Since one of the most important aspects of photography is how to control your lighting, today we’ll be explaining how to perfectly light a scene for a warm, dramatic effect. We’ll be using grids – hard lights that are more controllable – and the subject to be used will be food, because it is usually shot with hard lighting. The emphasis will be on controlling each light to create a subtle and warm effect.
We’ve all been there. Sitting in a dark, corner table of a fantastic restaurant, wishing that we had more light, so we didn’t have to use that terrible built-in flash. Perhaps the meal was one of the best we’ve ever eaten and the one thing that would have made it better is gorgeous photos to post to our website, Facebook page, or blog.
When we get home the results are less than spectacular. Usually, the flash creates hot-spots on anything reflective on the table. Including, stemware, cutlery and crockery. The grain from the high ISO used also is a very annoying factor in low-light, restaurant photography. There are some easy solutions to this.