Shrimp Pad Thai

[Mike Buckley]

One of my favorite dishes. The overall flavor in this recipe is more like what my wife and I experienced eating shrimp pad thai in Thailand, which is not nearly as sweet as the dish typically served in American restaurants. The recipe is different from almost anywhere because I make it using Chinese egg noodles instead of so-called cellophane or glass noodles. The dish originated in China before going to Thailand, so I feel a bit justified to do it for historical reasons, but the main reason I use egg noodles is that they have so much more flavor.

The following old thread from 2 1/2 years ago displays a photo of the ingredients I use to make the dish: https://www.nikoncafe.com/threads/makings-of-shrimp-pad-thai.312687/

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Photo of the Setup
The lamp on the tabletop stand lit the background. The small lamp next to it brightened the front of the tabletop on that side to match the brightness of the tabletop on the other side. The large lamp on the left side of this image is the main light. The two flashlights back lit the shrimp and the two scallions at the top of the serving. Twenty focus-bracketed images at Nikon step size 3 were stacked in Helicon Focus at its default settings.

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[mjcmt]

Your photo works for me. Yummy.

 

[Mitchell]

Good work. The backlighting makes this one interesting.

 

[alexf]

Beautiful work!

 

[drr1531]

Looks delicious, Mike. The image is so good that I can almost smell it

 

[Louis Champan]

Great image and a great looking meal.

 

[Phil K]

Great image, and thanks for the setup explanation.

In Asia, we use rice noodles for Pad Thai. Not sure if it is available in Asian Markets in US.

 

[Allan]

Very tasty looking. Thanks for the setup.

 

[alexf]

Great image, and thanks for the setup explanation.

In Asia, we use rice noodles for Pad Thai. Not sure if it is available in Asian Markets in US.

Yes, hey are available. That's what I use for it.

 

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to Mike, Mitch, Alex, Dan, Louie, Phil and Allan!

In Asia, we use rice noodles for Pad Thai.

Rice noodles are popular in America especially for pasta for people that have issues with gluten. It has been more than 17 years since I've been to Thailand, but I seem to remember that cellophane (aka glass) noodles were used there. I could be wrong.

The backlighting makes this one interesting.

Back lighting makes anything that is transparent or translucent interesting. The same for anything opaque that is reflective enough to reflect the light source around its edges. When I'm photographing food, I always look for those characteristics with the hope that I can employ back lighting.

 

[Phil K]

This is the kind of noodles used in Thailand. We can substitute with other noodles as well. Anyway, yours looks very delicious.
https://www.amazon.com/Real-Thai-Rice-Stick-Noodles/dp/B00CPZ329E

 

[Mike Buckley]

This is the kind of noodles used in Thailand.

Yes, that's the kind of noodles that I remember. Now that I think more about it, I believe those are a bit more substantive than the noodles called cellophane or glass noodles.

 

[Binnur]

Very real and delicious looking image Mike. I can see from your set up that you used a white cloth as BG but the BG looks bluish in the photo, was that intentional?

 

[dossy]

Mouthwatering shot, Mike!

 

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to dossy and Binnur!

I can see from your set up that you used a white cloth as BG but the BG looks bluish in the photo, was that intentional?

I see the background as pure grey, though if there is a slight tone to that grey area I agree that it would be leaning slightly toward the cool, blue tones. The only thing that mattered to me was that the background is a little darker than the tabletop. If indeed the background's grey tones do lean toward the cool tones, they nicely complement the warm tones of the subject, especially the warm tones in the backlit shrimp's tail.

EDIT: Great eye, as usual, Binnur! I just now reviewed the RGB values throughout the background and the values of the Blue channel are indeed 5 - 10 units greater than the other two channels.

 

[gchappel]

Mike, you make this seem so easy. Great image.
This reminds me of an old story.
I was fortunate enough to work with Jay Maisel for a couple of weeks, and he changed my photography. He told the following story:
"A friend of mine brought a cardboard box to one of my presentations. I asked him, why the box? He said there will be two groups of people in the audience today. Half will leave before the presentation is over because they will have to go outside and take pictures. The other half will want to leave their cameras in this box."

When I look at your work, and some of the other work here at the cafe, sometimes I think my camera should go in the box.
gary

 

[Randy]

Awesome pic especially now on my NPO

 

[greyflash]

Looks good enough to eat. Nice setup you have there.

 

[Mike Buckley]

Belated thanks also to Randy and Gordon!