Yesterday's Simple Food Photography Workshop outcome. Delicious!

I'm so ecstatic about the outcome my recent Simple Food Photography Workshop yesterday. Here's a quick post of the shots I took during the workshop to demonstrate to the participants on the fundamentals of simple food photography. The participants and I are very well satisfied with the new updated techniques we used in this session. I didn't take any stills of the participants at work, but even better, a video post of behind-the-scenes will follow soon! Meanwhile, enjoy the mouth-watering images :)

We started off with a clean white background technique using a DIY light tent with two speedlights. This is wholewheat spaghetti with prawns. Did my own styling this time. :)

I must say that I' love this shot to bits! This example is to demonstrate a different lighting technique to introduce mood into a food shot. I'm very proud of my student Zain Aziz and Mohd Zulhelmi Misran who did the styling of the wholewheat spaghetti and prawn in the bowl this time. In the background is a bowl of fried rice styled by Muhammad Alif Saufwan Abas and Muhammad Al Arqam Ismail.

The same setting as above. This is an overhead shot to demonstrate different camera angles. I'm very proud of my student Zain Aziz and  Mohd Zulhelmi Misran who did the styling of the wholewheat spaghetti and prawn in the bowl this time. The fried rice was styled by Muhammad Alif Saufwan Abas and Muhammad Al Arqam Ismail.

Finally, some small snacks! Did this simple styling to demonstrate a close-up shot. We shot this with a 50mm and a +3 close-up filter. No-macro lens involved, how's that for "simple"?

My Colour Profiling Tools

I just thought that I shared with you all my not-so latest white balance and colour profiling tools. Currently , I'm using the X-rite Color Checker Passport which is superb in making sure I get the colours right. I've moved on from the QP card to the Whibal, and finally to the Color Checker. I shoot a lot of products in the studio and also some colour sensitive subjects on-location and getting the right colour is very crucial for me. Adjusting the white balance and colour tint in the camera can be a tricky guesswork and I'd like to get my colours correct as much as possible. Here are some visuals for your reference. Enjoy!

I've moved up to the ColorChecker Passport from the 'ol QP card. :)

My Ol' skool colour targets. :)

My rugged & abused Whibal. Amazingly it's still standing strong after approximately 4 years! :)

Latest addition to my colour management workflow, the X-RITE ColorChecker Passport. :)

 

Published Work: Time Out KL

Please excuse the quality of the images. I shot these quickly with my mobile phone. :)
I'll try to update them with scanned ones soon. Cheers!

Time Out KL May 2012 Issue.

Shot this at KL Pac 

Some architectural shots (interior) for the Nightlife section.

Close-up of the spread. Low light shooting is challenging, but I love it to bits! 

The other side of the spread.

Here's the latest June 2012 issue.

Photographed this at our studio, the day after the big yellow Bersih 3.0 assembly in KL.

Lightroom 4 vs Capture One 6, simple comparison.

Lightroom 4 vs Capture One 6 comparison

Recently I shot an editorial assignment that I was not happy about. It was a point where my gear had reached its limit. This was shot at 1/125s, f5.6, ISO400 7D+24mm f1.4L and was lit with 600ws studio light. This is a 100% crop.

This image had compromised its clarity and noise. Nevertheless, I tried processing with Lightroom 4 and Capture One 6 to see if any one of these softwares shows any improvement in those two aspects.

During this investigation, I found out that Capture One 6 fixes chromatic aberration better than Lightoom 4. However, Lightroom 4 processes details & clarity better than Capture One 6.

On my last note, it appears that Capture One 6 produces more neutral colours than Lightroom 4.

I'm not happy with this output and now scratching my head to plan out for a medium format with a digital back. Wish me luck! :)