Le Titi de Paris Dining Room
I recently worked with Michael and Susan Maddox, chef owners of the fabulous French restaurant, Le Titi de Paris. I was asked to shoot the dining room and a number of current dishes that the restaurant features.
I arrived at the restaurant in the morning, a little before scheduled time, and began to set up for the dining room shots. I decided to shoot using High Density Range processing in order to capture all of the highlight, midtone and shadow detail that was present in the room. Using available light I made three exposures of the dining room, one normal, one two stops over and the final two stops under. The warm tungsten light of the interior mixed in interesting ways with the blue daylight that streamed in from the windows so color balance was an interesting issue to deal with. The image on the left is one of several dining room shots that I did at the beginning of the shoot.
Michael arrived a few minutes after I began shooting. He started to prepare the dishes to be shot. Right about the time I completed the dining room shots and finished setting up my lights he arrived with the first of many dishes to be shot tha
t day. He came out with a delicate pastry swan stuffed with cheese and onion. The swan was surrounded by a balsamic reduction and a light pesto oil that complimented the visual appeal of the dish. I wanted to stop shooting and taste the dish on the spot. But I just kept on shooting. Here I used only controlled light from two Interfit strobes and a gold reflector adding a bit of warmth to the swan. I did get to taste later. It was fantastic!.
Sushi
The sushi dish on the left presented some interesting problems. Shooting the glass plate on a white background and maintaining the high key look of the plate against the colors and shapes on the plate was, if nothing else, a fun challenge.
I decided to shoot as open as I could so I adjusted the lights to a generally lower output. I also decided to adjust the color balance manually so I could maintain the white of the background. I also used a white reflector to add a bit of highlight to the sauce and the edge of the glass plate. Finally, I overexposed by one-third of a stop. The resulting image is on the left.
A number of other dishes were shot during the session. Michael just kept coming out with new plates and creative dishes for me to capture. Each dish presented a different challenge. From low contrast, densely packed main dishes to high contrast spun sugar in several desserts, the shoot was a technical gymnastic event. I like that kind of a challenge. It allows me to be as creative as I can be and still provide my client with strong workable images that make their business look really good.
I am proud to have Michael and Susan as clients.
