Spare me the indulgence of a lighthearted post to start the week
Sunday lunch photos
I feel really fortunate that my family has long followed a somewhat traditional approach to Sundays; In the main we often sit down and enjoy a Sunday roast lunch. I’m no chef, but I do enjoy / end up doing much of the cooking too.
If you look at my Instagram feed you’ll find that there’s plenty of food and cooking pictures there. During the course of yesterdays meal preparation I made a couple of pictures with simple lighting modifiers found in the kitchen. None of these are award winning and will certainly have most photographers laughing over their cold meat sandwiches, but all I suggest for you is to think about how you see and shape light.
Baking parchment as a diffuser
I had first to freeze some blackberries that we’d been out picking. Before the freezer they needed a picture for Instagram. Blackberries are shiny, and dark – camera phones hate this combination. I know that softer light close to the berries will help. Rather than go and get a diffuser I opted for what was right at hand, a roll of baking paper – lightly brown in colour too – and placed it next to the water jug between the sunlight streaming in through the window and the blackberries.
Saucepan lid reflector
This time of year is runner bean harvest time, I have several family members who grow these beans and so we do get plenty of them.
The light is also from the window and is to the top right of the main picture, but I used the lid of the saucepan – notice it’s still got the potatoes in – to bounce some light back in to the beans and put my phone right next to the side of the lid and saucepan.
Yorkshire pudding recipe
Simple Yorkshire pudding recipe
It is very traditional in the UK to serve Yorkshire puddings with a sunday roast of beef, so this is a short recipe that works…
Ingredients
- Two rounded tablespoons of plain flour – sometimes you might need a little extra, about a 1/4 tbsp
- One or two medium eggs – I used two, but not always
- Milk, about half a pint, I tend to work by topping the jug up to around the 14 fl. oz mark
- Whisk them all together – by hand, then add a pinch of salt
Method
Chill the mixture in the fridge for around an hour before you cook it
Use a metal cupcake tin or similar and fill the wells in it with some vegetable oil, not olive oil though. Put in the oven at 200 celsius for about five to ten minutes to get the oil hot.
Get the batter / mixture from the fridge and then add a tablespoon of water and whisk it in to the mixture.
Fill each of the wells in the cupcake tin with the mixture and put the whole lot back in the oven for about 20 minutes, but down’t open the oven door until at least 15 minutes of cooking has passed. I usually put the Yorkshire puddings in the oven after the main meat joint has been taken out and left to rest.
Brian’s Yorkshire Puddings
It’s been rather lighthearted but I do find the combination of watching the play of light in the kitchen as I cook strangely therapeutic. I never expected to be giving my secret Yorkshire pudding recipe out on this blog though. Regular blogging will follow shortly.
I’d love to hear about your best “unexpected” light modifiers in the comments below 🙂
Great lighting tips! I often use a sheet of white cardboard with tin foil taped to it to reflect the light. I live quite far north and the daylight, especially in the winter months, can be quite poor. I’ve used the foil up until now but have just invested in some studio lights. Now… where to put them in my tiny kitchen!
Thanks for the comment Elizabeth.
I’ve also done much the same as you, in addition to some more regular photo accessories. I did once use a shiny silver cake board as a reflector too 🙂
I used tin foil too. I’ve also crinkled it up and used it for some Bokeh effect for a backdrop. And I’ve used a man with a white shirt to bounce light when I was in a really dark room Other than that I’ve used black and white cards I got from an art shop.