Food photography using studio light for smartphones

14 July, 2020

Written by: Profoto Japan

For this story, we challenged the successful Tokyo based food photographer, Sakiko Ohno, to create images using the Profoto  C1  Plus studio light for smartphones and an iPhone  11  Pro. Would she be able to do the mouthwatering food justice using only the pocked-sized C1 Plus and a smartphone?

We started out with a photograph of an Asian-style green pea and coriander soup that has a gorgeous vivid green color. Sakiko captured the steam rising from the soup by shining the C1 Plus attached to the Clic Grid 20° with backlight from the left, behind the subject. She used the Clic Grid 20° to pinpoint and illuminate just the steam.

With C1 Plus

Without C1 Plus

Photo setup

For the next shot we set a cozy scene of relaxing on a sofa with a book and drink. She set the C1 Plus, attached to the Clic Grid 10°, directly on the armrest of the couch and shined its light from the left, behind the subject. The LED light can be placed directly on a table or cloth as it doesn’t heat up, enabling quick lighting. She succeeded in using light to capture the glimmer of the cranberry juice and bubbles from its carbonation.

With C1 Plus

Photo setup

The final challenge was to photograph Wagashi, a type of Japanese sweet. The image was created by reflecting and shining the C1 Plus attached to a stand onto a white wall to the left with a reflector to her right. She elongated the shadows and clearly showed the 3D appearance of the sweets, by bouncing the light from a lower position than in the previous overhead shot of the table. She wrapped the delicate rounded sweet in soft light and captured its spongy matted texture.

With C1 Plus

Without C1 Plus

Photo setup

“The C1 Plus is really small, only palm-sized, and can easily be placed anywhere, which makes it different from normal strobe lights. I felt like I could express something new, because its small size enabled me to really zero in on it without it getting into the frame,” Sakiko stated.

“Since you can adjust the color temperature from 3,000 to 6,500K as desired for continuous light and flashing light, this really comes in handy for food photography in which capturing color is so important. You should try it out for your own food photos, as with the C1 Plus light you can easily render a variety of light from soft light to hard light.”