Food Photography

[ashish]

This is my first attempt at Food Photography.

C&C welcome

[Polar01]

Not really working for me, I think that if I was looking at something like this I would be seeing everything in focus. I believe that a smaller f-stop or even stacking the images together to get one image in focus would greatly improve the bear and two cupcakes.

Cheers: Allan

[Dave Humphries]

+1 to Allan's suggestion and reasoning.

This is an image of an iced bear.

Are they four separate things that you arranged like this Ashish?


The fact that the plate virtually disappears in to the background whiteness is also an issue for me, including that there seems to be a green tint in the shadow of the plate.

Sorry I cannot be more positive, Dave

[Manfred M]

+1 to Allan
+1 to Dave

This image is not working at all for me, essentially for the same reasons that Allan and Dave give. Perhaps a change of plate, background, rotating the plate, etc. I think that you might be too far away from the food in this shot. I think you might want to study what others do with food photography and analyze their work and then try it again.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Ashish. I have just checked the link in my thread and it still works. I hope it helps

For the members who are into food photography

[Geoff F]

If the closest item was sharply focused with the others gradually fading into blur I think you might have got away with it. But it isn't really working with the centre point being the sharpest focus.

But I do like the idea behind this shot.

[IzzieK]

I have seen photographs like this and it is acceptable because it was teaching people where to put the focus on...with the first shot the focus is on the first item; then second shot, middle item and the third shot, the last item in the plate...

Here is one example:

1. front angle
http://whatscookingmexico.com/2009/0...omment-page-3/

2. middle
http://digital-photography-school.co...d-photography/

etc...

My only problem with this image is that it has too much plate...on another angle, this will make a good shot...

[Dave Humphries]

Great examples in those two links Izzie - thanks.
(I haven't read the words, but the titles and images help a lot)

I am going to save this thread in my 'special place' for when people ask in future.

[ashish]

+1 to Allan's suggestion and reasoning.

This is an image of an iced bear.

Are they four separate things that you arranged like this Ashish?


The fact that the plate virtually disappears in to the background whiteness is also an issue for me, including that there seems to be a green tint in the shadow of the plate.

Sorry I cannot be more positive, Dave

Hi Dave, Thank you for your thoughts.. It's a single piece of pastry.

[ashish]

If the closest item was sharply focused with the others gradually fading into blur I think you might have got away with it. But it isn't really working with the centre point being the sharpest focus.

But I do like the idea behind this shot.

Thanks for your thoughts Geoff.. but i thought having the bear in focus would be better than having the first pastry as in my opinion it holds more interest than the cake pastry.

[ashish]

I have seen photographs like this and it is acceptable because it was teaching people where to put the focus on...with the first shot the focus is on the first item; then second shot, middle item and the third shot, the last item in the plate...

Here is one example:

1. front angle
http://whatscookingmexico.com/2009/0...omment-page-3/

2. middle
http://digital-photography-school.co...d-photography/

etc...

My only problem with this image is that it has too much plate...on another angle, this will make a good shot...

Thank you for your feedback Izzie and for sharing the links.. I will definitely study them. Thanks again. Cheers!

[ashish]

Hi Ashish. I have just checked the link in my thread and it still works. I hope it helps

For the members who are into food photography

Thanks Binnur... Appreciate it and will surely read it up.

[ashish]

Not really working for me, I think that if I was looking at something like this I would be seeing everything in focus. I believe that a smaller f-stop or even stacking the images together to get one image in focus would greatly improve the bear and two cupcakes.

Cheers: Allan

Thank you for your thoughts Allan... will keep your points in mind.

[Manfred M]

Thanks for your thoughts Geoff.. but i thought having the bear in focus would be better than having the first pastry as in my opinion it holds more interest than the cake pastry.

While the bear being the main object in your image is the correct call, I think, you also have to remember that we humans can generally tolerate out of focus backgrounds. Out of focus foregrounds are much harder to do and usually we can only get away with it if there is limited impact on the subject. In this image, we know the edge of the plate is soft, but it does not bother us, but the soft cake in the foreground does.

Fixing that by either changing the angle you are shooting at, rotating the plate or using an image stacking technique to bring the foreground into focus would have all improved the shot.

[Dave Humphries]

I noticed that in one of Izzie's links, there was a quite similar example a triple part item focussed on the centre part - and they made it work by shooting from very close to the nearest item so that although it was out of focus, it was also largely out of shot, being cropped off on the left.

It's a single piece of pastry.

Thanks, Dave

[Chri5]

If the image was cropped and had only the subject in the image without the dead space it might work better but On the whole I agree with most that the whole image should be in focus

[Inkanyezi]

Whether deciding to have short depth of field or long is mostly a matter of style, and with this orientation of the subject, I agree that the whole item should be in focus.

As well, I think lighting should be used to create some tension, something to create interest. The actual lighting is a bit flat to my taste, mainly from above and very even. Of course that is my preference, yours might be another.

Another thing that came to my mind are EXIF metadata in the image. It seems that you were using Shannon's camera, as your earlier images taken with EOS 7D do not have any owner/artist/copyright metadata in them. Shannon probably entered those data into the firmware of the 5D3, so your image metadata tells us that the image is not yours, but Shannon's. It is a good thing to enter metadata of ownership and copyright in the image file, but those metadata should of course be yours. It can be easily fixed with a metadata editor, as EXIFTool by Phil Harvey. With a batch file you could enter relevant data into the image file in a very simple way. (It can also be done in Photoshop, but it's easier with a batch file and exiftool.)

[ashish]

Whether deciding to have short depth of field or long is mostly a matter of style, and with this orientation of the subject, I agree that the whole item should be in focus.

As well, I think lighting should be used to create some tension, something to create interest. The actual lighting is a bit flat to my taste, mainly from above and very even. Of course that is my preference, yours might be another.

Another thing that came to my mind are EXIF metadata in the image. It seems that you were using Shannon's camera, as your earlier images taken with EOS 7D do not have any owner/artist/copyright metadata in them. Shannon probably entered those data into the firmware of the 5D3, so your image metadata tells us that the image is not yours, but Shannon's. It is a good thing to enter metadata of ownership and copyright in the image file, but those metadata should of course be yours. It can be easily fixed with a metadata editor, as EXIFTool by Phil Harvey. With a batch file you could enter relevant data into the image file in a very simple way. (It can also be done in Photoshop, but it's easier with a batch file and exiftool.)

Thank you for your thoughts Urban... yes, I am using Shannon's camera which he has been kind enough to lend me for a few weeks as I am contemplating upgrading from my 7D to the 5DMkIII but it was me who took this shot. Incidentally, Shannon (Thrutheframe) is a member of CIC and also a member of our local photography group and was present during this shoot.

[ThrutheFrame]

Hi all. I am the Shannon that loan my camera body to Ashish, and forgot to tell him I own his images ...hahaha. Now I know how Taylor feels.

[Shadowman]

Hi all. I am the Shannon that loan my camera body to Ashish, and forgot to tell him I own his images ...hahaha. Now I know how Taylor feels.