Dmitri Halvorsen owns a 30-seat Greek restaurant in Brisbane. He started taking photos at the end of each Friday service, once the dining room emptied but the candles were still lit. The goal was simple: get one or two usable images per week for social media.
His routine, step by step
- Clear one table near the window and reset it with a full place setting.
- Light two candles and position them slightly off-centre from the plate.
- Use a smartphone on a small flexible tripod, set to night mode.
- Take 8 to 10 shots from different angles, delete all but the best two.
The window matters because ambient street light from outside adds a second light source, which prevents the image from looking like it was taken in a cave.
What he avoids
Dmitri does not use the flash. He also avoids shooting food directly under the pendant lights above each table, because the light hits the plate from directly above and removes all texture from the dish.
This routine takes roughly 15 minutes. Over three months it produced enough content to post four times per week without repeating images.