Paulchens FoodBlog?!

Last time Simone challenged us with a very light image, a lot of light and rather bluish atmosphere was to be achieved.

This time she went quite like the total opposite with her new challenge: dark brown background and even less props than last time. The image on the left is made by  Con Poulos and was featured in magazine 44 from 2009.

I spent some hours in front of this picture to figure out how I should set up my photoscene.

I also had to find some of the dark props this picture was asking for and find my bundt form (that I hadn’t used in ages I must confess…).

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Lemon Sour Bundt Cake - version right out of camera, unedited

First I had to find some rather dark props I usually do not have around here since my kitchen itself is dark brown and I love to use rather light dishes and props. Finally I found a dark brown table runner I hoped would do the trick, I could not find a round brown plate so I thought the glass plate would be the best and least disturbing substitute.

Since i did not want to ruin my tablecloth I omitted the icing stains that are shown in the picture. Since my bundt cake form is quite a bit different from the one featured it was not so easy to achieve the highlight effect and the shadows. Also my light source was a bit more diffused as it was supposed to for this purpose. The unedited version as it came right of the camera was still a bit too light to my taste – and comparing the given photo.

Lemon Sour Bundt Cake - shadows edited

I edited the shadows in general to make them more outstanding without losing the rather harsh lighting effect on the icing. I only used one light source coming from the upper right corner. Since I shot this in the evening there was nearly no additional light coming from the window or from the room in general. I think I got the angle better than last time… I know the plate should be fully shown but allas it was too big again…

Please feel free to ad any nitpicking or suggestions for improvements .
I am open to and happy about any feedback! Thanks! 

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Oh yes the cake:
I liked it and my colleagues at work who snarfed down the whole cake within a few hours liked it too. It was moist and  slightly tangy limy!

I altered the recipe as I used limes where it calls for lemons plus substituted the “normal” flour with spelt flour as well. Unfortunately my icing wasn’t as thick and creamy but a little bit more runny and translucent! Maybe I had slightly too much liquid used, I don’t know… It did not harm the overall very good taste of the cake tho.
For the recipe please visit Simone’s blog.

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This photography and styling event is the brainchild of Simone and hosted at her blog Junglefrog Cooking.

She writes about the challenge: 

Above all this challenge is about having fun styling and photographing a dish by taking Donna Hay as our great example. You can join all months or whenever you feel like joining in. Using an example of the great photographers that Donna works with, I always find that it is a good learning experience to see how did they light the scene, where does the light come from and how did they manage to make it look so beautiful. Try and analyze all of that and then come up with your own version.

While taking food photos is all about finding your own style and certainly not copying anyone else, it does help to analyze how your hero’s do their job. It’s about learning to light and style a scene properly. In no way am I trying to suggest you copy another person style. Find your own unique style! This challenge is just a tool to help you along the way..

For more Infos on the challenge please click the logo to go directly to the challenge page!

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