Tags
600EX-RT, adobe, Canon, food, food styling, fruit, joel spring, lighting, lightroom, Rxdesign, rxdesign.com, San Antonio, studio
Recently found some pomegranate fruit in season at the local grocery store. The inner fruited seeds are like jewels so I bought one to experiment with some shooting techniques with studio lighting and with available light.
My first studio setup I decided to experiment with reflections off a black glass plate and include a light from underneath. In this case I was using all Canon 600EX-RT flash units since the subject was small and they are so quick and easy to use. Below is a shot of the setup.
The results were pretty interesting. I used a red gel below to intensify the color and made many adjustments to the lights as I built a series of shots varying the strobe intensities. Below are 2 selected images from my tests.
These were interesting but my favorites came from natural lighting. Initially I worked indoors using light coming through the windows on a corning hot plate.
I switched focal points from front to center shifting from individuals to clusters of seeds. I then decided to take some shots out on the back deck to get some variety in the background. I used a “plamp” to hold some shrubbery behind the shot for more color and incorporated a crystal shot glass to hold more fruit/color. I shifted focus here as well but can’t really say which I prefer. The bokeh is really pretty and colorful.
I did notice glare on the shot glass from reflections of the walls and incorporated a black foam core “gobo” to eliminate it. It was also the reason I went for the wood surface to reduce glare experienced using the Corning trivet/hot plate. Basic post processing was done in Lightroom to adjust clarity and exposure.
