Learning to Use Light: Another Example

Another illustration of foods for healthy eating.

What's wrong with this picture?

In my previous post I wrote about an assignment I received early in my career to do tabletop photographs of various items of food for a piece on healthy living. This one didn't make the cut.

You're probably thinking "No wonder! It's too dark!"

That's true, but it's not the only problem with the photo. The deeper problem is that I didn't use a fill light. The main light was high and to my left, as in the previous photo, but there should have been another light, about half the strength of the main light, from the front, at camera position, to fill in some (not all) of the shadows. Consequently, this photo is unusable as an illustration for anything except poor technique.

If I had been more knowledgeable, I would have placed another light, again, about half the strength of the main light, high and about 90 degrees to the right of the set. This would have opened up the shadows on the right and given a little highlight to the vegetables in the basket.

When we were all shooting film, the best way to learn to light was with constant light sources, such as floodlights. Now that we have digital cameras with screens on the back, we can use flash instead of floods by setting up the flashes as we want them, make an exposure, evaluate it on our screens, and make adjustments to the flashes to achieve the effects we desire. Rinse and repeat as needed.

Like the photograph in the previous post, this one was made with a Nikkormat FTN camera with (probably) a Vivitar 100mm f2.8 lens and Kodak Ektachrome 200 film.

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Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography    film photography   commercial photography    photographic lighting   Nikkormat FTn camera    studio photography    Vivitar 100mm lens     food photography    Kodak Ektachrome 200 film