Feedback from the last few shoots was that I wasn’t shooting macro enough. That one I can fix. But the lighting I can’t fix. If you look this photo here, and notice the super soft cup and bowl shadows on the mat? I can’t achieve that with my current lighting equipment.
The only way to get such soft wrapping shadows is if your light source is a huge even source, like a window, massive soft box, or reflector. I’m running all umbrella lights, so it’s always brighter in the center and softer around the edges. Good for dynamic portraits I guess, but not so good for achieving soft, fine dining style food photos.
I tried moving the 2 lights way closer to the table this time. It eliminated the need for a 3rd light, but it still felt uneven because of the umbrella source. Had to resort to using a black cloth base to hide the hard plate shadows.
I’m itching to try a massive soft box or reflector setup close to the table, but that will have to wait till next month. Feeling a bit poor this month after all the parties and paintball. X_X
Yo dude, not enough money can try getting a large foam board. Huge, cheap. and gets the soft light job done.
I need those like portable/collapsible solutions, i thought of getting huge foam board or folded mounting board, but hard to travel around. Cause most of the time I shoot solo, plus the stands and tripod, quite a lot of stuff to carry. I thought of getting foam paper, then tape them together so can fold / unfold into a huge piece.