Can you create great food images from a ready meal?
Updated: Feb 8, 2020

As a photographer I love challenging myself and this week is no different. I popped down to my local Tesco and picked up a ready meal, some fresh herbs at a cost of £4.50 all in. The challenge that I set my self was to photograph this £4.50 meal to look like a fine dinning meal.
What I bought from Tesco:
Ham & Mushroom Tagliatelle
Chives
Basil

My setup was quite simple here is the list of items that I used for my set:
Bone china plate that I had that most high end resturants use for spagetti
White napkin
Knife and fork
Wine glass
Salt and Pepper grinders
Dinning table or a nice looking surface

For the lighting I also kept this very simple and lit the complete scene with a single light, GODOX AD600, this is a cordless monoblock light that is battery operated, natuarlly a wired monoblock light will work the exact same. I also used a 60cm Octobox to modify the light and with the baffle in place. Finally I used the Sony A7RIII full frame camera with Sony 90mm f2.8 macro lens attached.
Below is the final settings to produce the images.
1/500 sec
f7.1
ISO 100
All the images have been captured with Capture One through tethered shooting, this is avoid moving the camera in anyway.
I finally edited the images in both Capture One and Photoshop to up the usual exposure, brightness and sharpness, I have not manipulated the images by adding or removing items from the image.


I hope that you have enjoyed how I have captured the images.