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Crêpes Suzette, lighting?

Jorgen Udvang

Subscriber Member
I'm working on a project for a local restaurant that includes some food photos. During a brain storming, someone came up with the brilliant idea of taking photos of crêpes suzette being prepared (flambé) by the table. This is of course the shot that tourists love to take, mostly with disastrous results, and I should avoid at any price. But I'm not that smart, so here we go :rolleyes:

I will concentrate the shots around the crêpes and the hands of the chef doing the job. One alternative is to use ambient light only, but I have a strong feeling that I will get better results using a strobe or two. Has anyone done this before with good results? What kind of lighting was used, strength, angles etc.?
 

Corlan F.

Subscriber Member
Jorgen- there are many much more seasonned and gifted lighting experts around here, so i'll let them address the technical strobes side for the specific purpose.

The little experience i can offer though when shootings small flames in ambient is that you get better results in not too bright light and if possible with a contrasted background, with a major part of the latter being as quite dim, or even dark.

( that's where you open your famous base full of poles, duct tape and carboard of various hues... :) )


Of course it depends on the atmosphere you want to convey in the photo, typically for a restaurant it might be a requirement to have some of the tables setup visible. In that case it's still possible to stack two shots reasonnably easily.

No Crepes Suzette in stock, but to partly illustrate the background babble above here's one with small flames (not significantly bigger than one from a flambé recipe) posted before...



(can send you larger files or close ups for details)


One last thing: in order to get the most details in the flames, i try to -really- get as close as possible... without hurting the gear, that is :eek: and use a regular FL, typically 50mm or less.

Other posters will doubtlessly provide more useful insight.
Just my 2ç :)

 

Jorgen Udvang

Subscriber Member
Thank you for your input, Corlan. We'll see how it works out in practice. There are surprisingly few good Crêpes Suzette photos out there. I fear that I'll have to eat my way through a few rounds before I get it right :p
 

Corlan F.

Subscriber Member
Thank you for your input, Corlan. We'll see how it works out in practice. There are surprisingly few good Crêpes Suzette photos out there. I fear that I'll have to eat my way through a few rounds before I get it right :p
Well we all have to live through the burdesn of life... :(
:D

Re the photos, i genuinely think the dim ambient light wat is too often overseen for flambé recipes.

I reckon i have a relatively decent (not commercial quality though) "omelette...norvegienne" ;) shoot somewhere but it's on another hard drive, have to put my hands on it. If so i'll send you the results.

Having said that in the meantime i've been thinking about the strobes, have in mind to try some copperware with a slight angle in the background. Using alternatively either a snoot placed behind the camera (slightly deported on the side) or a softbox from further away for warm reflections (kind of a restaurant substitute for the breads). Adding a curtain protection in between the camera and strobe axis in the softbox solution.

Just an idea :)


P.S. not sure i 've been clear here, but there's some serious live soccer right now :eek:
 
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