Dinner is Served

[The Why Not Guy]

ISO 200
Exposure 3.2 seconds
Aperture 5.0

Ok, so here's the deal. The magazine I design needed a cover shot for a story about a particular restaurant, and I just happened to be going there for a birthday party. I've never done anything commercial but I said I'd give it a try. I didn't want to disturb the other patrons, so I tried to work as quickly as possible, and this - along with my nervousness - led to some silly mistakes. Still, the final pictures turned out better than I'd expected so I'm sort of half proud of them for a first try. Still, they could use a lot of improvement, and any feedback is welcome.

P.S. since it's a magazine cover the relatively empty bands at the top and bottom are for masthead/headline.

 

[Rob]

That's a great magazine shot! The first thing I thought was that it would go really nicely in a mag, then I actually read your post.

As you were taking the shots quickly, you've done really well, the DOF is spot on and you've hidden the fire effectively. A couple of points I would make for improvement might be: That chair, it's distracting as you need to look at it to figure it out. Therefore, move the chair further in, or out of the frame. Same goes for the flowers, either chop them in half, or get them more into the frame.

If you're going for a cover shot, the bottom is perfect with that negative space of tablecloth suitable for barcode and price, and enough room for a small bottom banner. However, I would think you could do with a bit more room at the top, depending on the magazine. This may have been impossible if there was something there that would upset the dark area above the fire, but if it was possible, I would add a touch of extra space at the top for the title.

The highlights are very good, as are the reflections. To be nit-picky, I might suggest a bit of a more appetising dish - the dry looking pear salad (is it?) or whatever it is, doesn't appeal to me and lacks arrangement. Also, I'd like to see another meal of the same thing in the other place setting.

Great job though, I'm commenting on the things that I've seen as I think your cover would be really fantastic with a couple of very minor tweaks!

Rob