Bread

JIP · Mar 6, 2007

Recently I have been posting pics of some of the bread I bake on a forum for baking what do you guys think of these?. I guess for the purposes of that forum they don't have to be beautiful but I thought I would experiment.

#1.

For the life of me I can't figure out how to get that one vertical any advice

#2.

LaFoto · Mar 7, 2007

I quite like the second photo here, though it is quite blown in various parts, but I like the arrangement, the crumbs in the foreground and the cut open part of bread, the DOF ... yes, all this. Maybe not the blown out cloth - though I like the cloth to be there! - and the blown out blurred parts on the bread loaves in the background, on which the flour here on my monitor looks pink in parts. This is due to the fact that you used given lamp light, I am sure.

In the first I am quite distracted by the background, the cooker or whatever it is we see in the background ... maybe to get more focus on the actual bread you might give up on part of the container with the dough and crop in from above to lose the background?

And the lamp light maybe isn't the best choice (though I assume it is your ONLY choice, that or on-camera flash, which is quite much to be avoided, a lot more than lamp light!) ... my feeling is that for commercial or product photography you need some really white light which does not give you any kind of colour cast - like the yellow one you have here.

JIP · Mar 7, 2007

#1 is a light from above I know the color is bat it was compact florescents #2 is all natural window light

fmw · Mar 7, 2007

Great looking bread. I do some bread baking myself and even specifically studied bread baking in culinary school. I know what kind of work you went through to make it. It is obvious you're an accomplished baker.

The second shot has some merit. It is a nice composition. The major problem is depth of field. You would have a better result if all the bread were in reasonable focus. You wouldn't necessarily have to have everything in the frame in focus, but the out-of-focus loaf on the right is a distraction. Corrina mentioned that the white highlights are overexposed and I would agree with that. Perhaps it would work to crop it with the little Henckels guys on the knife at the lower left corner and the dead center of the out of focus loaf at the upper right.

The first shot needs to be simplified in terms of composition. The cooling racks and the range don't add anything to the composition at all. A few accessories would be fine but I probably wouldn't have chosen a scraper and measuring cup. The color cast doesn't appeal to me either. That round loaf is spectacular looking and should have a more natural color on crust. You can fix that easily in photoshop and you should. I would just simplify the whole composition and fix the color cast.

JIP · Mar 7, 2007

Better yes no?? That color cast was difficult I really do not know what the white balance setting for compact florescents is some weird setting between Florescent and Incandescent. Thank you for your comments fmw the problem with redoing a shot like this is the subject was so delicious I ate it before I could even upload my pictures. As far as the second shot the depth of field issue was almost intentional I shot it with my 85 1.8 but it was a little extreme the highlight problem was a mistake.

oldnavy170 · Mar 7, 2007

I really think that your second photo is great. I feel there is too much distracting me in the first photo. (stove, etc)

fmw · Mar 8, 2007

Yes, better. If you have photoshop, you can correct the white balance in the levels adjustment screen using the white picker. It is very easy. I don't know what software you have but, if it is Photoshop then fixing this is trivial. If the image is important to you and you don't have PS, I can fix it for you.

JIP · Mar 8, 2007

I have CS2 but of course I don't know how to use most of the features. I liked the image originally till I shot the second one so they keep getting a little better I just got to remember to bake when there is still natural light so I can get good colors because my kitchen lights are all over the place in color but doing that is little tough when the bread I have been making takes 6-8 hours to make not including the work done the night before.

fmw · Mar 8, 2007

Image>adjustments>levels. The white eyedropper is in the lower right hand corner of the dialog box. Click on it and then click on some of the flour or something else in the image that should be rendered as pure white. It is that simple.

M-O-S · Mar 17, 2007

that second picture - that small piece of bread - it looks like it has some blood on/in it, lol

PhilosophyAskew · Apr 23, 2007

The reason that the second picture is better is because of the point of view. It's common to see bread from above as you would in a market or something similiar. But to see it from the side gives a unique perspective that really stands out. Number two is really nice. Good job.