I had the opportunity to do some more food photography at Mount Juliet with the amazing chefs at the 3AA Rosette Lady Helen restaurant. The last time I did food photography I didn’t have the facility to take my flash off-camera; however since then, I have purchased a set of flash triggers to remotely fire the 430 EXII which is much more beneficial to the quality and lighting of the final image.
The location I chose was the table nearest the window with some good natural light, I setup the flash on another table and had a reflector catching the flash to build some all round light focusing on the dishes. You can see the basic setup below.
The dishes were a monkfish dish and a lamb dish, each having their own challenges in how to present, light and shoot.
I angled the plate slightly to lead the eye and give some interest to the shot. By reflecting the off-camera flash, combining it with the ambient light the following style shots were achieved.
With the other dish I used background elements to add some interest and shot across the place as can be seen below.
These dishes are available at the Lady Helen restaurant at Mount Juliet, Co. Kilkenny.