Smoothie Photo Shoot

Posted by Terri Ann
October 17, 2007

In an effort to take a picture today I have decided that tomorrow I will post a recipe for the smoothies I make on almost a daily basis.

How will that help me take a picture? Well my dear, for one: there is no photo posted for that recipe on the website the original came from and two: and why post a recipe on a blog without an accompanying photograph?

I had planned to photograph the smoothie (which is a raspberry/purple color) in a plain clear tumbler glass, slice of fresh lemon on the edge, with an orange straw that has a pink stripe running down it, against a white background with a little bit of a shadow. I actually stole eight straws from Dunkin's this morning for this project. Though after doing some Goggling I found some articles that area giving me some different ideas and variations I'd really like to try also!

Food Photography - An Introduction - This article from the Digital Photography School website shows three photographic samples that all display the food against a lovely complementary/contrasting background color and pattern. There's some tips too but I found that the images were more powerful than the message the tips.
Sweep & Float - This great lesson from the Still Life With...(Food Styling and Photography) may have been a selling point for my not doing a white background. I don't think I have the tools, materials and lighting I would need to create a good seamless white background to create the illusion of the subject floating against a white background.

A UK Beer Blogger made Photographing Beer look easy using the techniques in this lesson!

Despite how easy the beer blogger makes it look, I am less than confident about the materials I have to create the Sweep & Float setup, maybe this is the right time to try and make the How To: DIY $10 Macro Photo Studio . I have a number of boxes from my move still lying around and I know I have plenty of vellum and large sketchpad paper to create this mini-studio.
How to Food Photography - From one of the many informative articles on the Food Portfolio website this one talks all about lighting: how smaller (closer) lights get detail, and bigger lights reduce detail and cast softer shadows. the article also bring to light (ha ha) some great examples of non traditional direction of lights and fantastic samples of how gels can really spice up a scene.

The article also points out, in a number of shots, how to use the translucency of different foods can be used to really bring that part of the dish to live. Especially with the lettuce and shrimp tale shot and the lemon shot.
Food Photography Tips - This article also speaks of how important the backgrounds as well as some other technical aspects such as lenses, ISO, color balance as well as composition.
Shoot First, Eat Later - And of course a brief from Food & Wine Magazine.

So from those articles I've decided I need to stop at a fabric store and grab some interesting orange backdrop. The right orange will provide beautiful contrast to the pink/purple drink and will hopefully make the lemon and smoothie really pop. Also, I will create the $10 studio for both the backdropped version as well as an attempt at the floating glass shots. I will try lighting the beverage from a number of different angles, using the translucency of the lemon to try and see if that brings too much attention to the lemon accent, or helps to really lead the eye to the drink.

We will see, I can't wait to get started on this!