Photographer's Block

[Kezra]

I appreciate the input from everyone, however it seems we have gotten completely off the entire reason why I even posted this. This thread has turned into a full blow photo critique with notice to every flaw without taking into account no picture is perfect and what "should" be done "cannot" always be done. If my original request cannot be addressed I will simply close the thread and share my concerned with a more attentive audience.

 

[vintagesnaps]

I agree about doing more with the paddles/boards - is that maybe what he likes about the first one? since that seems to be how it works, going down the counter w/the paddle/board and add toppings then grill them.

I agree too about the depth of field, it makes too much out of focus. I couldn't tell what some of the food was at first.

It must be the light in there and/or the glare from the windows along one wall but the food in some of the photos almost looks like there's a glaze on it. The couple of shots with the guy in the gray T shirt are the ones where I think the pizza looks most appealing. The close up of the grill seems to emphasize the black surface more than the flames behind it which might be more fun to see; and the last paddle seem to show the soot from the grill so maybe a different angle would be better.

And as someone said, you probably need to keep the empty chairs out of the photos. Probably better to go when there are people there and maybe try a different time of day to get better light. I'd think about trying shooting from the other side with the windows behind you but of course I don't know what's on the other side (better or worse than the view of empty seats and glare thru the windows).

It would be better to be able to read the lettering/name of the restaurant on the employee's T shirt (it doesn't add to the photo to see part of an employee's bunched up shirt). Maybe try asking if you can have a pizza arranged on one so viewers can read the lettering better on the paper surrounding it. Try getting positioned to get a shot of the letters saying Pizza and Salad so there's a customer in the photo and the signage is visible (since it looks reflective you'd probably need to take that into account in your vantage point too).

 

[vintagesnaps]

I think we've been attentive; maybe more than you wanted, but I think the details can make a difference. To me what could help would be thinking about the backgrounds; I think you want any prospective customers to see how good the food looks and bring their attention to that more.

If you feel like you're stuck figuring out how to meet the client's needs I think people are just trying to help. You may not be able to use all the suggestions but maybe pick which ones (or any) that could work for you or might be worth trying.

 

[Kezra]

I understand where you are coming from and I can clearly see the flaws and I appreciate that input. But as I was saying, I was asking about how to rid myself of photographers block and coming up with CREATIVE ideas. The chief complaint was they look too "corporate" and wanted more of a "spirit" shown. I feel a lot of folks skipped that part and went straight into what they didn't like about the photographs.

 

[Derrel]

I appreciate the input from everyone, however it seems we have gotten completely off the entire reason why I even posted this. This thread has turned into a full blow photo critique with notice to every flaw without taking into account no picture is perfect and what "should" be done "cannot" always be done. If my original request cannot be addressed I will simply close the thread and share my concerned with a more attentive audience.

No picture is perfect, I will grant you that. But here in this assignment, you're shooting many of the shots back-lighted, by shooting toward massive walls of windows, so the lighting pattern is very challenging to work with. The shadows of the food are coming toward the viewers. This is a gloomy, depressing, ugly way to shoot commercial images. It looks like photojournalism, not advertising.

And...in shot #2, I can see a tripod in the background of the photo. Is that your tripod?

This is a commercial photography job. The client apparently doesn't know what he wants, and is counting on you to do commercial photography. Commercial photography often demands lighting gear, light modifiers, and grip gear. This cannot be shot back-lighted, ambient light, at f/4.If you want to be able to show a FUN atmosphere, you need to LIGHT IT UP!!! make the light bright, lively, happy, and fun, with soft shadows, and no glares.

You cannot shoot INTO massive walls of windows like this, and have deep, dark shadows, with shallow DOF and huge glares on things, and make the photos seem "fun", or welcoming. You have the shadows basically going the wrong way. The light is coming from the windows, and it is killing the mood.

Get away from the semi-wide-angle look. The background above is killing the shot, with the big, dark corner, the tripod, and the clutter. What is growing out of the back of that chair? It looks like a broom handle, or the reflected handle of a scrub brush. You need to take control of the lighting.

You need to sit down with the owner and decide on a shot list. Words like "spirit" and "corporate" are utterly meaningless. When you're shooting with no art direction, and coming into a shoot like this with zero guidelines, and you're having "photographer's block", you're in a bad situation because you really don't have any guidelines as to what you've been hired to shoot. You need to have a clear, defined concept, and an agreement between you, and whoever is paying you to shoot the photos. Restaurant owners are notorious for being cheapskate bastards, without a single clue in the world of what they want, and you're probably shooting these in a very casual manner, with customers, and regular hourly staff, during regular business hours, with no lights, hand-held. You're in a spot.

All I can think of by "spirit" are FACES of people, posing with pizza, eating it, enjoying the restaurant. Your photos do not show that very much.

 

[Kezra]

That's fair, thank you.

I'll admit, this is a challenging assignment. I've done a lot of commercial work but this one seems to be getting my goat.

As you can see, this place is very small with not a lot of room to work with. Lighting is an issue because of a few things: #1 space is extremely limited and its a very odd shaped interior. #2 as you see, the walls are all very dark reclaimed wood with which doesn't allow me to bounce light like I normally would. #3 wide angle is really all I can do simple because of space. The photos honestly do not clearly show how small this place is.

So with the lighting challenge, I relied on available light which is coming from 4 MASSIVE windows in the front and the indoor lighting is made up of 4 low low watt bulbs and give off ZERO light during the day.

The very last issue is my lighting gear itself. I have invested about $14,000 in my body and lens, so I general use speed lights since they are "cheap" and they have worked wonders in the past and I don't have a budget for a decent lighting system. So since I can't bounce light and the sun is so fricken bright in there, my speed lights just aren't sufficient. I do plan on buying the Profoto kit in a few months, but it doesn't help me now.

Besides the obvious lack of customers that day, do you think shooting at night would be a better bet?

 

[Derrel]

You need some low-cost high-power flash units. Speedotron Brownline D402 400 W.S. Power Pack Used Exc to Exc+ $69, plus $22 shipping from Stockton, CA. Add a $40 M90 light head. And an inexpensive umbrella.

Or get some Adorama Flashpoint 320M monolights, $99 each. You need some professionally-capable lighting gear.

Profoto flash gear is terrifically overpriced per Watt-second.

 

[Kezra]

Profoto flash gear is terrifically overpriced per Watt-second.

Amen!

 

[vfotog]

these are all shot from behind the counter. do you have any shot from the other side? some shots of happy employees? they seem very blasé in these images. the one that does have a customer, the counter person isn't looking at or engaging with the him. I'd rather see some tighter shots of making the food, happy workers, and some even happier customers receiving and eating their yummy pizzas.

 

[Crusty]

I like the shot with the fire in the background with the 2 pizza's.
Many good points here to help you out. By the shear amount of pizza I eat I should be an expert but I'm not.
-If there are tables and chairs in the background at least half should be filled with people happily eating.
-A little extra saturation on the toppings.
-Shots with motion. Spinning the dough in the air and topping in motion falling onto the pizza.
-Although good hygiene I would loose the plastic gloves.
-A close-up of the pizza cooking with the cheese bubbling.
-Ask the employees to smile and be a little silly then shoot away.

Dave

 

[Designer]

At least the owner/manager is telling you that these shots are "corporate", and he wants more "atmosphere". That's a good starting point. Personally, I don't know why you can't be more creative, but whatever.

That and your lack of lighting experience has limited your ability to produce photos with more pizzaz.

Good luck to you.

 

[epatsellis]

Profoto flash gear is terrifically overpriced per Watt-second.

Not nearly as bad as the shelves full of Broncolor I have. However, most are going on 30 years old and every one still functions 100%, so long term they're not so bad.

To the OP,
I'm not sure what your experience level is, what formal training you have in the visual arts, technical skill level, etc. From my perspective, as a working commercial shooter for 30 years, is that your lack of vision is actually not the biggest problem, the clients lack of coherent branding and a creative direction is. The fact that they're leaving every aspect of creating images up to you is the real issue.

Back in the old days, when clients hired agencies, creative directors or art directors went to studios and oversaw the image capture process, before you got into the studio, there was a pretty firm shoot list, as well as some ad dummies (called blue lines) that would have important placement areas traced onto Mylar and put on the ground glass of the view camera. The important thing to note is that all of the major design and composition was already determined long before you even got into the studio. The majority of CD's and AD's had BA or BFA degrees in design, understood composition, color theory, the psychology of advertising/imaging and branding.

While agencies still exist, few companies use them anymore, seeing them as an unnecessary expense, and it shows in the huge number of horrible logos, ads, and other ephemeral material poorly designed and implemented.

This is what you're real issue is, there is no clearly defined "look", as Derrel said, there's no direction. Meet with the client, with a sketch pad and pencil, and block out some concepts. Refine the composition until it "works". Then, and only then, set up equipment. As far as lighting equipment, you're at a tremendous disadvantage having only been shooting for a few years (as an aside, when I ran a studio an assistant typically worked for me for two to three years before they were let loose as a shooter. And that's somebody with a bachelors degree in photography).

You said you need fill light, and I'd agree. Dark walls aren't the problem, the lack of a couple of sheets of foam core is. In a perfect world, I'd fly a big soft box over the set and use plenty of fill cards. Since you can't, improvise, a couple of sheets of foam core behind,lit by natural lighting, will do wonders. I'm not sure how conversant and knowledgable you are with regards to lighting, but in the commercial world, light is everything. If you decide to use strobes, you'll need to block off the windows 100%, and light everything or gel your lights to match ambient, (and I'm guessing you don't have a color temperature meter) otherwise the slight difference between ambient and strobe will give your shadows a different white balance than your highlights.

Unfortunately, you've made some decisions regarding equipment needs that you've now come to realize aren't quite right. 99% of the time any modern body will do just fine. Personally I still use my kodak SLR/n for almost all of my food and product work, and a drawer full of Nikon manual focus lenses. I have over a dozen bodies to choose from, ranging from a Nikon D1x to a D3, as well as digital backs for the Hassy and Sinar view cameras. While many may disagree, is not the camera, it's the photographer that creates truly effective images. In commercial work you really don't need 2.8 zooms, iso 6400, huge image sizes,etc....though many will say you do. (Aka, the Internet forum effect)

Base ISO, fixed focal length lenses (typically the slower lenses are far better optically) and effective lighting techniques are what is required to make good images. I'm assuming you have a copy of Light, Science and Magic, probably the best single source for learning effective lighting techniques. I'd also suggest some formal training, color theory, compositional design and general art classes can help tremendously in every visual art.

 

[Solarflare]

I appreciate the input from everyone, however it seems we have gotten completely off the entire reason why I even posted this. This thread has turned into a full blow photo critique with notice to every flaw without taking into account no picture is perfect and what "should" be done "cannot" always be done. If my original request cannot be addressed I will simply close the thread and share my concerned with a more attentive audience.

Whow. A lot of people trying to help you and this is your answer ?

 

[waday]

produce photos with more pizzas.

Fixed it for you...

 

[soufiej]

Wowsers!

Seems like everyone has an idea for a photo but none for your creative spirit.

That was your question wasn't it? How do you get yourself revved up about another gig in another pizza joint?

One answer is, you don't.

This is strictly a job and you are not required to be "revved up", only to produce a result that appears to your employer to be "revved up".

Consider the possibility you were a musician who had a set gig at the same pizza joint for months. Every Friday night of every month of every season you had to show up at the pizza joint at 6:45 and start at 7 and entertain the folks who drive you crazy with their clanking silverware, loud conversations, no tips and constant requests for "Smoke on the Water" despite the fact you play R&B and the general lack of feedback from a group of people who came to eat not listen to music.

If you've never been in the audience during one of these shows, you've missed a very sad event where the musician is simply putting in their time for the most part. The less stellar musician will do nothing more than go through their set and pack up their gear after two hours. A lost opportunity and probably not another job offer.

Any player I know whom I feel is a musician and not just someone with a guitar thinking they can make a buck sees an opportunity for experimentation. They play for the few of us in the audience who are paying attention and they take chances.

Rather than playing a set just as they always play a set, they throw in pieces they are working on and they play in a manner they normally would not for a more "formal" job.

Embellishments come out and note runs flourish. New endings and turnarounds are added to the songs. Been wondering how a diminished 4th would sound in that spot? Play it and see what response you get. If you fail, you only fail in front of a group who, for the most part, won't notice. Those of us paying attention will appreciate the effort.

The musician acknowledges the one or two listeners in the audience but they are really entertaining themself that night. They are doing things they normally wouldn't do and getting away with it. Rather than trudging through a dreary night of playing same ol' same ol', they are taking chances and assessing the result.



If you've been working at this for three years, you must have a catalog of prior shots which you've looked at and thought maybe you could have tried this or that.

Now's your time to try this and that.

Take your chances, you have nothing to lose really. You may learn why you want to try this and that again or why you should never do this or that again.

Either way, like the musician, you simply keep smiling through the night to show your appreciation of those who are paying you and those who are paying attention. If you're a professional, you can go on auto-pilot to some extent and turn in a good show. Or you can make this about something new and something different, something out of the ordinary. You get to decide.



Alternately, you can make this into a party. You can be the musician who got to invite all their friends over for a night of jamming.

Surely, you have shot candid photos at a family gathering. People laughing, people drinking and dancing. People doing silly things they wouldn't do in front of strangers. And you clicking away in the background getting in the "spirit" of the night.

So don't do staged shots. Have the owner set aside a night for his family or your family or some family he knows with kids. Free pizza!

But make it an event. Not just a night out. A birthday party or an anniversary. Something where people are celebrating. Maybe just celebrating that this guy's pizza joint is still in business.

It doesn't matter what the event is, make it a celebration one of you gets to set up and make sure those attending know each other and will have fun with each other.

Then you approach that just as you would, say, your parent's anniversary party. You weave in and out and take a few out of focus shots, a few with heads and hands and feet lopped off and hopefully a lot of shots of people having a really good time. Because they are. They aren't putting on a happy face you are telling them to have, they brought it with them.

Go home afterwards and cull through what you have and then present those to the owner. From there you can mutually decide what other static shots the owner and you feel would add to the spirit of the place.

Really no different than on those nights where the restaurant empties out and it comes down to the player and two or three of us in the audience. We're appreciative of the entertainment and the performer is appreciative they do not have to simply sit and play to an empty venue simply to fulfill their contractual obligations.

The music begins to flow a bit more freely and loosely and the listeners are getting into the spirit of the moment.

If, as a photographer, you don't understand how to take a space with a handful of people in it and make it look like something, you need to figure that out - fast.

And, I have to ask, is there a reason you have to only shoot from inside this space? A shot of happy people going in? A shot of very happy people leaving? A shot of really happy, well fed people taken from outside the pizza parlor?

If you purposely box yourself in, you have no one other than yourself to blame.



"If my original request cannot be addressed I will simply close the thread and share my concerned with a more attentive audience."


Geeez! You're sounding just like the musician who just plays no matter who pays attention, does all their songs in their prepared set and nothing more or less and packs up their gear at the end of the night.