Food Photographer on Hell's Kitchen Last Night

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

They had a challenge for the 6 chefs to come up with a dish each based on presentation and taste and they each took their dish to a "food" photographer. This is what I noticed on his set up:

Light tent
Had his lights bouncing into white umbrellas outside of the light tent (I think I saw 3 lights but they showed it very fast).
Pocket wizard on camera which was on tripod-couldn't make out what size of zoom he was looking but looked to be less than 100mm since he was pretty close to the dish in the tent.

The chefs were ooing and ahing over the photos-no mention of PS work.

They also didn't do a lot of "work" to the dish other than set it into the light tent and turn it to the way they wanted it for the camera.

[DoublyDan]

Saw this as well! I only saw 2 lights but may have missed the other.

[janikphoto]

If it isn't a super-fancy food shot, I'm sure he could get away with two lights. I've done some halfway decent tabletop stuff with just two lights. Not awesome stuff, but still made the clients happy.

[brewercm]

I saw it also. Didn't they say he was from Austin or something like that? Maybe another show or magazine article I'm thinking about.

[ka5txl]

I found it funny that the top two of that challenge were the ones with the problems later. I didn't notice the third light but did notice the pw's on that and the second shoot

[suerenee]

I am so glad I'm not the only person who pays attention to this stuff! I actually made a mental note to go re-watch that part of the show online. :)

[DoublyDan]

Originally Posted by suerenee

I am so glad I'm not the only person who pays attention to this stuff! I actually made a mental note to go re-watch that part of the show online. :)

That's funny Susan. My wife always DVR's the shows she wants to watch and Hell's Kitchen is one of them. Whenever she see's photography (no matter how insignificant) she will pause and call me to watch. She was really excited about the product tent cause she hadn't yet seen one...lol

[d2creative]

Why a tent? I never use one for the limited amount of food I've shot and neither does any food photographer I've ever art directed.

[ka5txl]

I'll have to go back and watch again so I'll know what to do the next time I order a domino's pizza, oh wait a i don't have a p&s to shoot it with

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Yeah it seamed odd to me to use the tent and also have the lights bouncing off umbrellas (looked to be overkill) but he was shooting on location and maybe he wanted a pure white background without having to haul seamless with him.

Also the shoot where they shot the chef didn't impress me at all, pretty much a standard shoot.

(as to 2 or 3 lights I still think I saw one on each side and one at the back but maybe my eyes deceived me).