Delhi-based photographer Ravi Dhingra works the C1 Plus at home for food photography.
It’s been months since the COVID-19 lockdown and restrictions in movement and social meetings have made commercial assignments hard to come by. However, with a Profoto C1 Plus – which I got my hands on before the lockdown – staying at home hasn’t been all that bad. With an opportunity to experiment with smartphone photography, and photographing things I normally might not, the C1 Plus is a godsend.
Generally, I photograph food for clients, which involves working with top chefs and food stylists, But now, I was at home, away from all that “glamour”, working with the subtlety of home-cooked food. My resources were also quite limited.
Since the C1 Plus is small, I made a makeshift V-card reflector using silver reflecting paper and cardboard to bounce the light and to make it soft.
This DIY V-card reflector has been one of my most useful accessories – inexpensive, yet effective, lending a nice wraparound lighting effect to the subject at hand.
In addition to bouncing the light, I used it directly on the subject – a summer drink, translucent in nature. The angular backlight, along with a reflector in front, helped to bring out the details of the liquid.
The light works as both the key light and the fill light, bringing out the details in the subject photographed in ambient lighting. Paired with the Profoto app on my phone, it is easy to control lighting using the manual exposure option.
Here, I photographed the dessert, using the light streaming through a large window; however, a distracting shadow was visible, which was easily taken care of by using the C1 Plus on the opposite side. The intensity was set to keep the shadow, but to make it an extremely soft one.
The ease with which one can use the C1 Plus is clearly its most appealing feature. It is intuitive and does exactly what you want it to do, complementing your photography. The app automatically detects the light when paired. Besides manual exposure, the option of changing the White Balance also helps in maintaining the overall look of the photograph.
Ravi Dhingra is a photographer based in New Delhi. He is a Canon EOS Maestro and also one of the Profoto Mentors in India. Ravi specializes in food, product, interior and portrait. You can see more of Ravi's works on his website, or follow him on Facebook and Instagram.