Tungsten Lighting and Football Shaped Brownies

As you have probably noticed, football season is in full swing! I am spending mine traveling to a new tailgating spot every weekend, but between those tailgates, I am still taking pictures of my food. I am sure that you have noticed the days are getting shorter and fall weather is here. This might be great for tailgating and spending time outdoors, but it can be awful for your food photography.

I know that many of you probably don’t have time to do your food shooting until the evening. In the summer, there is still natural light up until 8 o’clock (depends where you live) and there is no problem using natural light to take your food pictures. With the days getting shorter, the amount of time you have to shoot with natural light is getting smaller and smaller. When winter hits, you will most certainly have to rely on an artificial light source if you plan on shooting your food pictures later in the day.

I am sure some of you cringe at the thought of using the lights in your kitchen to take your food photos. You know that the florescent and tungsten lights will give a strange color cast to the food and that you will be left with harsh and even multiple shadow lines. There is a solution. You will have to recreate window light. The picture above was taken using only artificial light and with only one light source.

See! Only one light! I have one tungsten light that is shining through a diffusion panel. I am using a white piece of foam board as a fill card(and yes that is a bottle of vodka I am using to hold up my fill card. No it isn’t filled with vodka, just water. Sometime you just have to use what works)

Here you can see where the light is coming out from the lamp! When it shines through the diffusion panel, it becomes soft and even. It is stronger closer to the front of the panel and then falls off. Adding the fill card reflects some of the light back in.

This is just one of the many ways you can shoot at night. As winter approaches, I will show you more ways you can create a night time studio that will give you day time results.

Don’t worry I am not going to leave you without a recipe.

My Mom’s Brownies

Ingredients

3 sticks unsalted butter

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups light brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

7 large eggs

1 1/4 cups coco powder

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

In a 5 quart pot over medium heat, melt butter.

Remove from heat and add sugar, light brown sugar, and vanilla.

Stir until the sugar and butter are melted together.

Add eggs( one at a time). Stir until each egg is incorporated in batter before adding additional egg. Repeat until all eggs are added.

Add coco powder, flour, and salt. Stir until all ingredients are incorporated into the batter.

Pour batter into either a  greased 9×13 pan or a greased 10 x14 pan depending on the thickness you desire. The larger pan will produce a thinner brownie. Bake in preheated 350 F oven for 40-45 minutes in a 9×13 pan and 30-35 minutes in a 10×14 pan.

To make into football shapes, cut the cooled baked brownies out with a football shaped cookie cutter and ice on the laces with the white icing of your choice!

After cutting out football shapes, you will have some scraps left. Immediately heat the scraps in the microwave and  serve with vanilla ice cream. This way you will be able to save your football shaped brownies for you tailgate!

Enjoy!