The topic today is this overhead shot.

The setup is quite simple: just one light source, a strobe with a big soft box and four white boards as reflectors.

The only specific gear for this picture is the special arm attached to the tripod to set the camera right over the table.

The issue to take this picture was that the composition is made with many different dishes and drinks and they don’t look fresh for too long. Something like the beer foam last less than 3 minutes, the fresh leaves and sauces start to look bad after 10 min and the bubbles from the aperol spritz last just seconds. All the items cannot get out of the kitchen at the same time, so the trick was to set the composition using empty dishes and glasses (as usual) and start to add the items and shot them one by one composing the final picture in postproduction in Photoshop.

In order to safe time in the editing it is crucial to don’t move anything during the shooting process. That’s why I use tape to fix the tripod to the table and some at the floor to advise people to don’t walk in.

For this overhead picture you have to pay special attention in the depth of field. I wanted everything on focus and sharp, but closing the aperture to the maximum reduces the image quality (distortions and sharpening problems in the edges because of the diffraction and chromatic aberration, all the photographers knows that the lens “sweet point” where the lens performs the best is in some point close to the middle aperture). So, like always, I used a laser meter plus the iPhone app called iDoF Calc to optimise the aperture (please check my post "My Equipment").

And if you have any question... Please ask me ;-)

Today I would like to show you how I took this picture at a bar for the drink menu.

This is the set general view. Just two symmetrical strobes with narrow softboxes. You just have to try different angles to get the desired reflection in the glasses and bottles.

The only problem was that the shooting was at daytime with a lot of natural light coming in.

When I kill the natural light for the drinks (using a combination of aperture and shutter speed) and I use my strobes to light the drinks, I am killing the artificial light from the background shelf too and it looks boring and poor. I wanted to keep some light in the background in order to have some reflections so I set the aperture to get the depth of field that I wanted (f5.6) and I set the shutter speed to 1/80. The result was this.

**Just with the strobes to light the drinks**

Then what I did was to hide a couple of speedlites behind the bottles at the shelf. I used a blue and a red gel to add some color to the background.

The result was good but I founded some reflections at the background that were very distracting for me.

I used some snoots to cover those areas (you can use black clothes, boards or whatever, I use these snoots because I always carry them, check the post "My Equipment" for more information).

In this diagram you can see the technical gear info.

Like always in this kind of photography I sprayed water with glycerine over the glasses with cold drinks to make them look more fresh.

For this shooting I think it is very important to have a precise control of the depth of field. To get it I use a laser meter combine with an iPhone app called iDoF Calc. You can find more information in my post "My Equipment".

The post edition of this picture in Photoshop was very simple. I just rid off some reflections and I did some dodge and burn.

Do you have any question? Just ask me :-)