Many of you wrote to me asking how I shot this floating/suspended cranberry photo that appeared in this post.
Did I drop the cranberry into the bowl and shoot while it was falling?
Did I hold the cranberry up using a skewer or something similar and then photoshop the skewer?
Was this two photos that were merged together?
No, no, and no!
Its really very easy to do. No photoshopping, no fancy camera tricks. You just have to elevate the single cranberry from the rest, using a tooth pick. Take a look..
One tooth pick didn’t elevate the cranberry enough. So I taped two tooth picks together for extra height. Because of the short distance between the elevated cranberry and the rest of the bowl, I decided to use a macro lens.
A Macro lense, along with a wide aperture setting, will give the image a shallow depth of field. This means the background (in this case, the bowl full of cranberries) will be thrown out of focus. More background blur means the more the floating cranberry will stand out.
The set up is simple..
I placed the bowl with cranberries on a white foam core board. I placed two ego lights on the foam core; one at 2 o’clock and one at about 10 o’clock. (It was a winter night, so I couldn’t make use of natural sunlight, which is my first choice for food photos).
Then I took the shot from top down so that the tooth pick was directly under the floating cranberry. It took a few tries before I could position myself so that the tooth pick was not visible under the cranberry. And voila, the money shot!
EXIF info
Camera: Canon Rebel XTi
Lens: 60mm macro
Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter speed: 1/125
ISO: 100
Exposure mode: Manual
Lighting: 2 Ego lights
That was brilliant ! I would love tips on photography!Thx for sharing.
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Neel | Learn Food Photography Reply:
May 21st, 2010 at 2:30 pm
I agree with you totally. Absolutely brilliant tip.
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omg way too cool!!!
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Nice. I had suspected that the bowl of cranberries was under a glass-topped coffee table and the floating berry was on top of the table. But your way is obviously a lot easier to light!
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That’s an amazing shot! Thanks for the tips!
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Good tips! You’ve explained nicely.
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Interesting! Nice tip. Thanks!
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Thank you for sharing this so beautifully. I’m trying to explore food photography. and this is sensational. Need to begin using my macro lens. {Was this shot in auto or manual?}
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Sala @ Veggie Belly Reply:
May 13th, 2010 at 11:23 pm
Thanks Deeba! This was shot in manual.
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What a good trick
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Wonderful idea!
ButterYum
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Thanks for the reply. You have become my photo guru. Have just got an EOS 50D, and a 100mm macro. Will follow you for advice, if you don’t mind that is …. =)
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A great tip! Wow that’s so cool!
Cheers,
Rosa
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Am on a blog break but when i saw this post i had to check it out. Really clever using tooth pick i would have never in a million year thought ot it
Took your adivise aobut taking pic in Maunal and the pics are much more broghter now. Will mail you next week as i want to know something more about the lights
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Clever! And fun!
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This is cool… thanks for sharing
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Thank you for the tutorial, I love it. If I wouldn’t read it I would suspect some Photoshop trick
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absolutely brilliant!! Thats why I keep coming back to your blog…you are a master.
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So cool! Thanks for sharing your technique. Very creative.
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Very clever! But didn’t your mother tell you not to play with your food?! One day I’ll get myself a macro lens to get good shots like this…
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Sala @ Veggie Belly Reply:
May 14th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
Good I never listened to my mother, huh?!
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That’s so cool! Thanks for sharing the tip! I thought you dropped the cranberry and someone else quickly did several quick snaps with a camera too.
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Thatz a neat trick Sala. I too was wondering, how yu did it. lookin fwd to more photogtraphy tips from you
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Cool!
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Wow . Brilliant
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Amazing!
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That’s so clever! Thanks for the inspiration!
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Wow, what a great idea.. First time here love your place here!!! Awesome pics and recipes!!
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This is simply brilliant. Thanks for the tip and for the very useful information about lightining and the photo mode.
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neat!
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This is awesome, thanks for sharing, I learned something today!!
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brilliant as always
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AHAHA! So funny… and a great trick! You’ll start seeing floating cranberry photos everywhere now.
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Absolutely amazing trick. This is very cool. Agree with Brian, you’ve inspired all of us to shoot floating pictures. I am gonna have to try this one…
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Thank you so much for the food photography tip. That shot is simply elegant! I found you through Rachel Cotterill’s blog and I’m now a follower. You have a great site.
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i swear you are a genius with the camera! you inspire me! thank you for the tips
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genius wuld b an understatement !!!
just stumbled into ur blog .. amazingggggg pics i must say !!!
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Dear Sala,
Stumbled upon ur beautiful blog.
Loved dis shot…very intelligent of u, will keep in mind. Thks for sharing.
Also liked ur all veg recipes…though m a strict non-vegtn but love to indulge in vege fare most of de time… de joys of eatin – in de freshest form.
Following u n will be bk for more clicks, ideas n recipes of course.
BTW a foodie n blogger fm down under.
N tat $75 salad…was hilarious….I remember once dining in a flashy restaurant…the name was fascinating and endless wit exotic ingredients….wit an exhobirant price tho…as we waited curiously, when it was served to us….it had tini wini portions not enuf to fill my jr also…lol
Cheers,
Chetana.
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Hi Sala: My first time visiting your lovely site!
Thanks so much for sharing this. I wouldn’t have thought it was propped on a toothpick. My first thought was a clear plexi-glass surface on top of the bowl, the cranberry resting on it. It’s genius!
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oh my goodness you are brilliant! love it.
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This is just brilliant, Sala!
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Apart from your recipe tips.. You are a better Photographer…
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Wow ! its amazing hehehe briliant idea…love your tips ,thank you so much ^^
still learn about cooking and food photography
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Brilliant Ideas of this…
Have to try it out someday…
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Just came across your blog. Fantastic……
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Thanks for the brilliant tip Sala. I took a similar shot inspired from this post http://www.flickr.com/photos/63662373@N06/6067983607/
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Fantastic! Thanks for sharing!
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That is gorgeous! Excellent tip, thanks for sharing
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