college assignment

[surfg1mp]

I have an assignment to do for college. The assignment is to provide 5 images to be used in a restaurant trade magazine. I roughly know what i want the 5 images to include. The exterior of the building, couple of interior shots, plate of food and a couple dining.

I have secured a venue, which i have arranged to go shoot on saturday.
The venue is a restaurant stroke bar situated in an 18th century millhouse. The exterior has been restored to its original achitectural aesthetic, and the interior is fitted out with a moden style. The interior is a retangular space
roughly 50ft x 20ft and has windows all along one side, which provides good natural light. The artificial lighting is quite dim. Should i shoot the interior using the available natural light using a tripod and no flash. or use maybe
bounced flash. Any tips will be much appreciated.

regards lee

[yelvertoft]

Lee,

Before you go any further, you have to think about what you want the picture to look like, then engineer the lighting to achieve that effect.

you (hopefully) know that using on-camera flash will produce harsh, un-flattering light with ugly shadows and serious contrast. So hopefully this is not part of your plan. If you have modifiers such as an umbrella or softbox that you can use with your flash, then this may be a way to go, but again, it all depends on what you want the picture to look like.

If you use flash, then you have to get it off-camera in this kind of set up. If you don't have the capability to get the flash off the camera and/or you don't have the tools to soften the light, then I think you'll be far better off using daylight. Use a tripod (ESSENTIAL), don't worry about exposure time being long - go to several seconds if needed. the only issue you are going to have here is hte shot with the couple, they may not stay still enough. Think about how you are going to light them, perhaps use table lamps, candles, sit them close to a window...... etc.

For the food shots, look in cookbooks, look at promotional literature in supermarkets, magazine adverts, there's masses of inspiration. Look at the shadows, where are they? How diffused are they? How many shadows are there? You can reverse engineer a lot of product shots with careful study.

The important thing is to think about what you want to achieve and plan how you are going to achieve it, before you even think about taking the shot.

I'll post up a food shot in my gallery later this week. I'm doing a college course too, I have a "Farm to Fork" food project to submit.

Duncan

[surfg1mp]

Hi duncan

Thank you for you reply and the advice given.

I have just got back from doing a test shoot. To be honest i had to bin all the shots. This is a challenging assignment being as i am totally new to this type of photography.

I had an idea of what i wanted to do, ie use long exposures, the only problem i had with this was the people there were obviously moving so are blured. the artificial lighting was also a problem as it looks flared in the shots taken. Also had problems with composition, could'nt work out how to compose the shot. just looked a mess and cluttered. did try to bounce the flash in a couple of shots, but it has little effect. tried flash with defuser, without, and even tryed turning the flash power up.
unfortunately i dont have the ability to use off camera flash as i dont have a cord.

I beleive this is going to be a steep learning curve, because at the moment i am baffled.

cheers lee

[miketoll]

If you have a friend sitting still at a table fairly prominently on a lower third (? the left one would be best) then they would be sharp and the other people being blurred would make a nice contrast as long as they were sufficiently blurred to look intentional. Long exposure solved?

[surfg1mp]

good idea.....gonna go and have another bash on friday and maybe saturday. Its my second assignment so surely the tutor isnt expecting anything too spectacular. all i can do is try and do my best and then some....

[andy153]

Hi Lee, if the lighting inside is poor how about candle light - lighting the couples faces and the rest dark showing an intimate atmosphere?

[surfg1mp]

Thanks andy, thats a good idea. Finding it hard to find a model to come with me to do the shots i need.....all my friends are either away or working. May have to bite the bullet and see if any stranges in there are willing. Not ideal but needs must.

[yelvertoft]

Originally Posted by sufg1mp

Thanks andy, thats a good idea. Finding it hard to find a model to come with me to do the shots i need.....all my friends are either away or working. May have to bite the bullet and see if any stranges in there are willing. Not ideal but needs must.

I'm sure you could persuade your girlfriend to have a candlelit dinner for two. Tripod, self timer, all you need.

[surfg1mp]

Originally Posted by yelvertoft

I'm sure you could persuade your girlfriend to have a candlelit dinner for two. Tripod, self timer, all you need.

That would be easy......except at the moment she lives in oxford and i live in cornwall a distance of over 300 miles. She is coming down in a weeks time so maybe if all else fails i could do just that.

[miketoll]

I wonder if with strangers you are wandering in to needing model release forms? Girlfriends would be safer and more cooperative. Spend the week designing other ideas and trying out other types of shots.