I seem to be shooting a lot of stuff like this lately. It’s what I see everyday, so I guess it’s somewhat natural, but I’m not too sure about it. More on this later.

Most restaurants have terrible light. Angular and insufficient seems to be high concept for restaurant lighting design. It’s not a look that flatters food or people, and it sucks for most photography.

Sometimes, like in the case of above, you can use the angularity to produce a kind of edge effect. But in the end, it’s just not enough light in all the wrong places. Take the girl in the background for example. Why is her shirt so comparitively brilliantly lit? A little over head cone light that throws more like a spot illuminates her back, but why should a restaurant want to back light things. Or to put in another way, why should another customer’s back be the only well lit object to pass under a customer’s gaze. Are we here to eat or to be voyeurs? I’m here to eat and to talk to the people whom I came with. Put a nice diffuse light source right over the table. Like a china ball. Not something like this:

You never see china balls in restaurants though. Do the restaurant lighting designers of the world hold an idealogical grudge against difusion? Or is it a matter of collusion with the chefs; the silly customers won’t know the food is bad if we just back light it. And don’t get me started on compact flourescents. Angularity, low intensity and spectral castration? No thanks, I’ll eat at home under the nice soft light of my china balls.