FOOD

[his4ever]

OK... I need to know...
1) How's the contrast?
2) How is the white balance?
3) How did I do on lighting?
4) How is the compostion?
5) What can I do better next time?
Thanks

1)

Tonight I made leftover Beef Stew on egg noodles. I set the white balance with a 18% gray card. Not sure if that helped. Here are the other details:
Exposure: 1/4 sec.
F-stop: 8.0
Cannon 300D

2)

Just tried to see if the 18% gray card is making a diffrenece. Still had to do some gimping to adjust the levels. Hope what I did will make a diffrence in my pictures.

 

[c_mac]

the first is good. maybe a little more contrast, maybe. but i am not too sure about the angle. it is, for lack of a better word, bland. i think an angle that completely focuses on the food would be better.

the second, is great. i wouldn't do a thing.

 

[his4ever]

So would doing an overhead shot (since it is in a bowl) be a better way to do the first pic the next time?

 

[c_mac]

So would doing an overhead shot (since it is in a bowl) be a better way to do the first pic the next time?

maybe not completely over-head but higher than the original. well that is until you see from above. it may be that the angle you have is the best. some foods may not look so appealing. but just try some higher angles, see what looks best.

 

[his4ever]

Thanks C_mac for your coments. Would love some more from other folks too if they have anything to add. I really really want to get better at this and need all the advice I can get. Thanks in advance! Oh BTW... the Image on the Joffy Corn Mix box was already grainy and stuff to start with... that is why it looks kindof funny in my pic.

 

[fmw]

A few comments from an old studio shooter.

Image #1

1. A little too dark and contrasty
2. White balance looks fine, assuming that is a gray background
3. The background needs more light and the front of the bowl is muddy - reflector there. The contrast should be between the subject and the background, not between the beef and potatoes.
4. Composition is dead center and very tight - moreso than I prefer. This is good for catalog shots but not terribly interesting.
5. Next time you need to make the food look fresh and hot. Spraying it with glycerin will handle the former, shooting it while it is hot will handle the latter. There are some studio tricks to produce "steam" from the food but it is easier to just plate and shoot. You can nuke the dish in a microwave to heat it back up if it cools too much during the shoot. Food photographers always have a microwave and a spray bottle of glycerin handy.

Image #2.

Boxes are really tough. They need to be shot with view cameras or with shift lenses to correct keystoning. As an alternative you can shoot with lots of surrounding space in the composition and then use the perspective control features of photoshop before cropping it down. I used to shoot all the Alka Seltzer boxes for the manufacturer and I always used a view camera - usually with a medium format back. This box should either be completely isolated from a pure white or black or single color background or it should have something else in the composition to add interest. The backround, as it is, is distracting without adding any compositional interest to the image.

Hope this helps.

 

[his4ever]

This helps a lot. I was using a white background... but because I used a 18% graycard... could that be the reason the background looks gray and not white? Or could it be a contrast issue? About the box thing... I am hoping to take pictures of my greeting cards I make... so would I apply the same rules to that? Thanks.

 

[fmw]

This helps a lot. I was using a white background... but because I used a 18% graycard... could that be the reason the background looks gray and not white? Or could it be a contrast issue? About the box thing... I am hoping to take pictures of my greeting cards I make... so would I apply the same rules to that? Thanks.

No, the background is gray because it doesn't have enough light on it. The top image is underexposed and that contributes to it as well.
White balance is used to correct color casts, not luminosity. A gray card will get the same white balance as a white one.

If the greeting cards are going to be photographed standing like the box, then, yes, you should do something to correct keystoning.

 

[his4ever]

Thanks so much. All the comments I have recived has really helped. I am going to keep trying... and I will try to find ways (with my very limited budget) to make things better .