When photographing food, a big light source makes a huge difference, but it doesn’t have to be a big artificial light source. If you can find gorgeous window light, use it. Here I used window light and a little bit of fill to lighten up the shadow side. For the fill, I used a Stella 1000 LED light with barn doors to prevent spill. If you don't have an LED light for filling in the shadows, you can simply use a piece of white paper or even a white napkin to reflect some light back into the shadow side.
The take away here is to keep everything natural looking. The horizontal lines of the table create a nice contrast with the kidney shaped cutting board. I styled the shoot with a very cool looking French knife and some fresh baked bread. Captured at Moulin, Newport Beach, CA.
