need food critiques!

nrois02 · Jul 29, 2009

My old boss needs his whole menu photographed and I have never done food before. He wants it to come off the grill and photograph it where the waiter/waitress's pick it up so the lighting isn't great but I need some help if anyone can give some on what I can do to make these better! He wants them for training purposes but then maybe a couple for the website. so any help would be great!

here are some I took today just trying a trial run.

Wyjid · Jul 29, 2009

#1
white balance a bit yellow.
distracting shiney reflections

#2
touch brighter
touch whiter
touch more saturation

#3
white balance
focus slightly more forward

#4
white balance
focus more in forground
higher DOF
light more even (not just bright on the sauce)

#5
more even light (not just bright on the dipping sauces again.

overall,
well setup and composed.
nice light style but a touch dark and uneven
focus a bit closer on the forground.
"im hungry though, so the effect is good haha"

nrois02 · Jul 29, 2009

thanks that helps!

camz · Jul 29, 2009

I think you should make these all more vibrant and colorfull. Looking at these they don't seem too inticing to eat because of the flatness of the images.

nrois02 · Jul 30, 2009

ok would that be a thing to do in ps?

Wyjid · Jul 30, 2009

most of what's been said can be done in PS, except for the focus and DOF bits.

Wyjid · Jul 30, 2009

here, i tried the ones without big focus issues. used dodge to brighten up dark areas and punch up the highlights. then adjusted the colour of ecah part (lettuce meat cheese pepper tomato plate) individually.

oh man! im sorry, i just realize you have a no edit tag. do you mind if i post them here?

nrois02 · Jul 30, 2009

by all means go for it! i dont mind

nrois02 · Jul 30, 2009

i like your signature btw!

jenniferlouise · Jul 30, 2009

If you're open to help. I used Lightroom instead of Photoshop, just because Lightroom is more mainstream for photographs than Photoshop.

This is what I came up with. Most of it can be done with Photoshop. As I only really just enhanced the contrast and adjusted the white balance of it. Obviously since you photographed them you probably know the original colors of them better, but this is just my way of helping a little on how to improve them a bit.

camz · Jul 30, 2009

that sandwhich looks yummie! I'll give it a shot when I get home tonight see if we can do something with the exposure to brighten it a a bit.

nrois02 · Jul 30, 2009

wow that food looks a lot better! and yeah i just got lr on my comp so im going to play with it. and thanks for all the help! this forum is great! thanks much to everyone for helping!

jenniferlouise · Jul 30, 2009

Lightroom is a dream for photography. Just play around with all the different settings and learn how it works. It can do wonders.

camz · Jul 31, 2009

Here's a couple I did as a sample.

In ACR: I increased the exposure, fill light, clarity, vibrance, based White Balance on the plate(not sure if that's right) and added vignetting to place more focus on the food.

In Photoshop: I played with Offset and Gamma Levels. I also sharpened it for the web and saved for web devices.
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camz · Jul 31, 2009

I don't know if your able to do post processing in right now however my comments about your pictures is that if your going straight out of camera is that your images are a little underexposed and flat. I'm not sure what camera you used for these but my camera has presets for sharpness and some color management. You might want to play around with these and see what you get. Good luck with the menu!