Panna Cotta - Strobist Food Photography - C&C Please

This was my first time out doing some food photography. This panna cotta, creme brulee, and many other dishes were made by students at a community college. Here's the first of many photos from this set and my lighting setup shown below it.

C&C Please...

Panna Cotta

No comments? Hmmm....

I was hoping to figure out what I could've done better...

For some reason your lighting looks flat inspite of all those strobes.
Take one umbrella out of the setup and replace it with a white reflector.
What was the ambient light in that room? ie was there another light source in the room that is part of the building. Turn it off and just use the stobes. Use light streaming through the window to guide u through your shoot.
The panna cotta looks blue, unappetizing and underexposed, there is a vast diff between the color tone of the background and subject.

shutter_blitz wrote in post #6233619
For some reason your lighting looks flat inspite of all those strobes.
Take one umbrella out of the setup and replace it with a white reflector.
What was the ambient light in that room? ie was there another light source in the room that is part of the building. Turn it off and just use the stobes. Use light streaming through the window to guide u through your shoot.
The panna cotta looks blue, unappetizing and underexposed, there is a vast diff between the color tone of the background and subject.

Re: the lighting - Really? I thought the lighting was done pretty well on every dish!

And the panna cotta was blueish purple. It was a blackberry / pomegranate flavored one. I really thought it was a great shot...

I think they look yummy!

Makes me have great respect for those who shoot food for a living. It's hard to make them look appealing. I like #1, #2 was fine except for the crumbs on the LH 'ear' of the dish. Maybe the Creme' Brulee shoulda' filled the dish a bit more.
But I agree, totally yummy!

Cdeming wrote in post #6235130
I think they look yummy!

DragonDan wrote in post #6235189
But I agree, totally yummy!

The best part about this shoot was sampling the great food made by the talented chefs in training! Everything definitely tasted at least as good as it looked!

DragonDan wrote in post #6235189
Makes me have great respect for those who shoot food for a living. It's hard to make them look appealing. I like #1, #2 was fine except for the crumbs on the LH 'ear' of the dish. Maybe the Creme' Brulee shoulda' filled the dish a bit more.
But I agree, totally yummy!

And I definitely agree about the crumbs and filling the dish more. Since these were for students, I didn't want to PS their dishes to hide what they shoulda/coulda/woulda done differently in the future.

It is very nice, however, the problem with using the orange background is that it induces some color cast in the shadow areas. While you can do an effective white balance if the light color is consistent, the strong orange reflected light "fills" in the areas that are partially shaded from the primary lighting which results in shadows that are somewhat brownish. It also appears that the green leaves are not very bright.

I like them all.

im a chef, and though i like your shots, the panna cotta looks white balance is off, its blueish. other than that i think your lighting is too soft/flat.

also if i may suggest, get some gelatine diluted in water, to brush your fruits with, theyll look a lot better. for the creme brulee i'd say get the sugar more dark so it shows up.

lime rind looks dried out. other then that it looks good.

oh love you background, awesome!

bill boehme wrote in post #6237713
It is very nice, however, the problem with using the orange background is that it induces some color cast in the shadow areas. While you can do an effective white balance if the light color is consistent, the strong orange reflected light "fills" in the areas that are partially shaded from the primary lighting which results in shadows that are somewhat brownish. It also appears that the green leaves are not very bright.

Yes, I see what you mean... the fill does look a bit orangey... next challenge will be how to combat that...

macobee wrote in post #6238670
im a chef, and though i like your shots, the panna cotta looks white balance is off, its blueish. other than that i think your lighting is too soft/flat.

also if i may suggest, get some gelatine diluted in water, to brush your fruits with, theyll look a lot better. for the creme brulee i'd say get the sugar more dark so it shows up.

lime rind looks dried out. other then that it looks good.

oh love you background, awesome!

Thank you for the comments!

I wish we would've had a food stylist present... though the chefs did a great job preparing, a couple of tweaks would've definitely helped, like the gelatine trick you mentioned, and darkening the sugar.

Thanks for the ideas for the future!

Good work. Nice studio. BTW, I don''t mind the crumbs in #2 but they probably lend an amataurish aura to the shot.

I think your light control was righteous!

PMatthes wrote in post #6239375
Yes, I see what you mean... the fill does look a bit orangey... next challenge will be how to combat that...

A neutral graduated background paper such as Flotone "Studio Gray" works nicely and is easy to light. It works best when used with a sweep.