How to use it up when shooting still life?

In fact, shooting food is also a kind of shooting still life. Since you mentioned food, let's take shooting commercial food as an example to talk about it in detail, hoping to provide you with reference.

First, let's look at some shooting techniques and methods, and then give examples:

1

I don't think the pixel of the camera is very critical. As A3 size for general printing or 0.8m× 1m size for poster painting, 6-8 million pixels is enough. If you need a larger size, you should choose a camera with higher pixels.

There is a delicious food shot by 3.5 million small DC, which is often printed in A3-sized picture books and has never been commented by customers! But whether you use a small DC camera, a SLR camera, 120 reversal film or a digital back, you'd better use a camera with a macro, or a macro lens (Nikon 105, Canon structure, Mamiya 120F4 macro are all suitable lenses).

Two 300-watt flashlights are placed left and right, and the side lights are used for shooting.

2-4 flashlights with a color temperature of about 5500 and a color temperature of 300-500W are enough for normal use. Some say the bigger the flashlight, the better. I don't think so. My friend used to shoot food with three lights above 1000 W (the only thing that can be seen is the highlight effect of the picture, and the highlight of the reflective part of the food is unacceptable). Light above 600-800W will make the picture lose a lot of details.

The soft box on the flash is essential (the reflective umbrella is ok, but my experiment is not as good as the soft box). Rarely shoot food directly. You can also shoot some special effects and prepare two pig mouths.

Tripod is also essential, especially for beginners, and camera lens with VR is the best.

2. props

Speaking of props, I feel that props have played a considerable role in food photography. Different cuisines, different utensils, different styles and different props are used. For example, Sichuan cuisine, a historical and cultural cuisine, is more suitable for using folk props, such as bamboo mats, antique cloth mats, peppers, masks, auspicious pendants and so on.

Two 300-watt flashlights, front and rear side lighting.

Instead of some photographers, it's good to watch people shoot abalone with wine. He put some wine and red wine next to everything, which didn't play the fundamental role of props. Also, the more props the better. Just put 1-2 blocks normally. Too much will be a mess and there will be no priorities. If you want to take satisfactory photos, you usually have to spend more RMB to buy some exquisite props for backup.

Step 3 shoot the light

Most foods are shot with backlight, with backlight as the main light, front light as the auxiliary light, and other light as the auxiliary light; When using lamps with the same wattage, the rear lights are fully turned on and the headlights are turned off by half;

When shooting reflective food, use left and right lights, that is, one light is on the left and the other is on the right, but one light is stronger than the other. If the two kinds of light are equally strong, the light will be flat and the food will have no layering. The main principle of lighting is not to let food, soup and oil juice reflect light on your lens in a large area.

4. Food shooting

Generally, red oil, white oil, watering can, chopsticks, spoon, coriander, flowers and tissues should be prepared before shooting; Next, it is also an important part. The makeup of food, in addition to the hotel chefs pay more attention to color, shape, utensils, most of the general restaurants are not so particular;

Therefore, as a professional food photographer, we must understand the basic shape, color matching and the use of utensils of food, and we must study the raw, cooked and semi-finished products of food. Some need to splash oil and water, and some need to spray water. Every dish should highlight the characteristics and main ingredients, instead of putting a lot of parsley and chopped green onion on some dishes, which can't highlight the characteristics of the dishes at all.

Here is an example of shooting to illustrate:

(2 soft light/1 pig mouth/f111100 seconds) Let's study the skills of close-up of dishes:

1. First, find someone to hold the food in your hand, or fix the food on the chopsticks with a rubber, and then press the chopsticks with a heavy object. The principle is not to affect the lighting;

2. The light must not directly hit the plane of the food on the lens, but should be illuminated from both sides of the plane of the lens or the front and back sides of the lens, so that the food with oil or water will not reflect light and be more textured;

3. In order to highlight the freshness of food, you can shoot it immediately after spraying water and oil, and even touch some spices and boiling juice;

4. The shooting angle is adjusted according to the lens. I usually have more positions at 25-40 degrees;

Finally, remind everyone that the background color of food must not be too close to food, and it is best to compare it with the background!

This is a tea shoot some time ago. Three 300W magic bull lights were used. The main light was at the right rear, the soft box was fully opened, the auxiliary light 1 was at the left front, the auxiliary light 2 was at the left rear, and the beam tube was at 1/2. The shooting scene was dark with a speed of1125. It is best to remind everyone in particular that shooting is also very particular about the angle of the plate. Some dishes will reflect light on the front, but not on the side. The lighting will change according to the shape and angle of the dishes. Try to let the masters do the scene and try to put the most beautiful pieces of each dish on it.