"lights" news and stories

There are many food bloggers out there who take stunning, professional-quality photographs of food for their websites. There are an equal number who seem to suffer a bit from poor lighting and blurry images, though. Photographers will get better with practice, but it helps to have a good eye for composition and the ability to hold the camera steady when you're trying to take pictures - especially ones of food, which tend to be from close up and trying to capture a lot of detail. It's safe to say that there are three major elements that will really help anyone looking to improve their photography: a quality camera, good lighting and a tripod or stand,

You're on your own for the camera, but the Photo Studio in a Box offers the other two in a neat little package. It includes an adjustable camera stand, soft light box and backgrounds, two high output table-top lights (to eliminate unflattering shadows and highlight the details of your subject) and a nylon diffuser screen. It also comes with a custom carrier so you can use the studio when traveling, although restaurants probably won't be thrilled if you try to set it up on the table.

Source

Having enjoyed an offal salad at the Anchor and Hope with a bunch of the UK's bloggers, I can attest to being a lover of offal. Gimme kidneys, liver or heart any day. Pig's trotters I am not that much of a fan of; and there is something about brains that I really don't want to go into that takes them off the menu too.

Pluck is the lungs, heart and liver of an animal that is most famously used in the creation of the Scottish delicacy haggis - stuffed with oat bran inside a sheep's stomach. Lights are the animals lungs; again there is something about them that puts me off. They can be used though as an addition to several dishes, finely chopped in a bolognese sauce for example. To prepare them they have to be beaten by a mallet to remove the air and the cartilage and a broccoli looking bit sticking out of the windpipe have to be removed too.