Help With Food Photography in Restaurants

[big_apple_ken]

I'm a big time foodie and enjoying reviewing a lot of restaurants. On top of that I love taking photos of food when I am eating out. One of my major gripes is that most of my photos of food suck :( I usually like to shoot f/2.8-4 (to reduce clutter on the table/background) with my 24-70L but sometimes I think maybe DOF is overly narrow. So a few questions:

1) How do you 'improve' lighting for the food when eating at dimly lit restaurants? I usually have my 580EX II on a flash bracket. Maybe I should shoot OCF style and have the lighting come more from the side?

2) How should I best 'pose' my dish in terms of angles?

3) Long plates always seem to give me compositional issues. How would you suggest I go about this?

Thanks for all the help in advance! Here are a few of my photos:

Shanghai Hairy Crabs
http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs218.snc1/8518_154063267466_631282466_2882619_6408684_n.jpg

Hong Kong style roast goose
http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs162.snc1/6054_111354377466_631282466_2426596_3203373_n.jpg

Dessert sampler
http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs138.snc1/5894_120978987466_631282466_2561984_3711024_n.jpg

Scallop Xiao Mai
http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v5204/161/39/631282466/n631282466_2512111_7321001.jpg

Bacon wrapped lychee skewers
http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v5204/161/39/631282466/n631282466_2507727_1951806.jpg

Fried Bean Curd 'Ravioli'
http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs001.snc3/10865_169553787466_631282466_3029037_500964_n.jpg

[KCMO Al]

This can be a HIGHLY specialized photographic discipline and there are many, many tricks and techniques involved to get the photos you see in high-end books and magazines. Do some research on what literature is available. I've seen several books on the subject.
Be prepared, many of the photos you see are not dishes that came out of a gourmet kitchen. Many are inedible since the subjects are often colored, glazed, sprayed, etc. for the camera. I've seen results from non-professionals where a restaurant owner asked for product shots. They were not good in general and actually unappetizing. Shallow dof, imo, rarely works well.

[big_apple_ken]

Thanks for the input. I'm quite aware most photos of food is actually of 'props' and not of real food since real food can go from appetizing to unappetizing in a matter of minutes. In my case I'm interested in shooting REAL food when served in a restaurant setting. Just want to compliment my food reviews with a handful of delicious looking photos :)

[Steve Wintrow]

One other thing to take note of is not to have any people in the background. The scallops, scewers, and the bean curd ravioli are very good, the ravioli needs the hand cloned out.

You can try an off camera flash on a stand with a small soft box at about a 45 degree angle above the food. You may want to have a table setting with salt and peper shakers, napkins, silverware, and such in the shot but the main focus is the food and a shallow depth of field will keep the background slightly OOF which is what you want.

[Harm]

See the following thread for ideas, hints, tips and other experts in food photography:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=597142

[400dabuser]

This can be a HIGHLY specialized photographic discipline and there are many, many tricks and techniques involved to get the photos you see in high-end books and magazines. Do some research on what literature is available. I've seen several books on the subject.
Be prepared, many of the photos you see are not dishes that came out of a gourmet kitchen. Many are inedible since the subjects are often colored, glazed, sprayed, etc. for the camera. I've seen results from non-professionals where a restaurant owner asked for product shots. They were not good in general and actually unappetizing. Shallow dof, imo, rarely works well.


There are a lot of food magazine out there that think it is ok to have shallow depth of field, I can understand if it is a restaurant trying to sell food, that want to make it appetising