Indian Food - C&C please

[Parker219]

Hello,

I can still edit these if I need to, so please let me know if anything stands out good or bad to you.

Thank You


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[JoeW]

Okay, a couple of comments:

1. First photo is, I think, the closest to be ready but needs to be cropped. Leave a little bit of the plate in the upper right. But right now, it seems unbalanced.
2. Second photo: the base seems blownout. Also, unfortunately, the green doesn't seem very appetizing. But technically, that's the photo I like the most--good focus and composition of the main dish, interesting color (but blur) behind it.
3. Third photo: the first thing that drew my eye was the "Poppy" on the bottle. Seriously. I like to have other items in the background (consider them props) with food photography but they shouldn't be distractions. That's part of the strength of your second photo--the background items provide balance and color but don't draw attention b/c of the DoF. In #3, the wine bottle is a distraction. Plus, the edge of the table (with the in-focus background behind the table) requires a crop to get it out of the photo.
4. Last photo: bottle label is distracting, the black thing behind the plate is also distracting. Also, I wish you hadn't cut off the front of the plate. This is a photo that, with a narrower DoF and including the front of the prime dish, would have been a lovely photo.

Overall, the photos are sharp and not dark and would probably be appetizing to diners so a restaurant may be very happy with them going in to a menu. But I think the positioning of the food, the DoF, and your crop decisions can be played with.

 

[407370]

Is there a reason the wine bottles are so prominent? if not remove them and concentrate on the food.

Is it me or does the chicken in the first pic look a bit pink.

 

[Parker219]

Good points, thank you.

I have some with less DOF, so the wine is blurred as well. The chicken was fully cooked, but you are right it does look weird...not sure what I can do about it now.


Here is photo 4 with less DOF and the front of the plate. I cut a lot of plates with the tinfoil because, the tinfoil was ripped / dirty.


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[Parker219]

Another one...


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[Parker219]

Should I mess with the luminance or hue for that green chicken in photo 2? I mean that's what the chicken looked like in real life...although I agree the color is a little...off putting. Maybe if you really like green curry chicken then its okay?

 

[tirediron]

In addition to Joe's excellent and thorough observations I'll add:

-Get your exposure under control; you have excessive specular highlights in most of these. You need to bring your lights in closer, increase the diffusion and [probably] lower their output.

-Watch the arrangements; most of these look like the food was just tossed on the plate. In #2 for instance, the cabbage needed to have been put down so that the darkest, greenest leaves and most carrot was on the perimeter. The white cabbage, combined with the slight over-exposure renders the bed almost featureless. As well the lemons should have been arranged for better symmetry, and the actual entree items (chicken?) moved so that we don't see two almost bare pieces, and they're in a more pleasing 'mound'.

 

[waday]

I could really go for some Indian food right now...

 

[Parker219]

I found one a little further away, trying to balance out the scene...

 

[cgw]

#1=Winner. The rest...not so much. Dead/flat lighting, over-busy/cluttered composition elsewhere, hit or miss DOF. Look at some of the better food porn magazines(Saveur is one of the best)for examples. It won't take much to get your already good shots way above "meh."