I’ve had this photo idea in my head for a few weeks now, and last night I decided to put it all together and photograph it. It took longer than a “normal” food shoot, since I was using a strobe as my light instead of natural window-light, but the part that took the longest was trying to arrange all of the lights in the background (my “bokeh” lights) so they fit well into the background.

The neatest thing about this is that it turned out exactly as I pre-visualized, which is always a treat.

The equipment used was an Alien Bee B1600 at the lowest power setting for the main light with a medium-size octabox, reflector on the left clamped to a tripod (gold-ish side facing the subject), a Canon 7D with a 70-200 f/4L IS (zoomed in to 200mm for all images), exposure set at 1/250th second at ƒ/5.6. I found the bokeh-lights at Hobby Lobby and strung them across a boom-stand. The background is a pop-up black/white reversible backdrop … I don’t use it too often but it worked perfectly for this setup.

I’ve had this photo idea in my head for a few weeks now, and last night I decided to put it all together and photograph it. It took longer than a “normal” food shoot, since I was using a strobe as my light instead of natural window-light, but the part that took the longest was trying to arrange all of the lights in the background (my “bokeh” lights) so they fit well into the background.

The neatest thing about this is that it turned out exactly as I pre-visualized, which is always a treat.

The equipment used was an Alien Bee B1600 at the lowest power setting for the main light with a medium-size octabox, reflector on the left clamped to a tripod (gold-ish side facing the subject), a Canon 7D with a 70-200 f/4L IS (zoomed in to 200mm for all images), exposure set at 1/250th second at ƒ/5.6. I found the bokeh-lights at Hobby Lobby and strung them across a boom-stand. The background is a pop-up black/white reversible backdrop … I don’t use it too often but it worked perfectly for this setup.

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Nicole is a photographer, published author, and educator specializing in Lightroom, Photoshop, and photography. She is best known for her books on food photography but is widely versed in various photographic genres, including landscape, nature, stock, travel, and experimental imagery.

12 Comments

  1. Trent January 13, 2010 at 10:07 am - Reply

    It’s great to see a behind the scenes setup. Great shot!

  2. Dustin Finn January 13, 2010 at 10:12 am - Reply

    I think the Gold Reflector for the fill really nailed the color tone to the bread…

  3. dav.d January 13, 2010 at 10:24 am - Reply

    That is a very cool photograph – and always fun to see the behind the scenes of a food photography shoot.

    Food photography seems to be the gold standard of photography – the attention to detail for food is off the chart and you have hit it out of the park.

    Really cool

  4. Dustin Bess January 13, 2010 at 10:29 am - Reply

    Thanks for posting this. It helps a lot to be able to see the set up. You rock.

  5. Sean Phillips January 13, 2010 at 10:58 am - Reply

    Very cool idea for the bokeh lights. I love that!

  6. Adam Marin January 13, 2010 at 8:07 pm - Reply

    Beautiful image! Awesome that you shared how you did it too. I know I really appreciate the overall shot to see how you set everything up, and the details were great as well! I am a big fan of your work! Thanks!

  7. Tova January 13, 2010 at 8:40 pm - Reply

    Thanks for sharing behind-the-scenes images. It came out fantastic!

  8. Maria January 14, 2010 at 8:38 am - Reply

    Stunning photos and tasty appetizer!

  9. Lyndsey January 19, 2010 at 3:49 pm - Reply

    Nice! Love the bokeh.

  10. lisa @ dandysugar January 19, 2010 at 5:50 pm - Reply

    Thanks for sharing such really great useful info. I just found your lovely blog and am enjoying reading though it. I love this shot!

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