My 52 Project: Homemade Food

piQturesQue wrote in post #18780774
Thank you for the honest and constructive critique and the blogs!
The glass bowl is the only one I have right now (first own flat), but you are right that the wood shining through is distracting. Got some new plates and a wrought-iron pan for Christmas. Definitely looking forward to cooking and shooting some dishes with them.

You mentioned the cookies being a bit underexposed. I have noticed that my 5D2 tends to underexpose about 1/3 to 2/3 stops when using the whole frame for exposure metering quite often. Maybe that is because of my mostly light backgrounds that make up a big part of the frame. Anyways I almost always have to brighten the image in post and tend to be a bit too careful with the slider.

The bitten off cookie is a great idea! Will recreate that recipe sometime soon and try that. But those are chocolate chip cookies I would feel betrayed if a cookie contained raisins instead of chocolate.

The capsicum does definitely look better when chopped in half, I noticed that when propping the muffins. And you're right that my cutting board and salt and pepper look quite boring.

Once again, I appreciate your feedback and am not trying to justify my pictures. Just noting some things that struck me most in your commente so that I can improve them over the next months.

You're more than welcome.
Keep shooting and processing, read the blogs and experiment; you will be amazed how much progress you will make in no time at all. Best part is that you were willing to post here and be open to comments, suggestions and constructive critique; that's how we all learn.

piQturesQue wrote in post #18781715
It's holiday time and I didn't cook anything at all But my brother and I had a fun time snapping a candle-lit picture of the tastiest wine of our christmas dinner. Happy New Year to all of you!
WEEK 10:

Lovely mood here just a tad too tightly cropped in my view.
I dragged my props out the other day and shot this delicious Moroccan dinner that I cooked from scratch. It's nothing special but just shows how things pop on bright and complementary color background and also how food can be shot with a single flash bounce off the ceiling at the right power etc. My kitchen is super dark and I had the board on the floor to shoot my food.,

Happy New Year to you

Photo from itsallart's gallery.
Image hosted by forum (953037)

Wow, what a shot!! I love how you use the cutlery to create the composition without it being to distracting. I got a flash for christmas and spent the last couple days learning the manual mode and how to trigger it detached from the camera. Below image is the best I could create using baking paper as diffuser and wrapping paper as reflector I think I should have brightened the egg a bit more, otherwise I am quite happy with it. Also loving the marble counter top at my parents's home!

WEEK 11:

piQturesQue wrote in post #18786714
Wow, what a shot!! I love how you use the cutlery to create the composition without it being to distracting. I got a flash for christmas and spent the last couple days learning the manual mode and how to trigger it detached from the camera. Below image is the best I could create using baking paper as diffuser and wrapping paper as reflector I think I should have brightened the egg a bit more, otherwise I am quite happy with it. Also loving the marble counter top at my parents's home!

WEEK 11:

Hosted photo: posted by piQturesQue in
./showthread.php?p=187​86714&i=i8393166
forum: Food Photography & Visual Recipes

Thanks.
I'm glad you got a new flash for Christmas. Just keep practicing and you'll be fine.

Funny, I don't even bother taking my flash off the camera. The Moroccan meal was shot with the flash in manual mode on the camera. I just pointed it toward the ceiling. What's really important is that the angle of incidence has to be right an if it is you won't have any shadows. Keep shooting and one day it will all come together for you.

I placed the cutlery intuitively; being an artist who paints it's probably easy and natural for me now; hasn't always been like that, though.

Some comments on your shot: the background is really nice and provides lovely contrast. The egg looks a little flat but I think it has to do with the way it was cooked. A soft, protruding egg yolk would have a 3D effect if it was cooked the right way.The bread slices have the spreads a little too flat. For shooting purposes try not to spread them too thinly but rather pile them up into a 3D sculpture. For eating, spread them the way they are after you've shot them.

I like the way you created some depth by placing the toast under the egg. Overall the shot is nice and I think you're on the right path. Just keep shooting and you'll be fine.

itsallart wrote in post #18786928
The bread slices have the spreads a little too flat. For shooting purposes try not to spread them too thinly but rather pile them up into a 3D sculpture. For eating, spread them the way they are after you've shot them..

Haha, thank you so much I have looked at the spread and felt that it did not look as perfect as those magazine shots, but I didn't really know what was off!

I also got a new ovenproof dish for christmas, so this week I tried my old recipe for a vegetarian quiche. Turns out the new dish is way bigger than the old one and I should learn how to clean it before shooting it. How do people clean up hot food anyways?

WEEK 12:

piQturesQue wrote in post #18789192
Haha, thank you so much I have looked at the spread and felt that it did not look as perfect as those magazine shots, but I didn't really know what was off!

I also got a new ovenproof dish for christmas, so this week I tried my old recipe for a vegetarian quiche. Turns out the new dish is way bigger than the old one and I should learn how to clean it before shooting it. How do people clean up hot food anyways?

WEEK 12:

Hosted photo: posted by piQturesQue in
./showthread.php?p=187​89192&i=i42196143
forum: Food Photography & Visual Recipes

You're welcome. Yes, any spread will look better when it's piled up unevenly to give it a 3D look.

This is a nicely lit photo and the dish is beautiful. The only thing I would do next time is not to detach that one tomato; a cluster of 5 is more pleasing to the eye according to the rule of odds.
Don't fuss with the clean up, just use the healing brush or clone and stamp to get rid of some baked on food.

Otherwise, a really nice shot! Keep up the good work.

I had not heard of the rule of odds yet, reading up on that now. I probably should look into buying a book on composition as a quick Google search showed me tons of composition rules and guidelines that I had never heard of

piQturesQue wrote in post #18791350
I had not heard of the rule of odds yet, reading up on that now. I probably should look into buying a book on composition as a quick Google search showed me tons of composition rules and guidelines that I had never heard of

There is a wonderful book called Plate to Pixel: Digital Food Photography & Styling by Helene Dujardin but you don't need to spend any money at all since Google is your best friend
Here is a good link https://digital-photography-school.com …photographic-composition/
and this http://thatssage.com/b​log/rule-of-odds/
and this https://www.mastinlabs​.com …d-photography-composition

Good luck and keep shooting

^^
Professor Renata,
POTN's Food Photography 101

c'mon Fairy!! strike your magic wand!

DTBaan wrote in post #18791563
^^
Professor Renata,
POTN's Food Photography 101

c'mon Fairy!! strike your magic wand!

Hahahaha ߘ

Soooo, I got some catching up to do. Baked some cakes over the last week, but could not shoot them. Today we had tapas and although I am not super happy with the photo, I wanted to start posting again. Checking the image on a bigger screen, I feel that the background is way too dark and messy for the already dark food. Interestingly I like my glass bowls in this image more than normally. I find them hard to shoot and would love to have a second set of bowls to choose from, but somehow in this image they are pretty invisible other than the rims.

WEEK 13:

piQturesQue wrote in post #18800240
Soooo, I got some catching up to do. Baked some cakes over the last week, but could not shoot them. Today we had tapas and although I am not super happy with the photo, I wanted to start posting again. Checking the image on a bigger screen, I feel that the background is way too dark and messy for the already dark food. Interestingly I like my glass bowls in this image more than normally. I find them hard to shoot and would love to have a second set of bowls to choose from, but somehow in this image they are pretty invisible other than the rims.

WEEK 13:

Hosted photo: posted by piQturesQue in
./showthread.php?p=188​00240&i=i232724848
forum: Food Photography & Visual Recipes

Hi there, this shot is nice but since you had some tapas I think the photo would benefit from having the tapas more prominently displayed in the picture. As is, it's all about the bread and the tapas are just on the edge whereas I think they would look much better if there were the focal point of this image and the bread would only be like a small quarter in the corner. I would love to see more of the delicious ham and the green peppers were not just a quarter but more like 3/4 of the dish. The glass dishes are nice and clean; you did a great job on those but the wood texture is still dominating the background. I believe that everything would look nicer on a plain white background.
What do you think?
Anyway, it was good to see some progress Looking forward to seeing more of your food photography.

itsallart wrote in post #18800351
Hi there, this shot is nice but since you had some tapas I think the photo would benefit from having the tapas more prominently displayed in the picture. As is, it's all about the bread and the tapas are just on the edge whereas I think they would look much better if there were the focal point of this image and the bread would only be like a small quarter in the corner. I would love to see more of the delicious ham and the green peppers were not just a quarter but more like 3/4 of the dish. The glass dishes are nice and clean; you did a great job on those but the wood texture is still dominating the background. I believe that everything would look nicer on a plain white background.
What do you think?
Anyway, it was good to see some progress Looking forward to seeing more of your food photography.

You wrote down what I was feeling but could not really articulate Yes so much! The background kept distracting me, but I couldn't really put a finger on it. Also you're right the tapas itself could be more prominent as the photo is not about the bread. Always good to have someone point out these things!

Overall I am quite happy with this shot. The right side was terribly underexposed, but the RAW file luckily had lots of details to recover. If I could change a thing, it would be to move the table further from the wall to further blur the background pattern. I think I tried whilst shooting, but the wall got really dark as soon as the flash did not hit it anymore.
WEEK 14:

Clearly I have been trying to introduce some human elements into my last shots. I think it breaks up an otherwise very static scene nicely. I struggle very much with where to place hands and what poses look natural in camera vs what poses actually feel natural, but look awkward. Also lighting hands can be very difficult.
WEEK 15:

Yay, I did not need all my ingredients, so I had some left to use as props Good planning, this time. Whilst placing the tomatoes I remembered Renata's comment about the rule of odds and specifically included the third one in frame.
WEEK 16: