Pavlova
Pavlova
Pavlova
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Sep, 2017Views
353
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Awards
Zenith Award
Creative Winter Award
Curator's Selection
Top Shot Award 21
Contest Finalist in Delicious Photo Contest
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This photograph was taken at my home. I have a small daylight studio right next to my kitchen. The food stylist and I were working on some images for our portfolios, and also created a stop animation of making the pavlova right up to decorating it. this is the finished and final shot from the stop animation.Time
I love this image! We worked on the stop animation most of the morning with a few mishaps such as my dog licking the cream right off the pavlova just as we were about to shoot the final image which meant we needed to start this shot again. We started this shoot at around 10am and this was the final image that was eventually shot at around 3pm. It was tricky ensuring the dishes remained in the exact same positions throughout the day and shoot to give continuity to stop animation. It was also tricky having a food loving dog right at my feet the whole shoot :_Lighting
At my home, I have windows throughout my kitchen and shooting space. It faces east which is why we started a bit later in the day (10am) to avoid any direct sunlight for the shot. I used a soft translucent fabric over the windows to further soften the daylight coming in and also maintain a consistent light throughout the shoot which spanned 5 hours.Equipment
The image was shot on my Canon 5D Mark 4 with my 24-70mm lens, shooting at 1/4 of a second at F11. I used my trusty Foba tripod and left my camera on this for the whole shoot to keep the same angle.Inspiration
My food stylist and I wanted to create some new images for our portfolios, and adding stop animation was a great and interesting change to standard still images. I sent this stop animation off to some of my clients who I was talking to about this kind of work. Bingo! Stop animation work was given to me and Gab (the food stylist) by a couple of our clients.Editing
Post processing for the images needed to be consistent throughout the 20 images we used so i batch processed them, then made minor adjustments to each file, cropping them all to the same size and dpi, then ran them through Photoshop to create the stop animation.In my camera bag
I always carry around 2 cameras in my bag, my favourite is my Canon 5D mark 4 and I also have a Canon 5D Mark 3. The Mark 4 is my first choice and the Mark 3 is my back up body. I sometimes need to work with 2 cameras as well so need to have both on hand. My lenses are all zooms. Lots of people prefer prime lenses, but i love the flexibility of zoom lenses, especially when you're in tight spots and need to get a shot! My lenses are Canon 16-24mm F2.8, Canon 24-70mm F2.8, and a Canon 70-200mm F2.8. they are all red series lenses. Spend as much as you can on your lenses is my attitude. The quality shows up in the images and they also hold their value. Also, I carry around a lot of spare camera batteries. You never know when you will run out of battery power and so easy to have more on hand for exactly these times.Feedback
Shooting food with daylight is always the best approach in my opinion. It allows for soft shadows and delicious looking food! If you are thinking of making a series or a stop animation as I did, the camera is best left at the same angle and same exposure if at all possible. If not the shutter speed, for sure F-stop. Backgrounds also play an important part in shooting food. Simple backgrounds with texture create interest beyond the food, but don't take away from the main focus of the food. Also, have fun with your shoot and if some cream or sauce drips, or a few food crumbs are around, it usually creates a more appetising image. Later that day after the shoot, I took the pavlova to the pub with me and shared it amongst my friends and their kids. This is for sure a great reason to shoot food!
