First Food Shoot

[GinaNicole]

This my second time shooting food. Need some pointers. Still fairly a novice but I want to move towards this field. Please help with any suggestions. The more specific (ie. lighting techniques or shot composition tips etc.) the better. Thanks! -Gina

[wilsan]

Hi Gina thanks for sharing this job.
In food photography there are several points that are very important.
Because it was to much to explain in words I make some comments in one of your photos to explain my point. Basically all the photos going in to the same tendency. These are good Food photos but if you want to get out from the general good and make them outstanding. As a photographer you will need to pay attention to all those little details. Hope that this help. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Anbesol]

Welcome to the forums!

The images are all high key, causing many of them to have clipped highlights. The first one has the best composition, however it crops the top off right at that cup, which really hurts the image, and as wilsan pointed out, they could all use a wider depth of field. It looks like you erased your EXIF, and you didn't tell us how you metered it, so what f-stop you picked I suppose is anybody's guess. When you are as close as you were, it sometimes calls for an f/16 or f/22. out of focus blur does not work well with food. The rice on the rolls looks particularly bad for the clipped highlights.

[AgingEyes]

Too many blue shadow areas. I'd suggest correct them.

[Anbesol]

Yeah good call, increase by about 1000-1500 kelvin.

[PhilF]

use a color checker ... this type of photography needs accurate colors.

[wilsan]

Totally agree I usually use the expodisk and the color checker.
Food photography is very but very in to have vibrant colors and nice contrast

[GB1]

Welcome Gina!

My first impression when seeing the images were, high key and slightly blue. Being high key is a matter of taste (pardon the pun) and I would rather them be that way than too dark, but ideally they would be a little more in the middle. The blue is a flaw in my humble opinion. It is possible that the slight softness of the images - which definitely must not be there in the final output - is due to not resharpening when you resized them for this forum. I love Wilsan's comments and the way he pointed out various issues. A little more contrast here would work wonders, depending on their target usage (I have seen some food pix in magazines that look very similar to these in contrast and key, and they have looked great. It depends on the nature of the mag, etc). Good luck.

G

[wilsan]

GB Thanks for the comment. You are totally right!!! I've been seen this kind of images in different magazine and they work depending how the Graphic artist incorporate them in to the page overall design. As a photographer It would not be my style but I'm agree with you.

Question for the Moderators could I mention a website where I learn a little bit of food photography and editing.? Is not that I want to make a promotion because I do not work for them but it really help me out.