As a reminder, FoodMayhem is all about… food! However, photos of food are a critical part of our site, so we have been trying to improve our photography. Jessica’s cousin Steve is a wonderful photographer and has provided some interesting guidance, that we’ll share with the world.
We were considering various diffusers and Steve suggested that:
For starters, just go to a fruit stand and get one of the meshy foam things that they wrap the fancy fruits in, like the apple pears. You should be able to get better results just by using that on top of your flash pointed up.
Well we did just that. And while there are crazier diffusers, this one is pretty funny — but really works!
The following shows the results of various configurations. All of these were shot at 1/80; f/7.1; ISO 200.
| Fruit Diffuser Forward |  |
| Fruit Diffuser Up |  |
| Speedlite / No Diffuser Forward |  |
| Speedlite / No Diffuser Up |  |
| Built-In Flash |  |
I definitely think the Fruit Diffuser Up configuration is the most natural. The image is bright and there are no hard specular points on the plastic.
In addition to the fruit diffuser looking great, it is using a free product that is from food! What do you think?
Wow, what a great way to reuse something that normally gets thrown away! Do you have a good suggestions for empty almond milk cartons? We go thru at least 2 a week!!
Yep, we love re-using! Hmm we go through those almond milk containers too, and haven’t yet thought of a good way to re-use them. Re-using food containers can be dangerous though, if they’re not properly cleaned, and some containers (like the almond milk ones) don’t clean well, because of the material.
how incredibly creative! that’s so cool that such a simple product could make a huge difference in photos! 🙂
Looks great. Glad it worked out for you. Of course we can do even better with a few other DIY options or camera store bought diffusers, but this was the simplest. You should also experiment with the angles in between. For example, you get more and more light as you tilt down the flash head from the fully up position. BTW, your blog always make me HUNGRY!
Now that is an interesting diffuser. I have been avoiding using flash in my food photography.
f1point0, thanks again!
Kevin, we avoid using flash where possible but sometimes it’s unavoidable and our apt has terrible lighting. We’re working on that too.
This looks great! I’m too scared to try it though!
Blonde Duck, if you’re using a digital camera, it can’t hurt. Just take a pic with it and a pic without and erase whichever one you don’t like.
Lon/Jess, 2 thumbs up for the “fruit diffuser up”! To my eye it adds more depth (Z-index) and thus makes the image much less flat. Cool re-use of materials for extra points. Now I can take the layer of vaseline off my eyes. 😉
I need to know a little more about why you made this post