While I didn’t get a “proper” behind-the-scenes photo of my setup at the Stillwater Café when I photographed my lunch, I did create an overhead graphic to show where I was sitting in relation to the light coming through the windows, as well as the gear I used. Here’s a little bit more about my setup and equipment:

  • Camera Gear: I only brought one camera and lens with me, my Canon 5D Mark III and the Canon Macro 100mm f/2.8L IS lens. I did all of my photography hand-held and set the ISO to “auto” so that I would not have to deal with camera-shake.
  • Lighting Setup: All of the images were photographed with existing natural light in the room. There were windows to my left and a white wall to my right, so I had beautifully diffused light to my left and a soft, subtle “reflector” to my right.

That’s it! Here are the images I photographed with this setup … and you can read more about this dining experience, as well as see some more images, over on my blog post about the Stillwater Café and Restaurant in Tasmania.

While I didn’t get a “proper” behind-the-scenes photo of my setup at the Stillwater Café when I photographed my lunch, I did create an overhead graphic to show where I was sitting in relation to the light coming through the windows, as well as the gear I used. Here’s a little bit more about my setup and equipment:

  • Camera Gear: I only brought one camera and lens with me, my Canon 5D Mark III and the Canon Macro 100mm f/2.8L IS lens. I did all of my photography hand-held and set the ISO to “auto” so that I would not have to deal with camera-shake.
  • Lighting Setup: All of the images were photographed with existing natural light in the room. There were windows to my left and a white wall to my right, so I had beautifully diffused light to my left and a soft, subtle “reflector” to my right.

That’s it! Here are the images I photographed with this setup … and you can read more about this dining experience, as well as see some more images, over on my blog post about the Stillwater Café and Restaurant in Tasmania.

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Nicole is a photographer, published author, and educator specializing in Lightroom, Photoshop, and photography. She is best known for her books on food photography but is widely versed in various photographic genres, including landscape, nature, stock, travel, and experimental imagery.

10 Comments

  1. Tito April 2, 2013 at 9:23 am - Reply

    Hello, very interesting light proposal.
    I wanted to ask if you have not used tripod and if artificial lights instead used them too.

    • Nicole S. Young April 2, 2013 at 9:42 am - Reply

      For this, no, I didn’t use a tripod or artificial lights. I have used them for other images in the past and almost always use tripods for my food photography when I’m in my studio.

  2. sofiane zazo April 2, 2013 at 9:34 am - Reply

    très très beau Nicole

  3. Erin April 2, 2013 at 9:52 am - Reply

    Hugely helpful diagram! Thanks, Nicole!

  4. Joe April 2, 2013 at 11:15 pm - Reply

    did you prepare that food too? what were the food preparation arrangements?

  5. Staj April 3, 2013 at 7:27 am - Reply

    Hi Nicole, Great pictures. Is it possible to get similar or near-similar results with a 50mm lens?

  6. langoclieu April 5, 2013 at 5:45 am - Reply

    I am a viet nam, do not speak and write in multiple languages, please send an email to me langoclieu@gmail.com, langoclieu@yahoo.com phone: 01238782904

  7. Bashar Al-Kuwaiti April 12, 2013 at 9:46 am - Reply

    Thanks for sharing the how-to… its interesting to see the pros using the auto feature, most of us amateurs view that as a sin in order to feel more professional.

  8. Christopher Kimball July 26, 2013 at 6:04 am - Reply

    Thank you for sharing the setup for these images. The images are great and I am curious, was this a job or just a meal out?

    • Nicole S. Young July 26, 2013 at 10:09 am - Reply

      Hi Christopher. This was technically just a meal, but we were in Australia for Tourism Australia to share and document our time. We weren’t specifically hired to do any certain type of photography, just sent on a trip to enjoy ourselves and share our journey along the way, if that makes sense.

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