When doing a photo illustration or portrait or food photo it’s nice to have the control and dedicated space offered by a formal photo studio. Sometimes, however, it’s more appropriate to make the photo on location if the location adds context to the image. Or, in this case, it was just a whole lot easier to take the studio to the subject than bring the subject to the studio.

Staff photographer Kaitlyn Bernauer was asked to photograph a couple of different soups that were entered in the Herald-Republic’s annual Souper Bowl soup contest.

So, Kaitlyn set up some lights, moved around some furniture and toys, arranged some food and made photos in the living room of fellow employee Savannah Tranchell.

Kaitlyn used a simple two-light set-up with one light as the main and the second as a backlight.

(This panoramic photo was shot in low light with an iPhone4S, hence the poor quality)

Kaitlyn’s photo:

I did learn one food tip – creme soda looks and foams almost exactly like beer. So, if you’ve got to have beer as an ingredient in a photo and you’re on a tight budget, creme soda is a good stand-in.

-Gordon King