2
Lights
Next I set up the lights. For
this shoot, I used two external
flash units and a reflector. It’s easier to
build your lighting setup one light at a
time. That way you can see where the
light is falling from each unit, and tweak
the positioning for perfect results.
The key light was placed at the front of
the setup, and I used a diffuser panel to
spread the light more evenly. To light the
background behind and remove most of
the shadows there, I placed one of the
flashguns behind the cereal box. The
reflector was placed to the side of
this flashgun, to bounce light
back in on the backdrop.3
Camera and
flash settings
I put the camera into manual mode
and synced the shutter speed to the flash, firing
at 1/200 sec. The ISO was set low at 100 and
the aperture was f/16. To balance the flash
light to the camera settings, I had the front
flash on channel A firing at full power, and
the flashgun at the back on channel B,
at its lowest setting of 1/128 power.
1
The setting
To create the fast food setup, I hung
up a grey backdrop, and placed down
a colourful table cloth. As a bonus, the circles
in the cloth mirrored the cereal hoops! I then
positioned a breakfast bowl in the middle of
the frame and filled it with cereal. A couple of
daffodils were dropped in on one side to bring
in colour, and fruit was scattered around as
well. Mount your camera onto a tripod and keep
tweaking the composition and the positioning
of objects in the frame until you’re happy.