LEDs inside of an oven

[James Herron]

Hey all - I shoot for the NY Times cooking section and I've been tasked with something I'm a bit unsure of - I need to light and to shoot the inside of an oven as a souffle rises. Is there a heatproof camera housing for dSLR/action cameras and are there any LED strips that can function at high temperatures? Thanks!

[timHealy]

Hey, I don't think anyone answered because this is a rare thing. The only people who do stuff like this is Consumer Reports or NASA. A friend from college was involved with NASA placing high speed film cameras around rocket launches in blast proof fire boxes. Needless to say, that type of box would be too big to put in an conventional oven. You may have to make something for yourself if you really want to a camera in an oven. Or find and oven with a glass door optically clear enough to shoot through and blacking out reflections.

 

I doubt any off the shelf LED's would survive the heat of an oven. Again you may have to do something yourself.

 

I work with a lot of guys who do tabletop food commercials, and they go to great lengths to shoot all the food closeups you see on commercials. If they were doing a shot as you suggested they would probably take an oven (or several ovens) apart and prepare them for each different shot they would need to allow for the camera and lighting and for the oven to actual work. But I can ask them if they have ever done this and get back to you.

 

best

 

Tim

[JD Hartman]

Whats wrong with using a tungsten bulb in the oven to light the shot? Isn't that what is found in most home ovens? Must LEDs be the answer to everything?

 

Phil are you tuned into some other channel?

 

The Double Jeopardy category is:

LEDs inside of an oven

[Phil Rhodes]

Dammit, wrong thread. Somehow. Deleted.

 

As to LEDs, couldn't agree more. Tungsten is best!

 

P

[James Herron]

Hey Tim - thanks for responding. I pretty much had that feeling. Been shooting and watching a lot of food video/content and I've never seen/heard of it but I wanted to try something new. If you wouldn't mind asking around it would be much appreciated. Thanks again!

[James Herron]

To Phil/JD - I totally agree about Tungsten lights. To be honest I'm just getting greedy. In the fantasy world in my head, I'm lining specific parts of the oven with LED strips so I can shape the light exactly how I want it. Thanks for responding!

[Phil Rhodes]

As a matter of physics, LEDs do very poorly when they get hot. In any case, the associated electronics won't survive the inside of an oven at normal cooking temperatures.

[James Herron]

Good to know - thanks Phil!

[timHealy]

Hey James,

 

I worked with one of my tabletop friends who tells me that some of the larger food commercial companies has built or rented an actual stove made of pyrex glass on all sides with heating elements inside. They just place some sort of metal grating behind the food so it looks like a stove in the background of the shot. And they light it from outside the stove. So the food looks good and there is not way LED's of wiring for conventional lights don't melt. He wasn't sure where this stove could be rented from and may be built specially from by the companies itself.

 

Best

 

Tim