Well, there's a few of us who are a tough sell, hope you have a thick skin, as you will need it. I'll offer some suggestions, don't take them personally or as an attack, but in the spirit they are intended, to help you improve. You need to better understand your camera settings, how they interact, what aperture is, and how it affects depth of field. If you've never taken any photography classes, a local community college may have a few that aren't expensive and will give you some of the more technical side to photography. Food photography is very, very difficult to get right, there's so many little tricks and "secrets" used by food stylists to make food appealing. Michael Ray is one of the best, you can find a link to his portfolio and blog here:
Food Photography Portfolio : Food Photography Blog : Food Photography Articles, Tips and Techniques Some good hints and tricks can be found on his workshop and blog pages.
Ditch the umbrellas and get some softboxes, umbrellas just spray light everywhere and make it really hard to get things under control. Lighting is about control. Overall, the images are a little flat, lighting wise. Some rim lighting, effective use of fill cards and some black "cutters" will help you a great deal. Attention to detail is paramount, I'll use the the picture of the breaded chicken sandwich as an example, similar criticisms apply to the others.
First, there's crumbs on the tablecloth, ugh!!!, they must go. And while you're at it, there's two bits of breading hanging down on the right side, they need to go as well.
Second, the roll is mis-shapen, you should start with a flat of buns and find the best looking bottom, build your sandwich up from that and then find the best looking top. It's a pain, but those little details make a huge difference. Kick the grilling up on the buns a little bit, make it just a little more obvious, 30 secs. more on the grill should do it, you want it just a little darker than it is now.
Third, fries, arrange them more dynamically, they just look plopped down right now get rid of any runts or smaller fries as well.
Fourth, Green background should go, some may disagree, but food shot on a green background just looks horrible. And plastic tablecloths, really??? While they may have them in the restaurant, they scream cheap, tacky food sold here.
Fifth, Your lighting is a little hot on the right side of the sandwich, the left side looks appetizing, lighting wise, but the right side really starts to get a bit hot to me.
Overall impressions by image:
The wrap needs to be better styled, two things jump out at me, the dressing is just wrong, both in position (it looks like the sandwich is bleeding) and the lighting (see previous comment about soft boxes), additionally the background is visually distracting and draw the eye from the food.
The grilled chicken sandwich needs to be better styled, and crumbs!!!!
The desert images have serious hot spots and flare in the backgrounds, as well as a need for a fill card or two, the plating is really static, and once again, attention to detail, clean up the powdered sugar and crumbs. I would position the food more forward, and let the plate's rear edge carry beyond the edge of the frame, it's about the food, not the plate. The highlights in the cherry topped fried fritter thing don't do it, they need to model the shape better (again, see previous comment on softboxes). Focus either needs to extend to the front of the plate, or cropped tighter and horizontal to eliminate the out of focus front edge.
The fried stick thingie: dust on plate, background is just unappealing to me. You need to light the sauce containers differently, as the reflections have inconsistent highlights with their reflections, often you will need to use a low grazing fresnel to add a bit of highlight to the sides and edges.
Salad image, too much lies on one plane, a lower POV would help tremendously, as well as the same remarks as before, stray crumbs, flat lighting, etc. Tomatoes are especially tough, you should try to get a few highlights off the interior of the tomatoes to give them some texture.
Chips/fries. reflections, blown out image, no food styling whatsoever, all of it is self evident, I would think.
Buffalo strips, crumbs everywhere(again....), front fries are out of focus and just plopped down, ditch the runts and find the nice long fries in the bag, as well as cook them just a bit longer, to get them more "golden" brown. Pickle, needs to be moved. cloth napkin works better than the previous images, but the burnt orange background is too close to the color of the strips, and distracts the eye from the food.
You may want to look at my last post in the Noms noms! thread as well, there's some good info on food styling in general there as well.
