Morning Parfait...

Breakfast is often called the most important meal of the day. Some people see that as: “I know it’s important, but I don't have time, so I'll have to make it quick.” Quick is not always the best way to go, not only for the sake of your health, but also for your taste buds. What if you could have all three: quick, healthy and tasty?

The French parfait is a frozen dessert, dating from 1894.

 

A parfait is a great way to start the day, and not just for a special treat, like a brunch item for guests. This breakfast recipe includes everything you need to jump-start your day, even without coffee (haha). The natural sugar perk you get from fresh berries and fruit, the fiber and protein from the grains and nuts, and a splash of dairy with the yogurt – there’s no real need for anything else,
except a spoon.

Not all parfait has to be this elegant or complicated. It’s very easy to get a large mixing bowl, scoop in some cereal and nuts; add some yogurt, lots of berries, and mix. Then, spoon into individual bowls. You can always experiment with yogurt and fruit combinations to create something unique and delicious. But layering is the key to parfait, and its presentation in a transparent bowl or stemmed glass is perfection. As a matter of fact, parfait in French literally means something perfect.

Simple recipe for two

Chips with Parmesan Bits....

 Absolutely nothing satisfies a potato craving like a crispy chip. Oven fried or baked, they’re now essentially guilt free. Toss in some Parmesan cheese and coarse salt and these simple chips are ready to enhance a prime steak or chop. 

To light this shot, we started with a large soft light source from the rear left.  This gave us a general light and a little bit of direction.  We then came in from the rear right with a point source.  This light was low, as we wanted it to skim across the surface of the chips and show all the texture of the chips.  After those 2 lights, the shot was too contrasty for our liking, so we used another very large soft light source from directly above to fill in some of the shadows.

The shot was simple too, nothing complicated. Just a few browned and golden-edged slices with highlights in the foreground and enough charred cheese bits to inspire your taste buds.

Easy recipe ~

When was the last time you made whoopie...

It sounds like a question from a bad game show, but when was the last time you made whoopie... pie?

Home-baked Whoopie Pies are an American tradition.

This was an obviously fun shoot.  Bad jokes and puns were flying across the studio.  But while we were having fun, we also had a somewhat difficult subject.  The combination of very dark chocolate pastry sandwiching a very white filling created a challenge.  The contrast between the two had to be brought closer together.  We firmly believe that being able to do a project like this 'in camera' is an art form. The term, 'in camera' dates back, and people may not know what we mean.  Doing a shot 'in camera' means no Photoshop!

We do have a practical side as well.  Technology is progressing, with the intent of making our lives easier.  Photoshop allows us to do some amazing things and saves us a lot of time. So we mixed the art form of shooting 'in camera' and the technology of Photoshop to help us finish this shot.

We used a soft light source from above. This gave us a starting point to control the contrast.  We then brought in a point light source, from directly behind the subject, to produce the highlights on the chocolate pastry.  This light was just blowing out the cream filling.  So we took a separate photo with the same light dialed down, so the filling was properly exposed.  The two photos were later merged in Photoshop

We also used a white card to reflect some of the point light source (from the rear) back onto the front of the shot.
 
Okay, so the story goes that as far back as the 1930s, Whoopie Pies, also known as ‘gobs,’ were made in New England, and when farmers or their kids found them in their lunch boxes, they yelled “Whoopie!” Supposedly, they were made with leftover cake batter, but who ever heard of leftover cake batter?

The real Whoopie Pie is a delicious dessert sandwich, about the size of a hamburger, made with two soft cookies and a cream filling. Today, if you want to make one, it’s just a matter of combining ready-made ingredients and baking. Or use your preferred chocolate cake recipe.

Easy Peasy Whoopie Pie Recipe

Remote Art Direction...

We have a lot of clients from around the country who can't always attend a shoot.  To help bridge the gap we do remote art direction.

Our studio was built with productivity in mind.  Not only for us, but for the clients who come to work with us.  The studio has to be an office away from their office in every aspect.  We often have clients tell us that they get more work done at our studio than at their own office.

Sometimes, work is so demanding, that they can't slip away or the art director can't make the trip to Chicago.  So, we utilize Remote Art Direction via Skype.  Skype allows us to connect with our clients as if they were here.  They can share our screen and see changes being made in real time with our food stylist.  They can see live feed through our camera and give real art direction before a shot is even taken.  We can also invite multiple people to view what's going on, because not everyone can be expected to huddle around one computer in the office, or be in the same location.  This way we can reach everyone who needs to be involved in the comfort of whereever they happen to be.

We always enjoy having people come to the studio, but when they can't... this is a great way to get the job done.

Firing Up The Grill...

It's another grilling season and we can't help but take full advantage of it.  Call it a primal instinct, or just football fever settling in for the winter, but something keeps drawing us back to the grill. In fact, year-round grilling has become increasingly popular.

Each of these shots was unique, but they all had the grill in common.  When shooting pics that require a grill, you can do it in a few different ways.  You can shoot on an actual grill, you can fake the grill, or you can photograph when food has come off the grill.  Each of these shots demonstrates one of these options.  

Shooting on the grill is tough, because you have a limited time to get the shot before you have to pull the food off the set, and shoot the next hero.  But with a good team, it can be done without having to worry.    

We touched on how we created the grill shots in a previous post on our blog.  There we went into detail about each step of the process.  So, if you are wondering how we accomplished the fired-up looks, check out our blog post here.

Lamb Chops....

Our client requested both a searing on-grill shot and an impressive plated shot of single rib portions. We started with a full rack of lamb and our food stylist, Janet Middleton, cut the rack into chops. 

Fired-Up Lamb Chops.

The concept was to create an outdoor shot, but keep the control afforded by our indoor studio. We rigged up a stationary grill top, and used a long lens (150mm) to come in close on the food. This accomplished a few key points: 1. We could capture the nicely charred look of the meat and juicy accents. 2. We didn't need to use an actual grill in the studio; using a real grill limited our lighting freedom and perspective. 3. We would have had a large black rim surrounding the food and a very shallow bowl for the coals; we also didn't want it to look like the grill grate was resting right on the coals.


In our set up, we had a huge bed of coals farther under the set, allowing us to use our lights to illuminate them, without affecting our food/set high above it. Creating the appearance of a grill also allowed us to have our light sources unimpeded by the black rim of most grills and we were free to light 360 degrees around the food. We had numerous lighting sources. Again, we wanted to create an outdoor feel, so we had to recreate the sun as well as the sky. We put a very large broad source above the set to emulate the sky and control our shadows and contrast. We then positioned a point source coming from the front right to represent our sun. A meat shot really benefits from specific highlights, so we brought in a "meat light." This is a very small point source light, which we placed behind the meat, to highlight the juiciness and detail on top of the meat. Since our coals and fire were too low to cast any real light from the underside of the grate, we put a point light source under the food as well, to simulate the fire. We also focused a light on the coals, so they would be appropriately lit.


We wanted to show the chops at their tender peak of perfection, so Janet cooked the lamb quickly and achieved well-defined grill marks. We timed the shots beautifully and even caught detailed herb and seasoning particles intact on the surface of the perfectly grilled meat for the plated shot.

The Moist and Tasty Pork Chop....

Nothing says summer, like grillin'...

A griller's choice and challenge,


     An outdoor feel was a must for this summery shot. To keep control, but still have the natural light look from an afternoon sky, we placed a point light source to come from the back right. This light gave us direction and also produced all the specular highlights on the chop.

By doing this, our indoor set became a realistic afternoon sky with a controlled, simulated sun. To create the look of a natural light, you can't just create a sun, you also have to create a sky. We put a large white flat behind the set and wrapping around towards the left, thus creating a sky-like impression and producing a large, unbroken highlight on the sauce. Since the front was going a little dark, we filled in with a mirror to light the front and captured the delectable details of both the meat and potatoes. 

The shoot was fun, fragrant and we all spent a lot of time licking our lips.

Maker's Mark...

Patience now a days is a thought of as a thing of the past.  Everyone wants instant, now and later can't wait.  Some things demand patience and if you can wait, some of the best things life has to offer will be waiting.  About 6 years of waiting will give you Maker's Mark Whiskey...

Again Brian and Ryan had one of those days where they decided to shoot a very similar project.  This project was a bottle of whiskey.  They again separated and did their respective shots.

Brian's Shot

Brian set up a window frame behind the set and created an over exposed, soft light  coming through.  This helped give a great natural look and feel to the photograph.  To fill the photo so it wasn't just back lit, he brought in a soft box on a boom from high left, and a white card on the right to reflect some of the light back onto the bottle.

Ryan's Shot

Ryan decided to keep this shot clean.  "The whiskey sells it's self" was the approach he wanted to take. This shot was also very simplistic in its approach.  He put the bottle and the glass on a very small white pedestal to get them up off a surface.  This allowed for the highlights to run top to bottom with out a break.  A smoked plexiglass was put behind the bottle, and a large point source with a grid was used to get gradations in the liquid.  A large soft light source was positioned very close to the bottle on the left side, which gave a solid highlight.  On the right, a white card to reflect that light, and to also act as a light source.  A small point source was aimed at the top of the card which gave a subtle highlight on the top right of the bottle.

Ricotta Crepes with Smoked Salmon....

Of all the things that France has done for the world, is there anything more satisfying than the Crepe?  It forms so perfectly to fit just the right ingredients to make a perfect breakfast. Or any meal for that matter.

Ricotta cheese provides an unexpected tenderness to smoked Salmon-filled Crepes.

A meal that needs to be fresh, we wanted everything about this photo to express that feeling.  The Art Director and Client were here for this shoot, and we all had the same idea of natural light.  So to keep things consistent, we created the natural light by using a combination of soft light and point sources.

But before we could start lighting the food, we had to pick our surface and props.  We started this shot by trying to arrange different props and surfaces, but ultimately everything seemed to take away from the hero of the shot, the salmon.  So we kept everything very subtle and minimal.  This really helped the color of the salmon explode in the photo.