Food and Beverage Photography that Pops!

The standard look for food and beverage photography is to keep things natural – after all, you don’t want to be putting unnatural-looking things in your mouth! But sometimes, you want to take your food photography in a different direction and make it pop visually. 

Food and beverage photography lit with KYU-6 light wraps to make it pop

This is where KYU-6 light wraps can have an impressive effect on your food photos by bringing great flashes of light and streaks of strong color to your scenes. Being small, light, and flexible, they are a must-have for every food photographer’s kit bag. We’re going to show you how to make your food photography pop with the help of Yessica Duque and her use of color from KYU-6 RGB light wraps.

Big, bold, and obvious

The secret, if it’s really a secret, to using your KYU-6 light wraps to create food and beverage photos that pop is to be big, bold, and obvious. Don’t be tentative and don’t hold back. Be striking with your color selections and dial up the intensity, then you will truly make an impact with your images.

That’s exactly what Yessica has done with these ramen and cocktail photos. The strong blue and red hues combine to create a neon magenta look, which gives the images a great late-night vibe.

The setup – ramen

For the ramen shots, Yessica used three KYU-6 RGB light wraps together with a reflector and some natural light. She’s positioned her camera overhead.

Yessica attached her three KYU-6 RGB light wraps vertically to the uprights of her lighting stands using their magnetic strips. 

She set the first light to blue and positioned it a little below the top right corner of the table. Opposite it, a little bit above the bottom left corner of the table is a KYU-6 light wrap set to red. You can see how their red and blue colors merge to create a magenta look across the image. 

There’s a third KYU-6 RGB light wrap set to blue about halfway down the right side of the table. Opposite it on the left of the table is a reflector to help fill the shadows on the left of the image.

Coming in at the top left is a little window light that gives a dash of sprightly natural tones. It’s this contrast with the dramatic reds and blues that really makes this image pop, grounding it in reality and not letting it appear like a cartoon.

Two bowls of ramen lit with dramatic red and blue lighting

The setup – cocktail

Rather than shooting overhead, Yessica has shot the cocktail from a little above level. The glass is positioned on a plain sweep background, which gives a clean and uninterrupted backing, and there’s a reflector placed behind it.

You can see from the shadows that three KYU-6 light wraps have been positioned around the glass. As with the ramen shot, they are attached vertically to the uprights of lighting stands. The first is set to red and placed camera-right, at approximately 135º. The second is also camera-right but at roughly 35º. The third KYU-6 light wrap is opposite the first one, camera-left, around 35º. This one is colored blue. 

A cocktail in a martini glass lit with purple and magenta lights

The bright colors here give the cocktail a sophisticated, after-dark look that emphasizes its grown-up nature. 

Branching out

We hope that these shots have given you some inspiration to experiment with your KYU-6 light wraps and try some color-driven food photography. Of course, with 15 colors in the RGB light wraps, you’re not restricted to blue and red. Why not try oranges and yellows? Or green and purples? It can be what color mix you want, just remember to be bold. Sometimes you might want to enhance the colors already in the shot and at others, go for a vivid clash. 

About Yessica Duque

Yessica Duque is a food stylist photographer based in the Netherlands. She specializes in commercial food photography to bring brands, social media, and public relations to an elevated level. To find more about Yessica Duque visit her site at yessicaduque.com, instagram @yessica_duque_photography, facebook at @yessicaduquephotographer, or YouTube channel here.

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