Light Shapers and Accessories Used in Food Photography

Whether you use natural or artificial light, you will need some additional auxiliary equipment to shape the light in your photographs. As I mentioned before, you do not need to use expensive and complicated equipment for food photography. In this section, I will list the basic equipment you may need for beautifully lit photographs.

Reflectors

One of the essential accessories for photography is the reflector. It wouldn't be wrong to call anything that helps you reflect light a reflector. The reflector is positioned in front of the light source and helps illuminate the areas in your photo that are not closely illuminated and are in the shadows by filling them with light. Considering that we generally use a single light source in food photography, I can say that you may need one or two reflectors depending on the result you want to get. Ready-made reflectors are generally sold in three-in-one form in silver, gold and white colors. Figure 1.3 (Reflector picture) Reflector the closer it is to the object you photograph, the brighter it is, and the larger its size, the softer and more natural it is. gives a result. The most preferred reflector colors in food photography are white and silver in order to avoid creating undesirable different tones in your photo. Since I personally think that silver reflectors create too harsh and sharp reflections, I prefer white rectangular photoblocks as reflectors, which you can buy at very affordable prices from stationery stores or on the internet. (Figure 1.4 set up picture illuminated with photoblock)

Diffusers (Light Softeners)

Another accessory frequently used in harsh light conditions in food photography is diffusers. Softboxes, umbrellas, "beauty dishes" (usually used in portraits, you can also use them in food photography when you want to create harsher light or shoot in small areas) are basic diffuser examples. Working with a light free from shadows. The purpose of the diffuser is to soften harsh light, regardless of its source. This may be harsh sunlight coming directly from the window, or it may be artificial light coming from a flashlight or overhead flash. The basic rule we should keep in mind when using a diffuser is that the larger the size of our light source (i.e. our diffuser) and the closer our light source is to the object we will shoot, the softer the light we will obtain. For this reason, large softboxes and umbrellas are the most frequently preferred diffuser types. Apart from softboxes and umbrellas, another accessory generally used by professional photographers is foldable panel diffusers with minimum dimensions of 1m*2m. Due to their large size, their ability to scatter light is very high. It is also an ideal place to use it by the window to soften the daylight. In our country, only standard models are generally sold, but versions with different thicknesses that can absorb different amounts of light are also sold abroad.