Pomegranates fascinate me – a very seasonal fruit and not grown locally in NZ I expect, so we only see them for a few weeks a year. This year I decided to try some still life photography with them but found it more challenging than anticipated.
The exterior of the fruit is quite shiny and reflective so has a tendency to have bright highlight spots. In an effort to combat that, I went for the dark moody style of lighting, with dark backgrounds and lots of shadows and more controlled lighting. The jewels on the inside is also very shiny with lots of reflective surfaces as well.
Rich bright colour is how these fruit appear – the juice is quite dark scarlet and has a tendencey to stain wood. So in the first closeup I wanted to capture the true intensity and brightness of the colour.
In the second closeup image I have used a dark moody Kim Klassen preset which has muted the scarlet in the jewels and given it more of an old master feel – still aiming to look rich and inviting to eat tho.
Here we get REALLY close, where you can see the shapes of the jewels, lots of planes and angles from being packed inside the fruit so tightly. You can also clearly see the white seed on the inside of the jewels and how the juice has stained the white flesh crimson.
Taken with my 100mm IS L F2.8 Canon Macro lens.
Click on any image to see a larger version with more detail.
Have you shot pomegranate? What challenges did you experience?
Learning to See Light 
This really show the gorgeous colour and temptation of the pomegranate, well done to avoid that shine. I’ve had one in my fruit bowel for 2 weeks now and the shine has gone from the outside 😦 maybe I can still capture the inside, I might try a polarising filter and see whether that cuts back the shine. You’ve made me realise how slack I’ve been in not photographing it before this.
Its possible it will be mouldy and yuck when you open it then, my first one was like that 😦
Oh damn thanks for the heads up. It’s been just so hot today and the next 3 days don’t look any better so I haven’t done anything yet with it. Maybe early tomorrow before the heat really kicks in.
Pretty! I think the availability is at least as much a function of seasonality as is it location, though. Even here in the States, where I know they’re grown, we only see them in markets maybe a month out of the year.
Interesting to know, thanks. We are so far at the bottom of the world you sometimes wonder.
I love the dark pomegranate photo(with the text on the left side)!
I really like it too 🙂
The second photo seems to be the most inviting to eat to me. 🙂 Shiny objects are a challenge, and going for the dark and moody is a nice change from the ultra white backgrounds of most food photography. 😀