C&C Welcome, Paid with a heart attack.

[acparsons]

My first paid gig. The burger, 4 .5lb patties, 8 slices of bacon, and a ton of cheese, was my fee.

 

[EIngerson]

Cool, The lighting is a little bit harsh. I would diffuse it more and get rid of as many shadows as possible. lol, though my mouth is watering looking at these so they did achieve the desired intent. Nice job.

 

[fokker]

#1 I feel is shot from too low an angle and the DOF is too shallow.

#2 the big dark shadows are overly distracting

#3 DOF is too shallow (most of the food is out of focus) and there is a wet mark on the table

#4 Angle seems a bit low again

#5 The best of the bunch IMO

The lighting is all of them is pretty harsh. What were you using?

 

[acparsons]

I was using a YN Flash with a small diffuser, 12-24 and 28-70mm lens. I agree, the lighting sucks. I'm still trying to acquire a better lighting system, hope the next one will better.

 

[Gavjenks]

geez, way way softer light is needed. Increase the size of your softbox at whatever distance you were using it at by a factor of about 10 at least.
Also, in general, wider apertures for some of them where the backgroudn is distractingly near-sharp

And really with something like this you should have more than one light. A classic basic setup for food would be a nice big soft light behind you, above, and off to the side a bit (huge white umbrella or softbox), and then another smaller less powerful light behind the food and off to the opposite side. Make it a little harsher than the key light (smaller softbox or small silvered umbrella, or beauty dish and grid) to add gleams and edge definition and fill in the shaded portions a bit.

But you can get much more complicated if you want more specific results, for example:
Food photographer in Atlanta: chicken wings, photographer, stylist and a sauce «Photigy: Online Studio Photography Lessons
Pretty much the same kind of food as you. Same basic setup I described above, but souped up for a particular look: huge soft main front light near the camera (just x2 both sides, but same difference), then that little strobe with the beauty dish on it you see in the front in the second shot of the setup is adding extra gleams to make it look juicier and fill in a bit (so is the light above). The last light on the white ramp is to make the background bright enough to be featureless white, since that's what he wanted for this shot: food in no context for the menu.

He also mentioned a tight beam of light from a snoot aimed just at the iced tea glass to make the ice sparkle more. Obviously that kind of thing is highly optional and I think the iced tea is poorly composed anyway, but you get the idea. 2-3 normal standard lights (key and fill and background if you want to isolate it), and then additional ones usually serve specific roles for that particular shot, if there are any additional.

For certain kinds of food in high end parts of the industry (such as making nationwide box images for TV dinners that look way better than the food ever will), they also start doing some crazy stuff like slathering chemicals and plastic on the food, etc. to add certain expected characteristics.

 

[Scoody]

A light painting technique would have probably worked in this case.

 

[mmaria]

I love food photography and I did spend some time just doing food.

you have lots of issues here, starting from the light and environment where these are taken.

get just one plate of something and practice with it. pay attention to geometry, composing, arranging food, colors, appropriate dof, appropriate background, utensils...

flash and food don't really match and you don't need to invest more money, why couldn't you use natural light with reflectors (black, white, gold) and difuser?

you have much more problems presented here that you need to solve before investing money

 

[molested_cow]

I could have gotten similar result with my cell phone camera... this means that you probably don't know how to use your equipment properly. Sorry to sound harsh, but I don't mean like that.

You are using the wrong type of lens. I'd actually recommend the opposite end, either a telephoto or macro lens will be more suited for product photography like these.
Photographing food is complicated. There's all kinds of texture and surfaces, reflective or matte, color contrasts, etc. Lighting and environment is really critical and typically, this means you will need a controlled environment like a studio to shoot the food, not in a restaurant where there's nothing but chaos. Most importantly, you need to show the emotion that the particular dish is trying to bring. What is a plate of hot buffalo wings supposed to make a person feel when he eats it? What does a 16 ounce steak want the person to feel? Perhaps come up with those key words first and discuss them with your client. Get an alignment first before strategizing how you want to achieve it.

 

[NedM]

These photos could really use some improving, definitely!

I feel like most of the photos were killed by the use of too much flash and improper DOF.
I mean, the last one is good, but something is missing.
None of the photos really...POP!

Good try though!

BTW, That burger looks DISGUSTING

 

[acparsons]

Thanks for the tips. The owner called me and wanted some quick shots for an ad on the spot. I had about 1 hour to prep before going to the restaurant to shoot and have no equipment other than a flash. Next time, I'll certainly use your tips.

 

[runnah]

Only thing I will add is that a warm color temp is very important.

 

[manaheim]

Thanks for the tips. The owner called me and wanted some quick shots for an ad on the spot. I had about 1 hour to prep before going to the restaurant to shoot and have no equipment other than a flash. Next time, I'll certainly use your tips.

This is going to sound harsh, but it's not intended that way...

Stop making excuses. If you feel you didn't have the prep time needed, then you tell the customer that you're going to need a little time. It's better than handing them a shot that doesn't fit the bill. You can't ever take these shots back. They're out there now.

Also... the ceiling makes a pretty darn good diffuser. When all else fails, use that. You can even do it with an on-board flash using something reflective, though it's challenging.

 

[KmH]

Thanks for the tips. The owner called me and wanted some quick shots for an ad on the spot. I had about 1 hour to prep before going to the restaurant to shoot and have no equipment other than a flash. Next time, I'll certainly use your tips.

Alarm bells should have been going off in your head.
"Thank you for considering me, but because of the severe time constraints I have to pass."

Have you seen this? - Case Study: Producing A Successful Estimate | DigitalPhotoPro.com

 

[Gavjenks]

flash and food don't really match and you don't need to invest more money, why couldn't you use natural light with reflectors (black, white, gold) and difuser?

Well, I agree that he should probably work on a bunch of other stuff before spending more money. But saying that natural light and diffusers completely replace strobes and speedlights or that flash and food don't mix inherently is, I dunno... I kinda have to go with "wrong" though I don't mean to be flippant or insulting.

Some things you just straight up cannot do with natural light without superhuman effort (like blank white backgrounds, for instance), and even the normal key and fill lights, although possible to replicate, take way more effort with reflectors, and probably ultimately even more equipment and time to triangulate all the craziness and hold everything where it needs to be. And then half an hour later, your light shifts. And you can only shoot at day... And you are stuck with a certain color. And and and etc. Natural light is great, but only one of a huge variety of tools. It's called photography -- light writing. Being able to control what you're writing if you want or need to is very important, and you're hamstringing yourself by never doing it.

But yes he should probably master whatever he can do with one flash and better composition/aperture choices, etc. before spending a dime.

 

[Overread]

Only thing I will add is that a warm color temp is very important.

That was my first thought as well. The first photo shows it well where the image appears to have a cold colour temperature which in turn gives a cold vibe off so the viewer starts seeing the food as cold as well. Warmer colours really helps reinforce a feeling of warmth that in turn makes the cooked food look fresh and ready baked.