Food Photography

Food Photography at ArtofEricJames.com Studio: 661.322.0913 ©2015 Eric James Swearingen

Come visit my culinary arts photography and video website at http://www.Food.ArtofEricJames.com/ and let me know what you think. You can leave comments on any of the articles. Feed back is greatly appreciated, Thanks!
or for more information, just call the studio at 661.322.0913

©2015 Eric James Swearingen (ArtofEricJames.com)
#ArtofEricJames
Blue
I have been concentrating lately on my Food Photography and Culinary Arts portfolio. This image is of a MOMO KAWA Rice Wine (Sake) bottle photographed in studio using my new “Strip Light” soft boxes and shot with a Nikon D800 through Nikkor AF 180mm F/2.8 prime lens. Each soft box (one on either side) housed a White Lightning Ultra 1200 set to it lowest possible power so that the lens aperture could be set to F/2.8 @ 50 ISO in order to maximize the bokeh effect making the background fall way out of focus. The light splashed onto the backdrop was a done with a single White Lightning Ultra  600 set to its maximum output using a 20º Honeycomb grid and a Rosco 181 Congo Blue gel filter. There was no need for any Adobe Photoshop post-production alterations. All effects were achieve in a practical manor, using lighting and camera setting alone.
   
©2015 Eric James Swearingen
#ArtofEricJames 
Asparagus brush paints the colors of Spring.
Food Photography at #ArtofEricJames.
All natural light using open shade of the studio back lot garden.
©2015 Eric James Swearingen
Pasta
Remember when your parents would say: "Don't to play with your food"? Well, I'm glad I never listened. I was playing in the studio today with some pasta and this is one of the abstract image that resulted...

©2015 Eric James Swearingen
#ArtofEricJames
Gravity Check IPA from Kern River Brewing Company "A low gravity beer for high gravity people."
Food and Beverage Photography at ArtofEricJames Studios 661.322.0913
©2015 Eric James Swearingen
#ArtofEricJames
Vodka Martini (Shaken, not stirred)
Studio lighting using a "Light Tent" made of tracing vellum for smooth distribution of illumination and reflection on the chrome or class surfaces.
©2015 Eric James Swearingen
#ArtofEricJames
Krush Wine Bar and Restaurant

Cheese plate
Port Salut. Cow’s milk. Pays de ls Loitre, France. Tomme. Cow’s milk. France. Manchego Cheese , Sheep’s milk. La Mancha region of Spain.

©2014 Eric James Swearingen
#ArtofEricJames
Come visit my culinary arts photography and video website at http://www.Food.ArtofEricJames.com/ and let me know what you think. You can leave comments on any of the articles. Feed back is greatly appreciated, Thanks!
or for more information, just call the studio at 661.322.0913

©2015 Eric James Swearingen (ArtofEricJames.com)
#ArtofEricJames
150 year old Grand Marnier
Unexpected opportunities for fine photography present themselves without warning and you just have to make do with what you have available at that time.
This image was created while I was on assignment aboard the Royal Caribbean Cruse Ship “Allure of the Seas”. A simple visit to the Champagne & Wine bar on deck 5 became a photo shoot of this 150 year old Grand Marnier. I had two Nikon SB900 flash units with me in my Tamrac photo bag and it was a simple set up right there on the bar. My friend held one flash just off camera right while the bar tender held the other light above the set up. Using the Nikon Creative Lighting System to control the out put levels of each flash, I then matched the settings to come into ratio with the ambient light from the back lit panels on the shelves behind the bar to produce this result. A small piece of aluminum foil from the ships galley was used behind the bottle to create the glow as it was angled to reflected the light from above.
I surprised myself! Normally a shot of this type requires a far more complicated set up to yield this level of quality. 
©2014 Eric James Swearingen 
Morning Espresso
 
Taking the advice of Scott Libolt (a colleague photographer/Art Director and dear friend), I decided to experiment today using available light to produce food photography with the intent to give my images the appearance of occurring more naturally in the true “Still Life” style.
By carefully crafting the set in front of the glass brick window in my studio and defusing that light source with translucent white velum paper and re-directing that same light back onto the subject with just a few delicately angled thin mirror cards, the resulting image is quite satisfying. Plus, it had the additional benefit of minimizing the equipment load that is often problematic for locations shoots.
Now this is not going to work for every situation, but given that if the venue where my next location shoot takes place has the adequate window light, I may be trying this technique there. It would sure beat dragging all those studio lights, power cords and soft boxes out onto location. If I can replace them with nice lite weight reflector cards and a couple of stands, that would be great! Not to mention freeing up some time ordinarily spent setting strobe light ratios. This technique should give me even more opportunities to fine tune the details in the plated subjects.
Thanks! Scott.
Bacon wrapped Meatloaf at The Mark Restaurant for editorial in Bakersfield Magazine.
Nikon D800 AF Macro Nikkor 24-85mm f/2.8
A Splash of Whiskey
High-Speed flash of approximately 1/30,000 of a second captures action of an ice cube being dropped into a glass of whiskey.
The gradient background was created with velum diffusion material illuminated with a single Paul C. Buff Whitelightning model 600 monoflash using a 30º honeycomb grid and rosco 111 diffusion gel and other various color gels to make the warm orange hue. The foreground setting is a large piece of crinkled blue gel with “whiskey” spilled on to it from previous attempts of dropping the Artificial Acrylic Ice Cubes Crystal into the glass. Additional lighting was placed frame left using another Whitelightning model 600 monoflash modulated through a softbox strip of 14 X 54 inches and a silver reflector placed on the opposite side of the glass. The “Whiskey” is in actually watered down coffee that emulated the correct color of liquid. No actual whiskey was harmed in the filming of this photograph.
Krush Wine Bar and Restaurant
Chilled Mixed Greens
Chilled mixed greens, seasonal fruit, candied pecans, shaved parmesan with a strawberry vinaigrette.

©2014 Eric James Swearingen
#ArtofEricJames
Shot with a Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8G ED DX Fisheye Lens on my Nikon D300s and lit using the Nikon Creative Lighting system with an off camera Nikon SB-800 flash unit controlled by the on camera built in flash.

©2013 Eric James Swearingen
www.ArtofEricJames.com
#ArtofEricJames
Black Berries
Nikon D800 Nikkor 24-85mm f/2.8 Macro, window light.
Westridge Market: Fruit Tart
Fruit Tart from Westridge Market Ojai, CA.
The China is Hutschenreuther of Selb Bavaria and is the 1955 Alice pattern. The Sterling silver pastry fork with mother of pearl handle is an original early 20th century Shreve’s of San Fransisco.
Nikon D800 Nikkor 24-85mm f/2.8 Macro, Nikon CLS light control.
Food photography on location with minimal lighting set up can be achieved when time constraints of an assignment dictate a foreshortened shoot. This Spinach Artichoke Pizza form Wiki’s Wine Dive & Grill in Bakersfield CA was shot for Bakersfield Magazine’s “What’s Cook'n” editorial section. I have been devising a quick set up and take down technique that consist of just a few Nikon speed lights controlled using the Nikon creative Lighting System. 
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