# Busty Kitchen Promo Shots



## Braineack (Aug 14, 2019)

Not quite done editing these, but wanted to share anyway.   My friend is an aspiring chef who is starting her own food blog, busty Kitchen, and reached out for some portraits to use on it once she launches.

Ended up taking a few hours to take these, as we were constantly rearranging the food and background.  Pretty happy with how these turned out.

She asked for "cookbook cover," and I think I nailed it.
























This gives a good idea of how I set it up:












36" round softbox for key.  4x3' softbox for fill (I ended up moving towards the middle, close to ceiling, and was shooting directly below it). bounce umbrella for bg and a touch of rim.  Reflector to flag the BG light and keep reflections clean.


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## Grujanidas (Aug 14, 2019)

I like it, especially 1st one. The light looks so natural that without mentioning I would not even know. 

Poslato sa MAR-LX1M pomoću Tapatoka


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## smoke665 (Aug 14, 2019)

You had some difficult conditions with all the reflective surfaces and still pulled it off. Well Done!

I think overall the first one is my pick, the last one is close. Maybe pull down the highlights on the cheek and forehead just a little in it.

Thanks for showing the setup, always interested in how others achieve the shot. Really like the laptop stand, mind sharing where you got it?


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## Jeff15 (Aug 14, 2019)

Nice looking food...............


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## tirediron (Aug 14, 2019)

Excellent job!  She should be well pleased with this set.


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## paigew (Aug 14, 2019)

Holy cow, you went all out on that lighting set up! Great pics! 

Also, do you prefer to shoot on a tripod like that? 

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk


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## Designer (Aug 14, 2019)

The photos are great!  #4 is my pick.

Her jacket doesn't fit her, though.  Not a good look for a chef.


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## Soocom1 (Aug 14, 2019)

No. 4 for the cover IMO. 
its displaying an effect that tells me.. COME EAT!!!! 

Now. Whare dem nuggets? Me hungery!


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## Braineack (Aug 14, 2019)

smoke665 said:


> Really like the laptop stand, mind sharing where you got it?



It's a straight up music stand that I was able to acquire from the office along with some egg-crate after they tore down our little recording studio.


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## Braineack (Aug 14, 2019)

paigew said:


> Also, do you prefer to shoot on a tripod like that?



I did at first, but ended up ditching it.  I have boom-arm-tripod that I love to setup like that so you can stand at the camera without tripping over the legs.  I was however tripping over the dogs in the house...



Designer said:


> Her jacket doesn't fit her, though.  Not a good look for a chef.



Her slogan is straight up going to be: you cant trust a skinny ***** with food.


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## Soocom1 (Aug 14, 2019)

Braineack said:


> paigew said:
> 
> 
> > Also, do you prefer to shoot on a tripod like that?
> ...


I was going to say something but held it. 


I like her thinking.


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## Braineack (Aug 14, 2019)

also, key to sucess:







come prepared!


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## tirediron (Aug 14, 2019)

You can never roll with too much gear!


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## vintagesnaps (Aug 14, 2019)

I think in the first two the contrast of the black and white just visually chops her up. It looks like the type jacket that fastens at the waist with a hook and eye, not like a blazer that overlaps, which tends to either pull together or gap depending on the position. It might have looked better with the jacket open, or to stop and have her adjust the jacket in between shots. In the next two the solid black gives more flow to the image.

It looks like the vantage point and perspective seem to be looking somewhat downward which gave an unflattering aspect to her in some of the photos. The food spread looks good in the first but in others dishes are chopped off at odd places. It would have been better to have framed differently or to have asked if you could move a dish a little if needed. The topiary back there in #3 almost looks like it's in her hand, and in #4 the plants behind her are sticking out of both sides of her head; I thinnk it would have been better to either have moved those or to have positioned the subject differently.

The lighting and color and quality look good. But all the equipment doesn't help with framing and perspective and vantage point, it's necessary to see that and adjust before taking the pictures. 

The title of the thread is about the woman and her body and appearance instead of about the photography and I find it inappropriate to label it that way.


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## Braineack (Aug 14, 2019)

That's the name of her blog...


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## adamhiram (Aug 14, 2019)

Really nice results, great work!  Kind of reminds me of every tutorial I see about getting great results with just one light - just need to bounce it off of a white ceiling, white counter, have access to a large window, and use 2 reflectors - easy, just one light!  All joking aside, very impressed with the lighting, and appreciate the pullback shot to show the setup.


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## vintagesnaps (Aug 14, 2019)

Oh, it doesn't sound like a blog name, it sounded like what you as photographer were naming the thread of a shoot with a client. Sorry if I misinterpreted, maybe it would be better to put the name of the blog in quotes to make it more clear that the photos were for '____ '.


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## Tropicalmemories (Aug 14, 2019)

Good promo shots, and thanks for postings photos of the set up


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## Derrel (Aug 15, 2019)

Yeah, the thread title is slightly controversial, in my opinion. But I can understand whyyou title the thread that way, now  that you have given us a little bit more information.

Overall I like these photos, and I think your lighting set up was solid, and overall I think that these will be well received by both her and her blog readers. I think by using plenty of reflector fill you achieved a very nice bright,open, and airy look, which is really good in the modern era especially for food photography and for family portraiture.


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## otherprof (Aug 15, 2019)

Braineack said:


> Not quite done editing these, but wanted to share anyway.   My friend is an aspiring chef who is starting her own food blog and reached out for some portraits to use on it once she launches.
> 
> Ended up taking a few hours to take these, as we were constantly rearranging the food and background.  Pretty happy with how these turned out.  She asked for "cookbook cover," and I think I nailed it.
> 
> ...


Nice job! For me, #1 is the money shot.


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## Braineack (Aug 15, 2019)

vintagesnaps said:


> I think in the first two the contrast of the black and white just visually chops her up. It looks like the type jacket that fastens at the waist with a hook and eye, not like a blazer that overlaps, which tends to either pull together or gap depending on the position. It might have looked better with the jacket open, or to stop and have her adjust the jacket in between shots. In the next two the solid black gives more flow to the image.



Unfortunately I had no real say in the outfit, she had a makeup/stylist guy, and that's what they went with.



> It looks like the vantage point and perspective seem to be looking somewhat downward which gave an unflattering aspect to her in some of the photos.



Interesting as some of these I'm standing on a footstool.  I'm not thrilled with the perspective distortion on some.



> The food spread looks good in the first but in others dishes are chopped off at odd places. It would have been better to have framed differently or to have asked if you could move a dish a little if needed. The topiary back there in #3 almost looks like it's in her hand, and in #4 the plants behind her are sticking out of both sides of her head; I thinnk it would have been better to either have moved those or to have positioned the subject differently.



these are all those shoulda/coulda things.  So many things going on, hard to keep up with it all.  I literally cooked her chicken and lamb on the grill as she was getting her makeup done.  I tried to account for everything but you don't see it all.  Later the homeowners, came home and helped out in that regard and it was a godsend.



> The lighting and color and quality look good. But all the equipment doesn't help with framing and perspective and vantage point, it's necessary to see that and adjust before taking the pictures.



I'm personally pretty happy with both. I was shooting tethered and used (4) different lenses and a few angles and we all came to a consensus on what we thought looked best, and we did a lot of arranging of the initial setup Lots of things to still improve on however.  I cant unsee the plants now though, thanks. lol.  I actually dropped from f/8 to f/4 at the end there with my 85mm and that extra separation was really beneficial.


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## TreeofLifeStairs (Aug 15, 2019)

The pictures look great. I’m curious how you made your decisions for the placement of the food. Did she choose which food dishes she wanted to include?


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## DanOstergren (Aug 15, 2019)

Personally when I read the thread title "Busty Kitchen Promo Shots" I immediately assumed they were exactly what the title says: promo shots for an intentionally titled blog, book, TV show or youtube channel. People are literally looking for reasons to get bent out of shape, and even after making it obvious to them that it is literally the name of her book, people are still trying to act like you did something wrong.

In terms of the vantage point, how could you capture the dishes if you were at a low vantage point? Additionally, photographing a person from a low vantage point makes them look overpowering, which is likely not the type of image your client wanted. Had you shot from a lower angle, you likely would have been critiqued for that too.


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## JonFZ300 (Aug 15, 2019)

The pics and lighting are great, looks like magazine quality shooting.

The only thing I'd add is I agree about the highlights and her face looks a different color than her chest. I know that's probably a makeup thing and not a photography thing. One more thing, I'd like to see a real smile. That smile looks like she smiled and held it too long so it just became her holding her face that way. Nice work!!

Edit to add: I just did an adjustment brush in ACR on her face for kicks and +15 warmth on color temp and -15 on highlights looks "better" to me. Cheers


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## Donde (Aug 15, 2019)

Well...your photos are very good.


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