Food Photography with the Sony A7iii
Chicken drumsticks. Sony A7iii ISO 50, 1/160s, Sony 24-70 GM @ 35mm f/8.0
I've been practising some food photography recently with a view to getting more involved on a professional level and I couldn't resist a shot of these simple but delicious chicken drumsticks as they came out of the oven for today's lunch.
I really wanted to capture the crispiness of the skin and emphasise the way the skin and the juices on the tray glistened in the light so I opted for a silver reflective umbrella which has been rattling around unused in the boot of my car for years as I tend to use either white umbrellas or white soft boxes for wedding portraiture and headshots.
I mounted the Godox TT685S flash and the umbrella on a light stand using a Godox S-type bracket that came free with the flash. I'm really impressed with the bracket as it's really solidly built and locks down securely on the body of the flash rather than the flash wobbling around by its hot shoe connector. It also holds an umbrella very securely and allows for a softbox or a wide range of Bowens S-type mounted modifiers. The flash was triggered using the Godox X1T-S transmitter in the camera hot shoe. I find the Godox system much easier and more intuitive to use than the PocketWizards I've been using for years with my Nikon gear. It's nice being able to adjust the manual power output from the transmitter instead of on the flash itself and I've been getting very accurate, consistent exposures in both TTL and manual modes.
Getting colours right is absolutely essential in food photography so for the final step I used the ColorChecker Passport from X-Riteto ensure 100% accuracy. As you can see below, there is a significant improvement in the saturation of colours and a much warmer feel to the image after colour correction. This definitely helps to convey the golden colouring of the crispy skin.
Before Correction
This is how the ColorChecker passport appeared before colour correction in Lightroom...
After Correction
...and this is how it looked after creating a new Lightroom profile and setting the white balance.