Strobe Lighting Assignment #2

For my project this week I decided to photograph food to help me portray emotion through light.  Some of the food needs no explanation on why I choose it to fit the emotion, others are more personal to me and may not make sense to everyone right away.

Hopeful Champagne

Thanks to my inspiration earlier in the week I choose to use champagne to represent hopeful. Well I am not 21 so actually this is more sparkling apple juice, but the idea is the same.  Champagne is used to toast newlyweds, celebrate happiness and cracked open on New Years Eve in hope of a good year to come.  I chose to light this photo with an umbrella because I wanted to to be bright but harsh.  The umbrella also helped me to minimize any strong reflections on the glass.

Indecisive Desserts 

How many times has it happened that you go to a buffet and eat a lot of food and then when you make it to the desserts you have to pick only one or two because if you eat any more than that you will burst? Trying to pick what to eat is always difficult which is why I chose a selection of desserts for indecisive. I used a medium sized soft box to light this so that I would have very even lighting on all of the desserts.  

Engrossed Bread Pudding 

To help think of good foods I looked at the definitions of the emotions and many definitions for engrossed used the word absorbed. It made me think of bread pudding and the way that the bread absorbs the sauce until it becomes soft and delicious. I used an umbrella for this one because I had to put the pudding on a plate and I did not want any light reflections on the plate. 

Powerless Quiche

This decision needs some explanation.  When my Grandma died I felt completely powerless. There was nothing I could to stop it and nothing I could do to make anything better. The only thing I could think of to do was walk to the grocery store (I couldn't even drive) and pick up dinner. I bought a quiche because I used to eat them with my Grandma when she would take us to a tea room. I wanted to emphasize the feeling of isolation that goes with powerless so I used a snoot to light the quiche.  I really like the dramatic shadows it created. 

Pessemistic Brussel sprouts

Poor brussel sprouts, they have such a terrible reputation that many people decide that they don't like them before they have even tried them. Just like any food they are good if cooked right, but most people don't even try to cook them.  For this photo I used a grid.

Frightened Meat

 

Ok, so first off this is not me trying to convert you to being vegetarian, I have no meatless agenda. But come on, raw meat that is all processed like that can look pretty frightening.  Another frightening thing about meat is that you so often do not know what the animal ate, what meds it was given and you also do not always know what part of the animal the meat is from.  I wanted to bring out the shadows so I used a snoot to direct the light.

Clever Fortune Cookies

Fortune cookies can give you some good advice! I would call them clever.  I used a soft box for this photo to keep the fortune from getting blown out and keep it readable while also lighting the cookies well.

Merry Cookies

This was a pretty obvious choice. Luckily I always have my Christmas decorations on hand. I used direct light on this photo. I wanted a lot of light because when I think about Christmas and being merry I think of all the beautiful lights.  I did try a gel out on it but I hated it.

Hope you enjoyed my project!