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This isn’t coffee

A staged shot that I wanted to try using a local company’s hot cocoa. Nikon D810 AF 50 f1.4 1/8th f2 ISO 200

Quite a while back in my photography, I decided that food photography was the space I wanted to get into. While I very much would love to take on food and product photography, I also know the market is somewhat saturated with some absolutely amazing photogs in the area.

There is a local coffee roaster that I wanted to do some pics for. I wasn’t asked, and I didn’t expect anything; I just wanted to. When I saw that they had their own hot cocoa mix, I instantly had a shot pop into my head. The image above is almost exactly what I saw initially. I wanted a shot that screamed cozy and warm.

I’ve got one mono strobe with a 24×24 soft box that was gridded. It was aimed to just skirt the scene and the gridding was to help be sure that there was no spill onto the tree in the background. For that, I used that slow shutter speed to make the glow from the tree lights shine, then used a tungsten lamp aimed generally at the tree to introduce a nice warm glow. I do have a white reflector on the right of the scene to manage shadows a bit. Overall, it was a really simple setup and I was really happy with the results. The roaster was as well, but nothing came of it from a business side. I just wanted to do it and have a little fun.

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