RED Food Product Shots Motion Control

[Ted Chu]

Lenses -- Arriflex Macro Lenses, Abel Cine Tech (Mitch Gross and others), NYC
Motion Control Rig -- MILO at Cine Magic, NYC

I was at first concerned about shooting food products with the RED: flickering candles, shiny surfaces, steam, macro motion, full spectrum of colors, etc., but IMHO the spot turned out great. Did not see any digital artifacts in my footage! I shot with a 80C filter at 100 ASA using tungsten lights at 23.98FPS with a 180 degree shutter.

Attached are the unretouched stills -- QT 2K and a smaller compressed file can be watched/downloaded at http://fileshare.tedchu.com

[A. Bastaki]

Yum! me likes.

[Mitch Gross]

Lovely. Great work Ted.

[Andrew Brinkhaus]

Looks great! Would you mind talking briefly about some of your lighting setups? I am shooting a cooking pilot soon that will require some food shots also. Thanks.

[Ted Chu]

Sure, any specific questions?

Looks great! Would you mind talking briefly about some of your lighting setups? I am shooting a cooking pilot soon that will require some food shots also. Thanks.

[Mickey Conway]

Was the food prepared by Emeril Agassi?

[Ted Chu]

Thanks! Big compliment, love that guy. Ted

[Steve Sherrick]

Ted,

Wow, you were pumping a lot of light then, considering the 80C and the 100ASA.
Looks great. Did you do tests that indicated the 80C would be a must? And why 100 ASA? I assume because you had the light power to do so. According to Jim, there is a small hit when rating that low. Did you notice anything? A slight softening?

Great work!

[Lawrence Karman]

Bam! ::greedy:

[Ted Chu]

Ted,

Wow, you were pumping a lot of light then, considering the 80C and the 100ASA.
Looks great. Did you do tests that indicated the 80C would be a must? And why 100 ASA? I assume because you had the light power to do so. According to Jim, there is a small hit when rating that low. Did you notice anything? A slight softening?

Great work!

Actually, sorry, I rated the RED at ASA 200 but ASA 100 with the 80C. No softening at all, I had a Panasonic 17" monitor and was careful regarding sharpness. I was shooting at a low depth of field, which with macro work can be dangerous. Light power was not an issue because I normally shoot food with a 10K or 20K through an 8X8 rag anyway. When I decided to shoot this on the RED and not film, I tested tungsten with and without an 80C at various ASA-s and looked at the 4K TIFFS with Photoshop. IMHO, I thought an 80C at 200 ASA, white balanced with my key (those lights are never 3200K and gets warmer still through an 8X8 rag) looked the best. I shot 4K and rendered it for the clients to 2K via FCP and they were thrilled. Thanks for the compliments.