How to take HiRes Photos and delete background

[evilguyme]

Hey guys!

im a beginner graphic designer and my new assignment is to make a menu card for a restaurant.

I need to put hiRes photos of food in this menu.

I need to know how i should go about taking the photo if i want to delete the background completely.
I have a NIKON COOLPIX P600 and i heard a white A4 paper under the plate will allow me to make it nicely transparent but im looking for the professional way to do this.

Like ive seen a menu with a perfectly removed background so the edges of the food plate stay so clean.

any help will be appreciated thanks
i want a professional cut from the background and i will be using the Adobe Suite.

Thanks

 

[Overread]

A few thoughts:

1) A professional way to deal with this situation might be to network with a local photographer and to say that, as a graphic designer, you're not one to provide photography. Thus either your client must or you have to up your costs to also pay for professional photography services as part of the package in order to best produce the product.

2) Food photography is often done with fake food designed by a specialist so that it looks good. Real world food loses its luster and colour and shape after its cooked and left to cool in the air naturally. As such its easier to work with fake food made to look like the real thing; if you can't do that you have to be very quick with the shots and the food has to be prepared and presented perfectly

3) What lighting equipment do you have? This kind of shot is all about the lighting and the background; if you don't have the lights or at least modifiers such as reflectors you'll find it a lot harder to get

 

[Big Mike]

Good points from Overread.

More important than being 'high res', the photos should be high quality. That may mean shooting only when the food is extremely fresh, or using 'fake food'. But it also means good photography techniques....mainly, good lighting and DOF control. As mentioned, hiring an experienced photographer would be your best bet.

As for being able to extract the food/plate from the background. As a graphic designer, you should know that main problem you run into when trying to make a cut out/extraction, is when the edges blend into the background. So if you put the food on a white plate, then put that onto a white table cloth and light it in such a way that the plate blends into the tablecloth....then you won't have a clean edge to work with.

Basically, you want the background to clearly be separate from the subject. This is why movies/TV studios use chromakey (blue or green screen). You don't have to use blue or green, you just have to make sure the subject and background don't blend. Also, you should watch out that the color of the background doesn't reflect (bleed) into the subject.

 

[KmH]

Get 3 20 x 30 pieces of white foam board. It's inexpensive.

Lay one piece flat to set the plated food on.
Use the other 2 pieces to make a vertical corner and place those pieces up against the flat piece.

You now have a white background and surface under the plate.
Using image editing software you can clone the seams where the foam board pieces meet and you can more easily selected the plated food if you want to adjust the background exposure to make it outre white.

Here is a photo example of a camera I made using 3 pieces of foam board as described above:

 

[evilguyme]

Omg guys thanks for the great replies!

but i was wondering .. when i use either of these methods, the edge is still going to be a little jagged once i do the cut.. how can it be done so the edges are perfectly cut out no roughness or anything..

if you check officialpsds.com, the images there are made so perfectly on a transparent background.. how can this be done?

i downloaded an image of food on a solid black bg and tried deleting it but its not ending up as perfect..

 

[KmH]

I use Photoshop's selection tools (there are several to choose from) and the Refine Edge tool option those tools have.

Making the selections takes some time, some skill, some experience, and some attention to details.