Help on Sushi Restaurant photoshoot

[Dominantly]

Make sure you get pictures of the tables with the cups.

 

[burnws6]

HHahahahahahahahahaha.

This:

I posted the photos on my Flickr account...

The Getty Museum - a set on Flickr

I posted a bunch of photos on my Flicker account too!

I've "been on [your] tail since day one?"
Give me a ****ing break.


How can anyone give you help shooting:
A place they no nothing about.
Lighting conditions they know nothing about.
A subject they know nothing about.

Your photography is about your view. Your voice. Your unique style.
You'll learn more from trial and error, than by somebody giving you a laundry list of what and how to shoot.

****

Man love. It's happening. Me and you.

 

[Derrel]

I showed them a few shots and they were really amazed...yeah it'll be for fun...hopefully I'll get free sushi in return!!!

Ok, so apparently, this is a sushi restaurant. I am deducing this from your second post in this thread. So, hopefully, you'll be payed, and payed in sushi. So, with that in mind, I'd work toward photographing some plates with sushi on them. Or, whatever it is they serve there, at "that restaurant".

Generally, vaguely speaking, food photography for menus and backlighted Dura-Trans displays used to be done by highly-qualified,capable,experience professional photographers with a view camera and three to four superb lenses. However that was then,and this is now, so you've got this gig. I'll give you a bit of advice from commercial assisting: food photography takes a three- or four-person crew to do "well". It takes longer to do a single plated shot than one might think, and there are "no easy shots". Using a very wide-angle lens at close distances can be used to deliberately distort the shape of the plate. Food often looks dry, so you need glycerine to make it look moist. If you shoot any grilled or baked foods, set up the lights and camera and a dummy plate and get the shot down,and then have the "real" plate brought in while it is fresh and hot. Dried-out, dull-looking food looks awful.

Watch your backgrounds. Shoot from a tripod, so you can control the camera's exact,precise framing, and LOOK at what is in the background.
THINK about what you are showing, and realize that you might need to have eight images that will all be placed together and need to have at least "some" type of coherence. If it is "just you" doing the work, well...man, this could be a nightmare gig,and you'll wish you were getting payed in money and not sushi...

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Derrel, respectfully, where did he say he was doing a food shoot? The OP states he was going to "shoot a restaurant".

Let me see if I can find the exact quote.

Ahhh...here it is:

I wanted your opinions on how to shoot a restaurant

 

[Derrel]

I can't imagine they'd be paying anybody to take a photo of the building....one of the wait staff could shoot that with a CoolPix, or excuse me, with a Canon PowerShot with Image Stabilizer (TM).:thumbup:

Ahhh...restaurants....DuraTrans food photos...the 1980s.....sigh.....sushi....

Oh....snaps out of it: "Shoot a restaurant: Frame...focus....press shutter release...examine histogram...re-adjust exposure...re-shoot....check histogram....re-shoot...check histogram....finally pull out ancient Sekonic light meter...wave meter around.... set correct exposure...shoot photo....

 

[thehollywoodteam]

I showed them a few shots and they were really amazed...yeah it'll be for fun...hopefully I'll get free sushi in return!!!

Ok, so apparently, this is a sushi restaurant. I am deducing this from your second post in this thread. So, hopefully, you'll be payed, and payed in sushi. So, with that in mind, I'd work toward photographing some plates with sushi on them. Or, whatever it is they serve there, at "that restaurant".

Generally, vaguely speaking, food photography for menus and backlighted Dura-Trans displays used to be done by highly-qualified,capable,experience professional photographers with a view camera and three to four superb lenses. However that was then,and this is now, so you've got this gig. I'll give you a bit of advice from commercial assisting: food photography takes a three- or four-person crew to do "well". It takes longer to do a single plated shot than one might think, and there are "no easy shots". Using a very wide-angle lens at close distances can be used to deliberately distort the shape of the plate. Food often looks dry, so you need glycerine to make it look moist. If you shoot any grilled or baked foods, set up the lights and camera and a dummy plate and get the shot down,and then have the "real" plate brought in while it is fresh and hot. Dried-out, dull-looking food looks awful.

Watch your backgrounds. Shoot from a tripod, so you can control the camera's exact,precise framing, and LOOK at what is in the background.
THINK about what you are showing, and realize that you might need to have eight images that will all be placed together and need to have at least "some" type of coherence. If it is "just you" doing the work, well...man, this could be a nightmare gig,and you'll wish you were getting payed in money and not sushi...

Wow, loads of info!!!

Thanks Derrel, I'm doing it more as a favor. It's beneficial for both sides...experience for me and photos for them. Whether or not they choose to implement these photos on their ads/menus/signs, etc. it's totally up to them. They're fully aware that I recently joined the photography nation.

 

[Craig G]

I'd look to photograph the bar areas,(both the sushi bar and the liquor bar). The sushi bar I would photograph with and without the sushi chef. I'd want to see a table setting of four with four prepared meals. Take a few shots with people and take a few with just the settings alone. Survey the interior design of the place and find the nicest areas to use for background and or highlighted interest. The entrance and front of the building is another area of interest to future patrons. The exterior decor/landscape is what brings people in. Another good photograph shot from up high, is one of the owner and staff holding meals and drinks with a big gay smile on their faces. Take advantage of the existing lighting. Shoot the exterior just before dusk, that's when you eat diner anyhow. Interior should be shot with fast lenses and necessary fill lights to highlight specific areas. These are just a few ways I might go about this. Have fun and don't eat too much.

 

[thehollywoodteam]

I'd look to photograph the bar areas,(both the sushi bar and the liquor bar). The sushi bar I would photograph with and without the sushi chef. I'd want to see a table setting of four with four prepared meals. Take a few shots with people and take a few with just the settings alone. Survey the interior design of the place and find the nicest areas to use for background and or highlighted interest. The entrance and front of the building is another area of interest to future patrons. The exterior decor/landscape is what brings people in. Another good photograph shot from up high, is one of the owner and staff holding meals and drinks with a big gay smile on their faces. Take advantage of the existing lighting. Shoot the exterior just before dusk, that's when you eat diner anyhow. Interior should be shot with fast lenses and necessary fill lights to highlight specific areas. These are just a few ways I might go about this. Have fun and don't eat too much.

I will definitely take these into consideration, thank you so much for your input, I really appreciate it :thumbup:

 

[gsgary]

I would use a long exposure low iso and paint in the light where it is needed

 

[Iron Flatline]

Notwithstanding some of the more self-important forum trolls, many of us would be willing to help you think through this shoot. It would be helpful if you could link to some images that you like, and we can tell you how to emulate shots like that.

I have been a member here for several years, and have learned a lot by asking questions that more experienced members have patiently answered for me. Unfortunately many of them are gone, but I will try and repay my debt by helping with topics I might have something constructive to contribute to.

 

[Iron Flatline]

...and while we're talking about sushi, here's my favorite image of sushi, taken a while back after the initial hunger was stilled.

 

[melrose09]

...and while we're talking about sushi, here's my favorite image of sushi, taken a while back after the initial hunger was stilled.

yummy! I want to go to there!

 

[Gaerek]

I think this post is case in point why more newbies don't get their questions answered as often as they would like. Or why every other second post on a thread started by a newbie is something along the lines of "Can you give me more information?" I haven't actually been on in a couple days, so all the posts on the front page are new to me. Literally, half of them I saw were vague questions about something that would be nearly impossible to comment on without more information.

Bitter's been here basically as long as I have and he does come off as abrasive. But really, he has NEVER said anything that I wasn't thinking myself. When you're asking for tips on 'how to shoot a restaurant,' it's absolutely vital to be specific. Are you shooting the front of the store? Food? Serving staff? Customers eating? Table settings? Sake in bottles? Chef's cooking? Each of these subjects will require a completely different set of techniques and equipment to turn out right.

Bitter's initial post was dead on, here, let me quote it and explain why, since you decided to get defensive about it.

Isn't this stuff you should be figuring out for yourself? I mean, if you showed them stuff (your work) that amazed them, what help do you need?

You did, indeed, say you amazed them. Obviously, you and they have an idea about what you want to shoot. If you want help, why were you so vague? A restaurant has so many things to shoot. Where I'm sitting right now, I could shoot about 100 different subjects within 20 feet of me, and they will require different settings, techniques, equipment, etc.

Even though his initial post was slightly abrasive, it was dead on. You're asking for help on a forum, on a subject that could literally take up an entire book, simply because it's such a general question.

So, to answer your initial question to this thread, if they were amazed by your shots, shoot more shots like that, because honestly, without more information, that's about the only advice I can give.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Damn, I am all out of thank you's.

 

[inTempus]

Damn, I am all out of thank you's.

Come back tomorrow and they will reset.

Be sure to thank me for telling you this.