Ingredients | Marginal Presentation and Good-Ish Light | CC Needed!

[korreman]

Out of curiosity, why do you want to shoot food from above? It's just not a natural angle from which to view food IMO.

I find it to have a certain style. And you almost view it like that every time you eat, unless your tables are really tall.

 

[Designer]

DBJ; in trying to copy the food ingredient photographs, you should take a closer look. IOW: really look at how it is done. The straight-down camera angle is correct, IMO, or at least not completely wrong, and the light angle is not unreasonable, but that is where this photo ends.

Start with arranging the ingredients more artistically. Include some unprocessed ingredients, some tools, some "mess" just like the regular guys do it. It's almost never in such neat piles which are equidistant from each other.

Then you need to adjust your lighting. Make it more dramatic, possibly adding another light, some reflectors, some "gobos". Fool around with the lighting to get it better.

 

[D-B-J]

DBJ; in trying to copy the food ingredient photographs, you should take a closer look. IOW: really look at how it is done. The straight-down camera angle is correct, IMO, or at least not completely wrong, and the light angle is not unreasonable, but that is where this photo ends.

Start with arranging the ingredients more artistically. Include some unprocessed ingredients, some tools, some "mess" just like the regular guys do it. It's almost never in such neat piles which are equidistant from each other.

Then you need to adjust your lighting. Make it more dramatic, possibly adding another light, some reflectors, some "gobos". Fool around with the lighting to get it better.

I think I need a messier setup, really. I'll keep at it!

 

[Designer]

Check out some pics in food mags.

 

[Forkie]

Out of curiosity, why do you want to shoot food from above? It's just not a natural angle from which to view food IMO.

Top-down food photography is all the rage these days!

D-B-J,

Here's a Google search of top-down food photography

Notice how in most of the images a lot of the elements in the image extend beyond the frame. This gives the impression that there is much more on the table than you can see. When photographing ingredients like you attempted, the function of the shot is not to give instructions so you don't need the correct measurements of each ingredient, you can exaggerate the amount and pile the ingredients up. Let the piles fall outside the frame and the shot will feel much fuller and more indulgent.

Also, pay attention to the surface on which you place the ingredients. It should be clean (apart from the scattered food, obviously!) and should compliment not only the colours of the food, but the style of the food, too. You wouldn't normally see the ingredients of breadmaking photographed on a stainless steel worktop. You're much more likely to see them shot on a wooden surface, perhaps with some wheat or seeds, flour etc - the colours will also likely be warm, rustic and homely.

The ingredients for a Thai curry on the other hand, being a very modern, "en vogue" kind of dish, are much more likely to be shot on a modern worktop, i.e., marble, black granite, slate, etc. This is will bring out the colours of the leafy greens and chilli reds that they use in that style of cooking.

I don't know what the ingredients in your shot are for. There's some red stuff, I assume chopped peppers, some tiny bits of broccoli (why not whole florets?), and two piles of white stuff. I think one is chopped onions (bigger pile needed here and perhaps half an onion with some of it's brown papery skin still on in shot to make it clearer what that is - make sure you cut it so that you can see the rings, too!) and some very anaemic-looking grated cheese. Cheese should be yellow. Even if it's a very pale cheddar, make it yellow. There's a reason why cartoons show cheese as bright yellow and that's because everyone knows that cheese is yellow, even when it's not!

The whole point of food photography is for it to be aspirational, "Wow, I wish I could cook all that stuff!". Make it big, indulgent and "clean" and you'll get much nicer images.

There is a time and a place for the processing style that you used (which I actually like, incidentally), even in food photography, but the lack of indulgence in your shot pretty much kills it.

Aim higher, make the food bigger and have more of it. Be greedy!

 

[sleist]

remember back in the days when blacks used to be black?

I blame instagram.

#accurate

I know many here don't like it, but I'm trying to figure out how to use the vintage retro processing cleanly. So bear with me. I'll get there eventually.

If that's what makes you happy, then don't let me stop you.
To be honest though, if this is what you intend to do with your shots, then you don't need a D800.
Your cell phone would have been just perfect.

 

[vintagesnaps]

You could look at PDN, I don't know if they have an issue or do articles specific to food photography but they cover commercial photography. Photo Magazine | Professional Photography Industry News and Resources

What's considered to be a vintage retro look seems to be posted online a good bit but if anything usually looks more like snapshots that have been in somebody's basement for years lol... and the color shifted or the prints deteriorated... (although what I've seen online doesn't really quite look like that either). It certainly doesn't look like what you get if you put fresh film in a vintage camera.

I don't get it, and not that I haven't done some of my own experimenting (doing alt. processes, or playing with some digital editing) but I usually, well... scrap them! lol This look makes me feel like I'm trying to see it thru a haze. Maybe when you get the editing done the way you want it'll make more sense, all I can say is, I don't get it! lol ok I'm old and uncool...

 

[D-B-J]

remember back in the days when blacks used to be black?

I blame instagram.

#accurate

I know many here don't like it, but I'm trying to figure out how to use the vintage retro processing cleanly. So bear with me. I'll get there eventually.

If that's what makes you happy, then don't let me stop you.
To be honest though, if this is what you intend to do with your shots, then you don't need a D800.
Your cell phone would have been just perfect.

This is one of the MANY styles I do. So don't tell me what gear I do or do not need. I must be a real jerk for using my D800 for snapshots from time to time, eh?

 

[sleist]

remember back in the days when blacks used to be black?

I blame instagram.

#accurate

I know many here don't like it, but I'm trying to figure out how to use the vintage retro processing cleanly. So bear with me. I'll get there eventually.

If that's what makes you happy, then don't let me stop you.
To be honest though, if this is what you intend to do with your shots, then you don't need a D800.
Your cell phone would have been just perfect.

This is one of the MANY styles I do. So don't tell me what gear I do or do not need. I must be a real jerk for using my D800 for snapshots from time to time, eh?

Don't be so sensitive.
My opinion is it's a look that isn't worth the effort. Feel free to ignore.

But really - this stuff is all over social media using filters on cell phone images.
A D800 is truly NOT needed for this.

 

[Forkie]

remember back in the days when blacks used to be black?

I blame instagram.

#accurate

I know many here don't like it, but I'm trying to figure out how to use the vintage retro processing cleanly. So bear with me. I'll get there eventually.

If that's what makes you happy, then don't let me stop you.
To be honest though, if this is what you intend to do with your shots, then you don't need a D800.
Your cell phone would have been just perfect.

This is one of the MANY styles I do. So don't tell me what gear I do or do not need. I must be a real jerk for using my D800 for snapshots from time to time, eh?

Don't be so sensitive.
My opinion is it's a look that isn't worth the effort. Feel free to ignore.

But really - this stuff is all over social media using filters on cell phone images.
A D800 is truly NOT needed for this.

The difference with the filters on social media though, is that it's a one click filter. Creating these kinds of processing effects and filters from scratch is a valuable and useful tool. Like it or not, if people want their photos to be noticed, they MUST keep up with the current trends. If you can shoot high quality shots and then process them from scratch to look like the current Instagram filters, you are already ahead of the game.

For a high quality shot of the kind D-B-J posted in the his OP, a D800 or similar camera and a good working knowledge of your editing software is needed, nay, critical.

 

[Forkie]

remember back in the days when blacks used to be black?

I blame instagram.

#accurate

I know many here don't like it, but I'm trying to figure out how to use the vintage retro processing cleanly. So bear with me. I'll get there eventually.

If that's what makes you happy, then don't let me stop you.
To be honest though, if this is what you intend to do with your shots, then you don't need a D800.
Your cell phone would have been just perfect.

This is one of the MANY styles I do. So don't tell me what gear I do or do not need. I must be a real jerk for using my D800 for snapshots from time to time, eh?

Don't be so sensitive.
My opinion is it's a look that isn't worth the effort. Feel free to ignore.

But really - this stuff is all over social media using filters on cell phone images.
A D800 is truly NOT needed for this.

The difference with the filters on social media though, is that it's a one click filter. Creating these kinds of processing effects and filters from scratch is a valuable and useful tool. Like it or not, if people want their photos to be noticed, they MUST keep up with the current trends. If you can shoot high quality shots and then process them from scratch to look like the current Instagram filters, you are already ahead of the game.

For a high quality shot of the kind D-B-J posted in the his OP, a D800 or similar camera and a good working knowledge of your editing software is needed, nay vital.

 

[W.Y.Photo]

I like the IDEA that it seems like you were going for with the processing but not the execution. I'd say reprocess this image first until you find something a little more subtle then re-shoot and make the lighting better and you'll have an easier time with editing the re-shoot.

The current light is nice only on the broccoli and tomatoes.. and maybe the eggs. The other piles drop too much shadow and lose too much detail.