Fast Food Photography C&C

[Natred]

Hey everyone! I'm brand new here. I plan on looking around after I'm done with this post.

I have been doing photography professionally for 5 years. I don't have a fancy camera(canon rebel xti)and I use 4 alienbees 800w flash units with umbrellas in my studio. I recently started doing food shot's for a local fast food place. I am used to portraiture so this is quite different for me. I am in need of some critiquing on the shot's I got. I am not exactly sure how to set up my lights for this and I don't know what settings to use on my camera. for all these shot's I used 2 flash units with umbrellas One was placed directly above the food and the other was placed directly to the right to me, on the same level as the camera. Does that make sense? The settings on my camera were ISO 100 and shutter speed 1/125 with Fstop at 7.0. I have included a pic of the set up too it's the last photo.
If someone has experience in this area with the presentation of the food and lighting, I would LOVE to hear it. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Naturally Red Photography By Renee Parkes | Chuck & Kluck

 

[epatsellis]

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.

 

[Natred]

Thank you so much for writing back and taking the timne to critique my work. I went with
2 soft boxes in stead of umbrellas. I know about aperture, shotterspeed and Fstop/DOF. I guess I just wasn't sure
what settings to put the camera on when
I'm not in the studio. I played around with it and am doing 1/80 and F stop at 8. It seems to work great. I'm not
getting any hot spots on that setting. I cleaned up the settings and worked with a woman this time to help me style
the food. That last set of photo's I had a man/cook helping me with the styling and he was very messy. That's fixed now.
I took all the tips into consideration and did the best I could. I also looked at Michael Ray's photo's- He's great!! It's
a bit fancy for what I'm looking for though, but I know it just gives me a basic idea for lighting etc. Thank you!
There were a few things I wasn't sure about- First you told me to use a fill card. What is that exactly? Is it
like a white reflector? Also you said "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." What tools etc are needed in order
to achieve rim lighting and what is Black "cutters?"
I've included another link to the more recent photo's. Please check them out and let me know if you see improvement and
what I need to change or fix. Keep in mind these are not edited yet in any way. They are straight from the camera. I
do have photo shop skills that I am proud of so I am hoping I can fix any mess ups there. The new pic's start on number 11.

Thank you SOOOO much!!
Naturally Red Photography By Renee Parkes | Chuck & Kluck

 

[Natred]

Epatesllis- I wrote you back above and didn't hear anything else from you. Maybe you could ready above and answer the couple of questions I had? Or maybe anyone can for that matter...

Just follow the link above in my first original post to see the pic's.
This is my 2nd time shooting food. I feel like I did pretty dang good. These shot's will be used on a billboard and in the restaurant on the walls and possibly on the menu. C&C would be great!!

 

[epatsellis]

A fill card is a white reflector, typically a piece of scrap mat board. A cutter is the same, but black, "reflecting" black onto the subject (or taking light, and reflections, away). A flag is used to "flag" or block light from the set or camera.

A good resource would be to buy a copy of Fil Hunter's "Light, Science and Magic". 959% of goo photography is making the light do what you want, and knowing how to modify it appropriately. (remember even available light can be controlled and modified) While many here (and elsewhere) will say the book is too dry and too theory based, it's really a good resource to understanding lighting theory.

One suggestion I would make any time you shoot on location, buy several yards of Duvetyne and wrap your set to block all available light from windows, shut off the lights and shoot only with your lighting, Subtle, or not so subtle, color shifts in the shadows result from ambient light corruption, among other things. The goal of "studio" photography, either in studio or on location, is to totally control all light. You literally have to build your image from the ground up,when you have total control over the lighting, you can determine everything from contrast ratio to shadow placement and of course compositional elements.

 

[Brandon Whiteside]

I think the one thing that you are not grasping is the arrangement of the frame. I'm no food professional and I've never shot a slice of bread, but as an example of my photography mind in action here is what I think: Use the shot "R2 Sides Offered." My initial impression was somewhat of a "What?" because you initially focused me on a tomato and some sort of pepper or something (I'm quite the chef). My second thought was "Wait, what's the subject?! There's so much food!" I would have switched the mac n cheese with the salad thing. Despite how unappetizing it is, I think it would add a little more balance. The potatoes need to be whipped and sticking out of the cup. The cups look like take-out containers. Why is the ketchup cut off at the top? What is that sliver of orange at the left of the frame? Sorry to be harsh, but if everyone just gave everyone a thumbs up then we all would not be getting any better. Oh, I would imagine that DOF is a huge factor in food. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I would have shot this at like an 11 or 22. Without the tablecloth.

Most of your images have things cut off at the sides. bleh.

 

[epatsellis]

I think the one thing that you are not grasping is the arrangement of the frame. I'm no food professional and I've never shot a slice of bread, but as an example of my photography mind in action here is what I think: Use the shot "R2 Sides Offered." My initial impression was somewhat of a "What?" because you initially focused me on a tomato and some sort of pepper or something (I'm quite the chef). My second thought was "Wait, what's the subject?! There's so much food!" I would have switched the mac n cheese with the salad thing. Despite how unappetizing it is, I think it would add a little more balance. The potatoes need to be whipped and sticking out of the cup. The cups look like take-out containers. Why is the ketchup cut off at the top? What is that sliver of orange at the left of the frame? Sorry to be harsh, but if everyone just gave everyone a thumbs up then we all would not be getting any better. Oh, I would imagine that DOF is a huge factor in food. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I would have shot this at like an 11 or 22. Without the tablecloth.

Most of your images have things cut off at the sides. bleh.

In and of itself, a partial dish is ok (see reference to Gestaltist compositional theory above) and in some cases, desirable. It engages the viewers mind subconciously and makes an image seem "more than it is". However, you are correct that the in frame compositions need signifcant work with regards to compositional choices of arrangement, and a need for more visual focus. (e.g. what is it we are selling here????)

Not a bad effort for a first time, but some compositional theory would go a long way towards helping solidify those areas. Lighting just doesn't do it for me, as you haven't exploited the use of highlights to convey the texture and shape effectively (yet....). Keep working at it, it takes a lot of practice to get better, and without tough critics, it's easy to rest on your laurels or belieive the glowing, positive remarks by well meaning people. I'm not trying to be mean, but developing a critical eye isn't something that many people have the skill for, both inside and outside the fine art world.

 

[Natred]

Thank you for your honesty. Both of you! I don't take anything you guys say in a mean way. This is truly the only way people get better at what they do...and a lot of practice. The restaurant is fast food so the cheap take out looking cups etc were something the owner wanted me to use. I wasn't a fan of the potatoes either. The cooks had a lot to do with the setup of this stuff. So by the 3rd day of this I asked my assistant to help(a woman) and things went a little better. I added the 3rd day of photo's they are towards the bottom. Light was set up different again. Not sure if I improved or not. The new photo's are labeled R3.

The owner was happy with the last round of photo's and is going to use them in the restaurant. I went ahead and uploaded the food collages his graphic artist put together with my pic's.