Friday, September 27, 2019

Maria's Bakery



So I did some tests yesterday for a new client. The wonderful thing about shooting food is that you can eat it. All the food had sat out for a while but the cannoli was just yummy! So was the sfogliatella. Maria's Bakery in Saddle Brook NJ is awesome. Anyway, I did something dumb. I had 2 of my Godox V1 flashes in the 48" octabank and one from behind for "sparkle". I turned off the camera but left all of the light on over night. I was delighted to see that after 12 hours on, the ones in the bank (on full) were only 1/3 down in battery and the sparkle light (on 1/64th power) was still on full charge. I know that I should expect the flashes to hang out when not being used but Profoto doesn't. These cheap little Godox V1's are just... Awesome!

Friday, August 2, 2019

Godox Testing, Testing 123

Well I didn't know if this would all work out but it has and better than I ever thought.
Since 1989 I have lit my commercial images with massive 2400w/s Speedotron strobes. I own 6 packs and numerous heads including 2 optical spot lights. I often had to shoot recipes with a 2-stop ND filter since I like to shoot wide open for limited focus. 
This year I bought a terrific Nikon D850 as well as 3 Godox V1 strobes and a Godox 48" octabox. I wondered if I could fully replace my Speedotrons with the Godox strobes for studio food shooting. I shot a number of food product jobs in my own studio with 2 Godox strobes in the Octabank and a straight stobe from the back for sparkle. I was very pleased with the f/16-22 I was getting @1/250th and ISO 100. 
2 days ago I packed my car. Just in case I brought one 2400w/s Speedotron and a box full of heads. I also brought a leather bag full of 3 Godox V1's, some Godox accessories and one Xpro trigger to control it all. 
The images above were shot with 3 Godox flashes. I was able to go between f/32 and f/16 @ 1/250th and everything was great. I go back to shoot more next week and all I'll bring are the Godox flashes. I'll just have to remember to charge the batteries but they lasted all day. I shot 75 images and they never complained.

Friday, April 26, 2019

Never Say Never


Before 2019, I had not shot photographic tests since the 1980's. That's because I have been very busy shooting for clients. I love being paid to shoot. I haven't seen a need to shoot tests in quite a while.
What changed? Well, maybe it was Martha Stewart, Instagram or maybe it's that I am older but I have been told that my images looked old fashioned. I asked around and was told that while I was busy making clients happy, people had begun to shoot food straight down. This makes little sense to me. Most people don't stand on a chair and look at their food. So that's why, after many years, I shot these tests. My website now has three images that were shot straight down. I like them but I don't really get them. Yikes! I AM old!

Monday, February 4, 2019

Cheese Glorious Cheese



These images look simple enough but they actually took a full day and then some. It's not worth it to use a food stylist on these so I went to the grocery store to buy food. I came back and learned that my client had requested a dark background. My home kitchen just happens to have dark granite so I shot there (I have a very patient wife). That fact became moot after my client requested slate (as opposed to granite). So in the very end, I swapped out the granite for an image of slate that I already had. I set the shots up but actually shot all of the grapes, nuts and dried apricots separately. I stripped the cheese off the granite and added a shadow since slate doesn't make reflections. In the end we had three different versions of each of the two shots for a total of six images. My client was happy, the images were uploaded, the bill has been sent and approved. That's how a simple shot and take a full day to create.