Commercial photography and design services by Curtis Lawyer for businesses with things to eat and drink. Based in Central Florida. Click here to email Curtis.
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Hummmm… it seems like I haven't posted a lighting set-up article in a while… so today, we'll take a quick, comparative look at what each of the three lights adds to this salmon salad photo. What's interesting to me in this photo is that the "one light" photo, just using the main light — is actually really useable. Adding the other two "fill" lights brings out the color and a little more texture on the main subject (the salmon) but even without them, it's a totally usable photo. It's worth noting, that when I say "light" I'm talking about off-camera flash ... 
My switchover to darker photos for the winter months got off to a slow start on Instagram. I had intended to start posting photos for this series right after Halloween. When I was ready to go, I looked at the calendar, and realized it was already the first week of December!So, my "darker photo series" would have to be modified slightly — I had some really cool holiday ... 
I basically started this "Late Summer" bright/white photo series because I felt the previous "Slightly Wonky Bright" series went a little off the mark somewhere. I had some more ideas I wanted to pursue before going into the darker "winter" photos, and I thought I had plenty of time. I started this second bright/white series in mid September, and as it turns out, it took me all the way through Halloween, and even just past ... 
Normally, I use strobe lights (aka "off camera flash") to light my food, beverage, and product photos. Strobe lights (together with camera settings) are powerful enough to cancel out most ambient light in any room, and allow the scene to be illuminated by only the strobes. They offer powerful, very short busts of light. A couple of people have asked about "freezing falling things" in a photo… but they are working with continuous light — which is a little different. When using a continuous light source — freezing things is going to come down to shutter speed. Our scene here is a "daylight kitchen counter" ... 
