My first commercial photo shoot (burgers and fried stuff)

Well, my first commercial food photo shoot anyhow. I didn't have much in the way of a frame of reference or template to go by. My purpose was pretty straight forward- take high quality pics that sell food, and work with the background items that create the atmosphere.

https://www.flickr.com …/albums/7215769​5363668074 <--- 14 images in all

That's a nice arrrangement in a casual, outdoorsy sort of way.

Thank you.

The guy that's working on restaurant's website was in charge of the creative aspect- the burlap, steer skulls, paper trays, signs- all his ideas.

He was actually going to rent cameras, lenses and lighting and do it himself, with one small problem- he's not a photographer by trade. He's a smart guy that would've eventually figured out how to get reasonable shots, but an experienced photographer he is not.

Oh, and the wall in the background- that's the actual wall of the restaurant, right about 2 feet off the floor. It was either that or use either black foam core or a black backdrop.

And the soda shots- both shot at iso 1600. I just took those as I was getting bored waiting between items to come out of the kitchen. But owner liked them, so they'll be a part of the website too.

Soda shots? Not here.

I like the photo of the food. But to be honest, I don't like the wall as backdrop. It looks run down and unattractive.

Here's the original idea, and my personal preference:

Sodas:

I like the shot with the wall as background better. It shows the food, and it has more atmosphere. The props and background together suggest a cattle ranch (my childhood home was near beef country), and the black background doesn't help with that. Sure, the wall could be cleaner.

Nice soda shots, too. They say "Many choices" and "Big servings." No surprise that the owner liked them.

I'm pretty sure siding on the wall was once farm equipment- a trough or something. LOL nope, we didn't clean it at all, just took it as it. Going for the rustic feel.

congrats on the commercial shoot...the fact that none of the photos show the name of the restaurant is a bit troubling though...gotta put that out front in there somewhere...i looked at the shots, and got hungry...was wondering where i could get that food...but no idea...it's also kinda their fault for not having it on their trays instead of all the "sizzling" "yummy" "summer" "hot dog" whatever they have on it...but i'd at least get some sort of logo to stamp in the corners for them.

All I can say about the branding is this: the final product going up on the website may (or may not) have branding on it. The version that you see is my copy- which I have explicit permission for personal use ie. exhibition purposes to showcase my photography.

The webmaster was happy with my final version, but as you can see it's marked with my brand, which is to say it's not the version that's going to be displayed on the website. He has the choice to either do the processing himself, or pay me an extra fee to it for them. He was pretty adamant on doing the processing himself, which is fine with me too- it's his project, I'm just the outsourced photographer.