mike Buckley]

Wonderful concept executed very nicely, Izzie. I'm sure I'm not the only person thinking that it would be great to see more photos like this from you.

One point: How do you know it is a "he?!"

[Tronhard]

I wish I can tell you, but my Sourdough bread bowl with Olaf (Disney's Frozen character) had to be thrown away because I used Ranch Salad Dressing with Bacon. But I only shot that with available light coming from my deck's door, a piece of foam board to reflect back some of the light to the other side subtly, a white backdrop and a bounce flash. Look here:

https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/fo...3-new-post.htm

Food photography is almost always the same, sometimes you want to incorporate your set with utensils and glasses, props...but the best I find is using a macro lens 105mm, small aperture, matrix metering, bounce flash, etc. Depending on your natural lighting, you do want to work on shadows, angles (shoot more on this) and I also use a handheld LED light every now and then. This is not a dessert but this is what I just did a while ago...

WHERE DID HE COME FROM???



Wish we could see some examples from you too so it will be easy to help you with your problem, if you have any....

Izzie: you've done it again! Excellent piece of create work!!

[IzzieK]

Dear Mike and Trev...My project 52 for the first month of March has some more of my work. They are fun and funny and a bit exhausting to work on and think of scene one to the next but I am improving...Thank you for your comments. I will see if I can carry on doing this kind of work this month as I will be heading to Australia soon.

Mike, That yellow egg has to be a 'he' -- it seems more appropriate in my mind. I saw that plastic egg in the supermarket when I went there with Bill to pick up my prescription medicine. I used bounced flash, foam board and natural light coming from my deck door, nothing else. I cloned out the reflection on the yellow egg because it was the only one with reflections. Learned that technique from John (2) instruction on my flower shots last year.

Thank you both.