I Dont shoot food !!!!!

manny212 · Jul 27, 2014

My Brother-in -law has a restaurant , he has been asking me to do some food shots for him forever . I told him I really don't do food nor does it really interest me . But heck , family is family .

I get there and I have literally 45 min to shoot this stuff before the first reservation walks in . Oh well . Here is result . Food was delicious . Btw I have no Idea how to shoot food , but i can sure eat it !! LOL

1.

Verdis food #2-32-Edit-2 by mannyher1, on Flickr

2,

Verdis food #2-49-Edit-2 by mannyher1, on Flickr

3.

Verdis food #2-114-Edit-2 by mannyher1, on Flickr

4.

Verdis food #2-102-Edit-2 by mannyher1, on Flickr

5.

Verdis food #2-68-Edit by mannyher1, on Flickr

Braineack · Jul 27, 2014

my first suggestion for next time would be more DOF.

manny212 · Jul 27, 2014

Absolutely correct I knew that. I even had lights, reflectors everything u though I might need. I was screwed people are walking in and I'm still shooting. So had to fast without lighting. Tripod and go. Oh well, he's happy w them and I guess that's all that matters

tirediron · Jul 27, 2014

Diffusion, diffusion, DIFFUSION! (and dial back the light output too!)

D-B-J · Jul 27, 2014

tirediron said:
Diffusion, diffusion, DIFFUSION! (and dial back the light output too!)

I agree. Your light seems very harsh. An umbrella, soft lighter, soft box, anything. Even a sheet of white paper a few inches in front of the flash can help.

Jake

manny212 · Jul 27, 2014

Ok sorry my bad . I did bring all that crap . Problem was I had no time to set anything up . People are walking i for dinner service and I had to get out . I had asked the chef earlier in the day if we could do this earlier so I could light properly but that was a no go . So I opened all the windows on that side of restaurant and worked as quickly as possible .

No pay here , just for family but If I were ever to take on something like this in the future for for pay , trust you me PRE PRO a priority . Lesson learned for future . Although i never see myself doing food , not my thing . Thanks guys .

hamlet · Jul 27, 2014

As a fellow aperture hog i definitely understand the need for hogging all that aperture. What you can do is actually to focus stack and keep your background the same.

JustJazzie · Jul 27, 2014

Well, you made me hungry! So technicalities aside I think you did your job. Lol. Seriously, that looks DELICIOUS.

JoeW · Jul 28, 2014

Nice work. Thanks for sharing. You've gotten me hungry (which is part of the point of food photography isn't it).

Here's some advice for the future.

1. I tend to feel that light (soft, diffused ambient light if possible) works better with food than a dark background.
2. You want softer light...some of your's is a bit harsh.
3. I love to play with DoF and create a lot of bokeh. But my personal take is that you want the initial piece of food to be in focus. For instance, in shot #1, the mashed potatoes (in the foreground) are out of focus (as is in the asparagus). I don't worry about the background (and will sometimes have the waffle or muffin fading into a colorful blur). But the initial view of the food should be sharp.
4. One piece of advice I once got about food photography was to try and tell a story with a photo. Don't just shoot a piece of cake. Shoot a piece of cake with a coffee cup in the background and a fork with some cake on it (as if the person was interrupted by a phone call or someone at the door). Or put some colorful birthday candles on the side of the plate (as if they've been pulled out of the cake) to also provide both an accent but also tell a story.

astroNikon · Jul 28, 2014

The out of focus asparagus in # 1 is odd. f/3.3, 1/20 shutter at ISO 400

but considering you had no light and no time to setup it looks pretty yummy

I'm sure they'll love the photos.
But if you tell them from a technical point of view their lacking (and why), they might want to put an effort into doing it right.

manny212 · Jul 28, 2014

astroNikon said:
The out of focus asparagus in # 1 is odd. f/3.3, 1/20 shutter at ISO 400

but considering you had no light and no time to setup it looks pretty yummy

I'm sure they'll love the photos.
But if you tell them from a technical point of view their lacking (and why), they might want to put an effort into doing it right.

Thanks and absolutely correct on all counts . Seems to me that this , like still life advertising stuff is very technically weighted , not that I don't mind that so much , but for me , it just seems to zap some of the fun out of it .

Well all know the technicalities in photography but sometimes ugh ... LOL

manny212 · Jul 28, 2014

JoeW said:
Nice work. Thanks for sharing. You've gotten me hungry (which is part of the point of food photography isn't it).

Here's some advice for the future.

1. I tend to feel that light (soft, diffused ambient light if possible) works better with food than a dark background.
2. You want softer light...some of your's is a bit harsh.
3. I love to play with DoF and create a lot of bokeh. But my personal take is that you want the initial piece of food to be in focus. For instance, in shot #1, the mashed potatoes (in the foreground) are out of focus (as is in the asparagus). I don't worry about the background (and will sometimes have the waffle or muffin fading into a colorful blur). But the initial view of the food should be sharp.
4. One piece of advice I once got about food photography was to try and tell a story with a photo. Don't just shoot a piece of cake. Shoot a piece of cake with a coffee cup in the background and a fork with some cake on it (as if the person was interrupted by a phone call or someone at the door). Or put some colorful birthday candles on the side of the plate (as if they've been pulled out of the cake) to also provide both an accent but also tell a story.

Joe thank you for all the tips !!!! yea when it comes to food and I I'm lost . I can style , pose , even fix hair on a live person when shooting them , but a rack of lamb ? I'm lost lol.

But I will keep your tips in mind if he ever does ask me to try again . !

manny212 · Jul 28, 2014

so this is what I kinda did. Server on left is waiting to get in to kitchen, which is to the right around wine. As you can see I just opened up bank of Windows to the left and tried to drown out reflections from wall on camera right.

TWright33 · Jul 28, 2014

What other lens choice did you have?

70-200 seems strange to me.

astroNikon · Jul 28, 2014

manny212 said:
View attachment 80531 so this is what I kinda did. Server on left is waiting to get in to kitchen, which is to the right around wine. As you can see I just opened up bank of Windows to the left and tried to drown out reflections from wall on camera right.

He's using a d700 FF camera. So I'd use a 70-200 myself to keep good perspective .. though I'm not a food photographer expert by any means