Post Your Food Photography

marubozo wrote in post #15326171
Yeah, I had trouble with the background. Initially, even after adjustments in LR, it had a grayish tinge and wasn't completely white, and it was lighter on one end compared to the other. So I went to PS and adjusted levels a bit to try to get a more pure background, but the shadows and a few highlights were sacrificed. I just can't find a happy medium.

I suppose what I could do is do some local exposure adjustments on the onion and garlic to underexpose those so that when I try to pull out some of the whites they don't get blown out as a result. But in the end, the end photo that will go up on the site will only be about 600 pixels wide, so I'm not going to worry about it quite as much. But since this was a first try for using the white background I should have a better go the next time.

And it's still quite new, and it's sort of a regionally themed site, but you can find it at http://www.michianaeat​s.com

Nice site! Honestly - your photography on your site is more in the direction I like - it's more natural and the lighting looks better (natural light I guess).

I would pretty much always shoot in natural daylight if I could but it's so dark here at the moment I have to resort to using my lighting but your shots on your site are nicely balanced.

Don't overwork your shots if you don't have to.

Good work.

felt like fish for lunch today so went to a little chinese cafe for some halibut nom nom <3

loydall wrote in post #15326306
Nice site! Honestly - your photography on your site is more in the direction I like - it's more natural and the lighting looks better (natural light I guess).

I would pretty much always shoot in natural daylight if I could but it's so dark here at the moment I have to resort to using my lighting but your shots on your site are nicely balanced.

Don't overwork your shots if you don't have to.

Good work.

Thanks. Yeah, I do mostly natural light for the final shots for sure. Just still trying to figure out the overall style I want to go with on the site so I'm trying different things to see what works and what doesn't. And your comments and critiques are greatly appreciated. I will continue to experiment to find what works best. Thanks.

Power outage...or Cooking with gas. (What a mess)
Old 17-35mmL iso 100, 24mm, f13, 15 sec

Finally finished that chicken recipe today. So, the end product.

Thanks John for your comments and feedback. I do agree that some of my images are dated in style. I've had a look at some of the images from the worlds 50 best link and couldn't help thinking that they are not that original; they are similar to many other nuvel quisine styled images out there. They are beautifully executed, but their appeal comes mostly from the food styling. I don't have a food stylist and I don't shoot anything that requires such excellence in food preparation. I think a lot of today's food photography is heavily based on the styling, and the use of food stylists or chefs play a major part in this. By the way, I was disappointed not to see Heston's on fire or on a bed of dry ice! Maybe teaming up with a chef to practice food photography is the best way? It seems that it's more of a team effort to get those shots. I've added a couple more of mine...

Best wishes,
Dayve

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

dotcodotuk wrote in post #15320368
In that case, could you could explain your reasoning with regard to these points?

The left side of the rim is edge with black, presumably from the negative fill card positioned above the glass. If this was a desired effect, why wasn't the entire rim edged in the same manner? And why wasn't such an effect used on the sides of the glass to give some separation from the white background?

What was your thinking with positioning and lighting the strawberry as you have? it doesn't look particularly fresh or appetising and seems to be lurking in the shade. Would you not have preferred this to be lit more evenly, like the edge of the glass below?

Why is there such an uneven shadow lurking in the liquid itself, given the intensity of the light from behind? What is this supposed to show the viewer? To me, it feels like there's something lurking behind the glass, almost as if it was shot in situ and then everything else was edited out in post.

And what is going on with the base of the glass? What made you choose to stand it on the material you did instead of on a lightbox or something similar? You've got all this light spilling through the bottom of the 'stem' of the glass, yet the base shows you the surface it was sat upon.

Just seeing this now. I'll play along...

As I posted elsewhere, this particular image is (with the exception of removing the tripod below and adding a drop shadow) essentially straight out of the camera. the final edited image addressed a few things that are not represented here. The black reflection in the glass rim was removed in the final, the strawberry top was made a bit more green, and the slight bruises on the strawberry side were removed. Beyond that, not much more post editing that I recall.

The black card above is a gobo largely for the benefit of holding back light on the whipped topping. A consequence of that is the black that you see on the right glass rim. The strawberry and whipped topping is largely lit by a fresnel behind and left, the benefit being the harder light creating sufficient shadowing on the topping as well as providing a sense of direction on the strawberry top. Would I prefer it to be lit more evenly? No.

This is an opaque frozen drink, not even remotely transparent. We quite liked the the shadowing, and concluded that it showed a variety of color shades which was our impression when looking at the drink 'in real life'. The actual true color of theis particular drink (mango something or other...) is closer to the darker portion of the front. I like the fact that the fresnel brought it to life a little without making the entire glass look like orange juice which couldn't be further from the actual color/tone. YMMV.

As I explained, this was a set designed to accommodate a variety of glass shapes with minimal tweaking in between shots. There were a lot of varied drinks to get through in relatively short time. If you've ever shot glassware, i think you'd understand why this wasn't put on a plexi surface or lit from below. A hurricane, martini or margherita glass for instance don't work particularly well with bottom lighting because of the shape of the glass. I don't have an issue with the base of the glass showing the surface that it was shot on. When it's printed in the final layout, it in fact gives the glass a sense of sitting on a surface. imo at least. Again, YMMV.

This kind of reminds me...How many photographers does it take to change a lightbulb?

zepp2010 wrote in post #15333133
Thanks John for your comments and feedback. I do agree that some of my images are dated in style. I've had a look at some of the images from the worlds 50 best link and couldn't help thinking that they are not that original; they are similar to many other nuvel quisine styled images out there. They are beautifully executed, but their appeal comes mostly from the food styling. I don't have a food stylist and I don't shoot anything that requires such excellence in food preparation. I think a lot of today's food photography is heavily based on the styling, and the use of food stylists or chefs play a major part in this. By the way, I was disappointed not to see Heston's on fire or on a bed of dry ice! Maybe teaming up with a chef to practice food photography is the best way? It seems that it's more of a team effort to get those shots. I've added a couple more of mine...

Best wishes,
Dayve

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

Those are amazing shots from the kitchen! I really don't know why I come to this forum, it always leaves me hungry lol

But it's christmas time so here is a silly macro I just took. (And I'm not smashing food this time)

lunch menu for you today:

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/vinchel/8252135​820/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/vinchel/8251066​303/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/vinchel/8251066​549/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/vinchel/8252143​102/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/vinchel/8251067​139/

vbudihardjo wrote in post #15336861
lunch menu for you today:

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/vinchel/8252135​820/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/vinchel/8251066​303/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/vinchel/8251066​549/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/vinchel/8252143​102/

http://www.flickr.com/​photos/vinchel/8251067​139/

These are beautiful - clean styling and excellent lighting control. Very impressed! I would make one slight negative comment though; the edge of the white plates are dirty. Using new plates would help for next time (or PS the marks out!)

zepp2010 wrote in post #15337809
These are beautiful - clean styling and excellent lighting control. Very impressed! I would make one slight negative comment though; the edge of the white plates are dirty. Using new plates would help for next time (or PS the marks out!)

Thanks for the input zepp2010. Really appreciate it

Great job on those shots. I particularly like the scallop dumpling and the congee, which is a difficult dish to pretty up.

Did you arrange the dumplings in a line, or did it come presented that way? That's a pretty clever way to gain some extra DOF there.

Rex914 wrote in post #15339638
Great job on those shots. I particularly like the scallop dumpling and the congee, which is a difficult dish to pretty up.

Did you arrange the dumplings in a line, or did it come presented that way? That's a pretty clever way to gain some extra DOF there.

Rex914, I was glad the dumplings were presented that way

A practice shot for a flyer for a Cookie sale for our church.

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

Just finished the flyer i spoke of earlier.