Help with shooting food while eating out

I love food...and I love to shoot food while I am eating out. The downside is generally I need to shoot with pretty high ISO since most places I eat at seem to be quite dimly lit. Although that being the case I seem to have gotten a decent grasp of shooting food in bowls and round/square plates but I have a bit of an issue framing/shooting food that is in long rectangular plates or food that is in small pieces (sushi, macarons etc).

- With the former (I like tight framing) I'm just not sure how exactly to frame the food since the plate is so long.

- With the latter I feel I probably should use a macro lens but I'm curious what you guys think since I don't own a macro lens. I've tried looking on Flickr for ideas but I haven't really found too many appealing shots of say sushi that are taken at a restaurant (most good looking sushi shots seemed to be styled in a studio).

Care to help me out?

Here are some shots I've accumulated while eating out in the past few months:

Pork Belly Miso Ramen

Composition wise, I'm really disliking the 2/3 or 3/4 plate shots! The deep fried beef rolls or pork neck skewer shots are not so objectionable.

Wilt wrote in post #9789035
Composition wise, I'm really disliking the 2/3 or 3/4 plate shots! The deep fried beef rolls or pork neck skewer shots are not so objectionable.

Totally understand everyone has their likes and dislikes. My thing is I've taken a lot of shots that are wider than 1/2 or 2/3 plate shots and my major gripe about those shots is the photo becomes less about the food. In most restaurants there is a ton of clutter on the table and in the background...so at least to me I favor tighter framed shots (like the 1/2 or 2/3 plate shots) cause it means I can fill more of my frame with the food and eliminate more of the background clutter. Clearly if the food was styled in a studio I could shoot a lot wider and feel comfortable about it. With that said totally understand that is not your favored style.

Maybe if I had a macro lens things might be different...

Well, since you're not doing set up shots with the luxury of clean sets without distracting elements in the frame, I understand your approach, even though they aren't all most pleasing to me. What you can do as a diner is very different than what you do as a hired professional to make food shots!

That last one is the money shot. Love it!

Ken, I like these. The food looks yummy. When you eat out choose a bigger table if possible. Move around the things where your partner is sitting. That and with the shooting angle you can manage. I was just checking my food magazine and for the first time started noticing how they were lighting them. Now this food is making me hungry. Got to cook up something.

I also love shooting food.. We have a housekeeper who is also a fabulous cook and I often grab a shot or two of her creations.. She sometimes thinks I'm Pi Baa (Lao for crazy)..

We eat out three or four times a week but I rarely have my camera with me.. I might start doing the same as you Ken..

BTW, impressive placement of lighting to provide the appearance of the gloss to the liquids on the food!

bobbyz wrote in post #9791103
When you eat out choose a bigger table if possible. Move around the things where your partner is sitting. That and with the shooting angle you can manage.

Bobbyz, I do sometimes move stuff around on the table but with time (1-2 minutes to setup and shoot) and physical constraints (dining tables here in Hong Kong are smaller than ones in the US) it's not always the easiest.

I do appreciate all the different comments I am getting about my photos. I really enjoy eating & reviewing restaurants so my passion for photography was a natural compliment to this other hobby of mine. Although I do have quite of bit of studio experience my experience 'styling' food is a little green in comparison. The way I look at my restaurant food photography is similar to shooting candid street photos. There are definitely lots of limitations such as:

Time - Got to finish shooting before your food gets cold
Physical - Dining tables are only so big and sometimes backgrounds aren't that perfect
Lighting - Generally speaking restaurant lighting is pretty dim and since you can't bring a softbox/tripod into a restaurant you are forced to shoot with higher ISO

Anyway, I still love it but lets try not to get too far off track with my original questions which is:

1) How would you creatively frame food that presented on long rectangular plates?

2) How about creatively shooting bite sized food (such as sushi, small baked items etc)? I don't have a macro lens btw.

Any descriptions or photography examples would be greatly appreciated!

At the risk of sounding like an idiot, perhaps you should stand up to shoot. The angle on most of the shots above (except the last) indicate that you were sitting.

With your gear list you have plenty of speed & width, so I'm not seeing a problem here.

big_apple_ken wrote in post #9792643
I do appreciate all the different comments I am getting about my photos...

Anyway, I still love it but lets try not to get too far off track with my original questions which is:

1) How would you creatively frame food that presented on long rectangular plates?

2) How about creatively shooting bite sized food (such as sushi, small baked items etc)? I don't have a macro lens btw.

Well I did provide my comment about framing, and you replied with a 'you have your likes and dislikes', as if you didn't agree with my comment. You did provide a rationale (a valid one!) for why you did it that way. So why ask for comments if that is your response?! You could have made others reluctant to provide critical commentary. Be prepared for critical comment, because you asked for that input!

rabbit, or deer...

blueM wrote in post #9793726
At the risk of sounding like an idiot, perhaps you should stand up to shoot. The angle on most of the shots above (except the last) indicate that you were sitting.

With your gear list you have plenty of speed & width, so I'm not seeing a problem here.

This suggestion of standing up is for food shots in general or specifically my queries in regards to long plates or bite sized food? Standing up or getting down 'lower' will definitely yield a different perspective from how I am currently shooting most of my restaurant food shots.

Wilt wrote in post #9793829
Well I did provide my comment about framing, and you replied with a 'you have your likes and dislikes', as if you didn't agree with my comment. You did provide a rationale (a valid one!) for why you did it that way. So why ask for comments if that is your response?! You could have made others reluctant to provide critical commentary. Be prepared for critical comment, because you asked for that input!

Hmm...maybe I did sound a little defensive with my response. For that I apologize. The reason being the nature of this post isn't necessarily aimed to critique the shots I posted up (they are more for reference) but more so me asking for help to creatively shoot certain foods I have trouble with shooting. I think my initial reaction when you were critiqing the shots was that maybe you missed the point of the post but I may be at fault as well since the post might have been misleading from the get-go...