Registration: 14th Simple Food Photography Workshop

Hello All,

Yeay! My 14th Simple Food Photography Workshop is now open for registration. This would be my 14th workshop since 2007. After three years of running a food photography workshop, this simple crash-course has evolved to become better and more efficient, with additional jam-packed information about food photography. I do make it a point to keep this workshop up to date at every point of time it's being held.

It has been quite a time gap between my last Simple Food Photography Workshop last year, due to my busy schedule on photography works. I'm happy to say that now I've got some allocated time to spare for teaching workshops to fellow photography enthusiasts.

Here are some good news to share:

1. Our studio has been going thru some minor renovation work to suit a more comfortable working space.
2. Some of us might not have any speedlights/flash, therefore, I'll be teaching some additional new information with regards to photographing your best with available light. Not to worry, learning to shoot with flash is included as previous workshops.
3. I love to support upcoming photography enthusiast in picking up new forms of photography. With that note, I've decided to maintain the registration fees same as the last workshop, which is only RM220. No price increase in fees! Cool 'eh, especially in this economy?

What you'll learn?

Food photography, from start to finish, including: preparation, lighting, composition, styling, shooting, edit, and selling.

Well, let's jump to it then. Registration's now open. Limited to 5 seats only. Please register first in the registration form below. After registration, you'll be emailed with payment instructions. Payment terms is round about 50/50, which is RM120 to confirm your seat, and RM100 paid on the workshop day.

What to bring?

1. DSLR

2. 50mm f1.8 (if possible, otherwise, a kit lens will do)

3. Plenty of CF/SD cards because we'll be shooting RAW

4. Thumbdrive. Just in case you'll like to transfer/copy some files.

Cheers!

Now, please remember to fill up this form below to attend:

Studio Renovation DIY. Self-proclaimed contractor

I've been doing some construction work lately (for my studio). To those who've been asking for progress photos, here it is, in video. Yes, it's me. Check it out!



Help was nowhere to be found, so I installed the final dry walls at FOTOMOMO STUDIO on my own this night. Took about 3-hours (which includes goofing around) to complete this task. Thanks to R.Mahafaizal for the raw materials, Sabri Idrus for the mitre saw, Arif Rafiq and Kyrol for being my assistants, and Adhadi for lending me the 8-step ladder which made this installation possible. Cheers all!

How I did the Campbell's shoot

Recently I've been pretty tied up with several work, which involved our studio and some personal work. It's been a long while since my last upload and I've been procrastinating the updates, until today it hit me that the update will never get done unless i just yank it. So, here goes.

My latest work involves the FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) category. In this assignment, I was hired by an advertising agency to photograph Campbell's soup products, which is under the Kimball Malaysia's distribution. What I'd like to share with you are some after and before photos of this commercial assignment, just to give you an idea of how simple my workflow is for a big job like this.

Art Direction credit goes to Steven Kee.

Here's a line-up of Campbell's Instant Soup in boxes.

Another line-up of some muscular Campbell's Condensed soup in cans.

Prego is also under the same group under the Malaysia distribution.

Here's another variation of the Prego's shot I did for the art director's selection.

So, here's how I did it.


Lighting

Lighting setup was pretty straight forward.
I had two side lights, one light to wash out the background and another overhead light for front fill. Exposures were measured using a flash meter.

The products was laid out on white plexiglass, which gives a nice smooth reflective effect. I love it because this cuts me time in post. It's just shoot, colour correct and bam! it's done! 

The Shot
For each setup, I used WhiBal and QP card for colour reference.

Post-Production
Imported the images in Lightroom, batch colour correct and export to hi-res TIFF! Simple as pie.


Hope this inspires you all to give a go at some product shooting on your own. Cheers!

Bella's photo shoot. (Wow! It's been a while since I last updated this blog)

Hello Friends,

It's been really quite a while that I've updated my blog. I was pretty blocked out with work and personal matters until now. As a matter of fact, I still am. But I has come to a point that life and work will always be jam packed with events and unexpected matters. If I were to wait for a free time to update, then the next update will be a long time from now.

Now, procrastination on updating my blog has to stop. Hence I'm updating this short post with what I've been doing lately.

Last week on the 14th, we had a short session to photograph Bella. This was her second visit to FOTOMOMO since February 2010. Bella wanted to update her portfolio in line to seek modeling assignments in town. In the beginning I thought that I could handle the session on my own without an assistant, but then again, I wanted to spend more time thinking about the overall look that we'll be shooting. On the last night before the shoot, I posted a notice seeking assistants in Facebook. It was quiet as expected, until in the morning, my good friend Denis Erroyaux, from Belgium, who's also a photographer, currently staying here in KL called me up offering his service. In my head, I said "Dang, why didn't I thought of him last night?"

I was glad to have Denis around. An extra pair of hands really speed things up, and free me up to shoot. Here are some out takes of our shoot. Enjoy!

A typical group photo to wrap the day. "Where's your shoes Denis? Safety 1st, isn't it?"
From left: Denis Erroyaux, myself, Bella and her husband, Rex.

Now, for some funny faces.

Denis giving me the grin because I took his job as an assistant for a while when I dialed down the flash power of one of the flash heads. "Hey! That's my job." he said.

Upcoming April Workshops. Now OPEN.

Hi All,

April's still around for another two exciting workshops. Registration is now OPEN, so please check out these links below. Thanks!

APRIL WORKSHOPS

Night Class: Introduction to Studio Lighting
23-APR-2010
More info

13th Simple Food Photography Workshop
25-APR-2010
More info

Registration: 13th Simple Food Photography Workshop

Hi All,

It's been a while since the last Simple Food Photography Workshop was held. I was pretty busy for all my weekends, and even my food photo project blog got stuck. There are a lot for me to catch up, but my silence was because I was prepping new techniques to add into this workshop series and also prepping for Level 2 Food Photography.

Well, let's jump to it then. Registration's now open. Limited to 5 seats only. Please register first in the registration form below. After registration, you'll be emailed with payment instructions. Payment terms is round about 50/50, which is RM120 to confirm your seat, and RM100 paid on the workshop day.

Registration: 2nd Night Class, Introduction to Studio Lighting now OPEN.

Hi All,

With the your support, the 2nd Night Class, Introduction to Studio Lighting is now open for registration. Everything else remain as crazy as before.

1. Crazy RM50 fee.
2. Crazy jam-packed 4-hours hands-on lighting learning.
3. Crazy fun!

Read more info on the past Inaugural Night Class report on my posting here.
For more behind the scenes images, please check out Mus'ab's facebook gallery here.

Please register below. You'll receive a confirmation on your seats, payment instructions and directions via email.

Thanks!