I'm going to break down and diagram the lighting I used for the latest ITB shot I took at the Art Institute of Tucson. This photo is of a culinary student carving a melon sculpture. Before we get to that....

One of the biggest differences between editorial and commercial shooting is in the attitude of the people involved in the photographic process. When I'm on a commercial shoot, everyone knows I'm going to be there and is typically very helpful. I try my best to breed that environment on my editorial work by talking with the 'client' beforehand and let them know that this is their opportunity to show themselves to the world and we should complement their strengths and the interview content. I also send them to my website to become a bit more familiar with my work so they can start thinkig creatively. Often times, it works and I get the full benefit of a commercial shoot with the freedom of editorial. I get to make some nice images.

In this case, the communication wasn't entirely there, so I showed up at my appointment time to learn that there were few students and nothing tangible to shoot other than a class lecture. That isn't the vision of an Art Institute that any of us were looking for. The chef remembered these carvings in the fridge and grabbed a couple of students from the lecture and we made these images.

I wanted a somewhat natural looking light, wanted to provide a sculpted clean look to the chef's whites, and show some texture in the carving. I wanted deep shadows. The beauty dish is an elegant way to achive a high contrast image but with smooth transitions. But, I didn't want a cold, dark sterile scene, so warming the shadows with a gold reflector helps that a lot. I then filled in the shadows on the hands a bit with the snoot. This provided a subtle brightness and draw to the carving hand. Here's what the image looks like: