Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Alan Benson





A couple weeks ago Georgia and Nathan went to Poachers Pantry, Murrumbateman on a FREEZING Wednesday afternoon. (Tina and Teri went Thursday). We started off the first 20 mins or so watching Alan work his magic on a plate of canapes. I was honored to work as his reflector assistant twice that day. First I held his gold reflector whilst the 2 shivering models tried to enjoy some food outside. The gold reflector added warmth and a glow to the model's faces, and emphasized the food on the plate. I then got to hold a diffuser reflector whilst the model was on the ground serving a plate of dips and canapes. This actually in my opinion gave me wind/frost burn on one of my fingers, and i couldn't feel anything with it for 2 days. However I did a good job apparently, and Alan got the shots he needed.

I then proceeded to help Nathan and Georgia inside who were taking stock photographs on a white background for web and pamphlet advertisement to deep etching.
They kept bringing out items for us to photograph, which i was actually reluctant to do as i was there to watch Alan. In between items we took 10 mins or so to see how Alan progresses his shots.

His photographs were taken step by step. The food on its' own, and then positioning props around the plate. His lighting techniques were quite easy, but i probably wouldn't have thought about doing some of his techniques. One shot which did stand out in particular was the pizza shot. The dish was lit through a glass block, and speedlites, the glass dispersed the flash with a warm glow, very much like window light through blinds.

So some equipment Alan took with him was a MacBook, tethered.
Lightroom was his preferred cataloging and tethering software.
85mm tilt shift lens
70-200mm nikon lens.
D3 Nikon Body.
prefers available light even when shooting outdoors, not even speedlites.
Black Diffusers,
White reflectors
Transparent diffusers
Loves Square cropping when deciding his final set of photographs.
When shooting outside, be on aperture priority on 2.8
Speedlites
Poachers provided wooden boards for texture and colour for the food.

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