Well, critique my first food shoot

A lot of firsts on this one. I got offered to photograph some desserts for a local restaurant chain. I almost turned it down but my husb said I should do it.... so here we are. It was supposed to be just desserts but when I got there it was everything. Which is fine. So this was my first ever a lot here... first hamburger.. ever... etc etc. First bottles too (did a few with the liquor bottles).

The owner and person from the ad agency liked them. They didnt seem too particular and were insistant that the food should look just like it does on the plate when the customer gets it. I researched ice cream and desserts some before the shoot. So here we are... they are all pretty much unedited and I will edit them later. I'd have like to been creative with the lighting but was pushed for time so I played it safe, and tried to show the texture in the food as best I could.

Suggestions welcome.

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The look awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Only problem..... I could really go for a burger and some ice cream for dessert now lol.

If you don't mind me asking, what did you use to light these?

Well thank you very much! I was really worried about it. For the light I used this window in the back. It was early morning and I honestly couldnt tell you where the sun was, I think on the side of that window. The lights inside we kept off and I used a flash that I either bounced off the wall or a silver reflector my husband held.
The base is this dry erase board thingy I bought at home depot. It's just particle board with a dry erase laminate top thingy, no fancy edges or anything. I bought 4 to use for small animals and such and its great. I just laid it on the table. We raised the table by setting it on 2 chairs to get the light. I probably looked wierd hovered on a table that was sitting on 2 chairs... lol. I really fell in love with the window here.

You guys did such an awesome job! Thank you for sharing your lighting information I am sure that the customer was very pleased with the results

I sure am craving some food now. One thing, I'd like to interject with is: the horizon. Though this may have been your way of shooting it, I personally would like to see the horizons straight. Cool shots though!

I agree with this guy ^ The angle was cool for maybe one of those shots but after that it was just a bit overdone. Otherwise great shots!

Thank guys, It actually may be straight in some. I have a lot more dishes I'll go back and check, but I'm pretty sure I shot the salads straight. But I can agree on your point. I think the ad agency is actually going to mask a lot of them out, so perhaps I wont have to worry too much.

Generally, I think these shots look very good. I shall now pick nits. Some of these things can be changed in PP.

Agree about the horizons.

Most of the shots are a little too light. This shows up, for example, in a loss of contour in the white sprinkles on the purple ice cream.

The fries and the purple ice cream are slightly out of focus, need sharpening.

Purple I. C.—do you have more you can show at the right side? By the way, blue tones on food are more of a novelty than an appetizing color, except on fruit where they're natural. There's research support. When food was presented under blue light, people ate less.

That's unfortunate. Having enough time to do it the way you want is much better. Of course, ice cream must be shot before it melts. I don't know what pros do about the "melt deadline."

These are generally good. Some suggestions:

1) Lighter background, shallower DOF, reflector to add light to front
2) Pick where you want the viewer to focus and use the DOF to pull the eye there.
3) Fix the random angles and tilts.
4) Use full size liquor bottles instead of the hobo size. Most advertising avoids using other brands unless its fully licensed.

Seeing as how you said these were unedited I took a stab at the burger

IMAGE LINK: http://s1259.photobuck​et.com …rger_zpsedac5f0​d.png.html

OhLook wrote in post #16177979
Generally, I think these shots look very good. I shall now pick nits. Some of these things can be changed in PP.

Agree about the horizons.

Most of the shots are a little too light. This shows up, for example, in a loss of contour in the white sprinkles on the purple ice cream.

The fries and the purple ice cream are slightly out of focus, need sharpening.

Purple I. C.—do you have more you can show at the right side? By the way, blue tones on food are more of a novelty than an appetizing color, except on fruit where they're natural. There's research support. When food was presented under blue light, people ate less.

That's unfortunate. Having enough time to do it the way you want is much better. Of course, ice cream must be shot before it melts. I don't know what pros do about the "melt deadline."

Thank you. I have a lot of shots of the ice cream. I will go through it today. i tried focusing on the textured part on that one above but I agree I should have focused more on the "closest" part b/c I dont like how that's OOF.

Here is one of the whole thing. I like it better but I dont like the middle of the tin cup.... The bright spot. It does melt fast that's for sure. I read a book on it b/c I was just preparing for desserts and mostly they had some recipies for fake ice cream and such..... but most of it was not something I could do for this.....and they had some ways to sculpt it and said turn the AC in the restaurant down too.


On the horizons I straightened this for the glass, my table must have been crooked b/c you can see the line of the table is crooked even though the glass squares are straight. Ugh.

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sspellman wrote in post #16178106
These are generally good. Some suggestions:

1) Lighter background, shallower DOF, reflector to add light to front
2) Pick where you want the viewer to focus and use the DOF to pull the eye there.
3) Fix the random angles and tilts.
4) Use full size liquor bottles instead of the hobo size. Most advertising avoids using other brands unless its fully licensed.

Thank you for the suggestions. On the DOF I read about that and was going to try it but they wanted to be able to crop the whole item out and I was afraid if I went too shallow it would mess up their ability to crop it out and look good. That might have been a wrong idea on my part but I just figured I wouldnt blurr it too much. IDK.

Good point on the bottles too. This is what they gave me and I didnt know any better to ask for something different, though I will next time. On the brands... I guess that would be more their problem than mine, in terms of the license/ advertising issue? Good point. I think most of this is going on a menu. Doesnt avoid any issue though I would presume the liklihood of someone really seeing it and having issue would be less than, say, if it was on a billboard.

tmoore323 wrote in post #16178150
Seeing as how you said these were unedited I took a stab at the burger

IMAGE LINK: http://s1259.photobuck​et.com …rger_zpsedac5f0​d.png.html

open in camera raw
Hit auto
This did a -25 contrast +8 blacks
I took black up to 15
recovery 55
White bal of the under side of the plate which gave a -1 temp +16 tint
Burned heavier around the burger and fries, especially the windows, and lightly on the burger and fries
Brush set to 26% opacity, 27% flow selected near blown areas and air brushed
Dupicated layer, did a 4.8 high pass filter and set to overlay
Put on a black vector mask on this layer and brushed at 26% the hamburger 1 time, the fries 3 times.

Thank you for all of this info it's very useful and you did a good job. I am going to work on them all today and tomorrow.

IMO much food photography uses a too-shallow DoF, and the images end up more fashionable than informative. I like the way you did it.

abbypanda wrote in post #16178385
Thank you for all of this info it's very useful and you did a good job. I am going to work on them all today and tomorrow.

Would be interested to see your final results...