learn by lighting something simple

[tirediron]

Your biggest impedance is your insistence on eating the food you're trying to photograph.
Prep the food for photography and not eating if you want the photos.

Can't over-stress the importance of this (and I think it might have already been mentioned once or twice).

 

[redbourn]

Looking at the table behind the plate, I see three white streaks which look like it might be a window with vertical blinds, narrow windows, or something similar directly behind. I'm guessing that's the source of the reflection on your plate.

I saw the streaks too. I thought I had closed the shutters 100% but maybe not - lighting is so precise!

Thanks,

Michael

 

[redbourn]

Don't let the instagram part fool you. Some good info here including ditching the cell phone and using a real camera.
11 ways to take a better food photo on Instagram

Thanks. Will check them out.

Michael

 

[redbourn]

Your biggest impedance is your insistence on eating the food you're trying to photograph.
Prep the food for photography and not eating if you want the photos.

Can't over-stress the importance of this (and I think it might have already been mentioned once or twice).

But there is nothing that I am willing to do about it.

I was a wartime baby and food was rationed so I am not willing to paint etc good food and then throw it away.

I am self publishing and will do the best that I can with real food.

Jamie Oliver and Loftus use real food ;-)

Michael

 

[photo1x1.com]

Your biggest impedance is your insistence on eating the food you're trying to photograph.
Prep the food for photography and not eating if you want the photos.

Can't over-stress the importance of this (and I think it might have already been mentioned once or twice).

But there is nothing that I am willing to do about it.

I was a wartime baby and food was rationed so I am not willing to paint etc good food and then throw it away.

I am self publishing and will do the best that I can with real food.

Jamie Oliver and Loftus use real food ;-)

Michael

I highly value these words. Don´t waste food for whatever purpose. Food is thrown away every day without people thinking what effect that has on your food prices and of the prices of food for the poorer regions in the world. The more you throw away, the more expensive food will get, believe it or not. And it does make a huge difference for poor people if rice costs twice as much or even more.

Beside that real food has been a trend for the last few years. Many people and media (but not all) prefer that to the rather unreal look of the years before, using glycerine, etc.. You can use oil though to keep the food "alive" a little longer.

In regard to your photography:
In your first image you used a 35mm f1.8 lens, but you closed the aperture pretty much to f5.6. Modern food photography works with rather shallow depth, so experience with smaller numbers and you´ll see a big change. Also try to use longer lenses to get an even shallower focus and more blur.
Get lower with your camera and shoot more horizontal to get even more blur to the background

The light streaks from the table are from the back, but the reflection comes from the right IMO. However, I wouldn´t mind the reflection too much - if you used a white plate instead, that wouldn´ be a problem at all.
You could use the window as a second light source though - open it!!! I´d use it as the main light and use the flash as backlight, BECAUSE: backlight is your biggest friend when it comes to food photography. I wouldn´ worry too much about color temperature of the different lights. Both should be close to daylight when you cook your lunch , and the table probably changes the light color more than a cloud outside would.
I´m not the biggest food photographer, but here is just one of my straight out of camera shots to show you what pretty simple backlight can do.

I could have cleaned the silverware though

To be honest I don´t like the table too much. Think about getting some old wood - be it real wood, or parquet floor that you can quickly set up and tear down (not the kitchen material I have used - that looks too artificial).

 

[jcdeboever]

Your biggest impedance is your insistence on eating the food you're trying to photograph.
Prep the food for photography and not eating if you want the photos.

Can't over-stress the importance of this (and I think it might have already been mentioned once or twice).

But there is nothing that I am willing to do about it.

I was a wartime baby and food was rationed so I am not willing to paint etc good food and then throw it away.

I am self publishing and will do the best that I can with real food.

Jamie Oliver and Loftus use real food ;-)

Michael

I highly value these words. Don´t waste food for whatever purpose. Food is thrown away every day without people thinking what effect that has on your food prices and of the prices of food for the poorer regions in the world. The more you throw away, the more expensive food will get, believe it or not. And it does make a huge difference for poor people if rice costs twice as much or even more.

Beside that real food has been a trend for the last few years. Many people and media (but not all) prefer that to the rather unreal look of the years before, using glycerine, etc.. You can use oil though to keep the food "alive" a little longer.

In regard to your photography:
In your first image you used a 35mm f1.8 lens, but you closed the aperture pretty much to f5.6. Modern food photography works with rather shallow depth, so experience with smaller numbers and you´ll see a big change. Also try to use longer lenses to get an even shallower focus and more blur.
Get lower with your camera and shoot more horizontal to get even more blur to the background

The light streaks from the table are from the back, but the reflection comes from the right IMO. However, I wouldn´t mind the reflection too much - if you used a white plate instead, that wouldn´ be a problem at all.
You could use the window as a second light source though - open it!!! I´d use it as the main light and use the flash as backlight, BECAUSE: backlight is your biggest friend when it comes to food photography. I wouldn´ worry too much about color temperature of the different lights. Both should be close to daylight when you cook your lunch , and the table probably changes the light color more than a cloud outside would.
I´m not the biggest food photographer, but here is just one of my straight out of camera shots to show you what pretty simple backlight can do.

View attachment 130444
I could have cleaned the silverware though

To be honest I don´t like the table too much. Think about getting some old wood - be it real wood, or parquet floor that you can quickly set up and tear down (not the kitchen material I have used - that looks too artificial).

Interesting way to eat a can of canned cat food, I would try it this way...

 

[redbourn]

Your biggest impedance is your insistence on eating the food you're trying to photograph.
Prep the food for photography and not eating if you want the photos.

Can't over-stress the importance of this (and I think it might have already been mentioned once or twice).

But there is nothing that I am willing to do about it.

I was a wartime baby and food was rationed so I am not willing to paint etc good food and then throw it away.

I am self publishing and will do the best that I can with real food.

Jamie Oliver and Loftus use real food ;-)

Michael

I highly value these words. Don´t waste food for whatever purpose. Food is thrown away every day without people thinking what effect that has on your food prices and of the prices of food for the poorer regions in the world. The more you throw away, the more expensive food will get, believe it or not. And it does make a huge difference for poor people if rice costs twice as much or even more.

Beside that real food has been a trend for the last few years. Many people and media (but not all) prefer that to the rather unreal look of the years before, using glycerine, etc.. You can use oil though to keep the food "alive" a little longer.

In regard to your photography:
In your first image you used a 35mm f1.8 lens, but you closed the aperture pretty much to f5.6. Modern food photography works with rather shallow depth, so experience with smaller numbers and you´ll see a big change. Also try to use longer lenses to get an even shallower focus and more blur.
Get lower with your camera and shoot more horizontal to get even more blur to the background

The light streaks from the table are from the back, but the reflection comes from the right IMO. However, I wouldn´t mind the reflection too much - if you used a white plate instead, that wouldn´ be a problem at all.
You could use the window as a second light source though - open it!!! I´d use it as the main light and use the flash as backlight, BECAUSE: backlight is your biggest friend when it comes to food photography. I wouldn´ worry too much about color temperature of the different lights. Both should be close to daylight when you cook your lunch , and the table probably changes the light color more than a cloud outside would.
I´m not the biggest food photographer, but here is just one of my straight out of camera shots to show you what pretty simple backlight can do.

View attachment 130444
I could have cleaned the silverware though

To be honest I don´t like the table too much. Think about getting some old wood - be it real wood, or parquet floor that you can quickly set up and tear down (not the kitchen material I have used - that looks too artificial).

 

[redbourn]

Your biggest impedance is your insistence on eating the food you're trying to photograph.
Prep the food for photography and not eating if you want the photos.

Can't over-stress the importance of this (and I think it might have already been mentioned once or twice).

But there is nothing that I am willing to do about it.

I was a wartime baby and food was rationed so I am not willing to paint etc good food and then throw it away.

I am self publishing and will do the best that I can with real food.

Jamie Oliver and Loftus use real food ;-)

Michael

I highly value these words. Don´t waste food for whatever purpose. Food is thrown away every day without people thinking what effect that has on your food prices and of the prices of food for the poorer regions in the world. The more you throw away, the more expensive food will get, believe it or not. And it does make a huge difference for poor people if rice costs twice as much or even more.

Beside that real food has been a trend for the last few years. Many people and media (but not all) prefer that to the rather unreal look of the years before, using glycerine, etc.. You can use oil though to keep the food "alive" a little longer.

In regard to your photography:
In your first image you used a 35mm f1.8 lens, but you closed the aperture pretty much to f5.6. Modern food photography works with rather shallow depth, so experience with smaller numbers and you´ll see a big change. Also try to use longer lenses to get an even shallower focus and more blur.
Get lower with your camera and shoot more horizontal to get even more blur to the background

The light streaks from the table are from the back, but the reflection comes from the right IMO. However, I wouldn´t mind the reflection too much - if you used a white plate instead, that wouldn´ be a problem at all.
You could use the window as a second light source though - open it!!! I´d use it as the main light and use the flash as backlight, BECAUSE: backlight is your biggest friend when it comes to food photography. I wouldn´ worry too much about color temperature of the different lights. Both should be close to daylight when you cook your lunch , and the table probably changes the light color more than a cloud outside would.
I´m not the biggest food photographer, but here is just one of my straight out of camera shots to show you what pretty simple backlight can do.

View attachment 130444
I could have cleaned the silverware though

To be honest I don´t like the table too much. Think about getting some old wood - be it real wood, or parquet floor that you can quickly set up and tear down (not the kitchen material I have used - that looks too artificial).

Thanks very much! Some very helpful stuff!

I have some wood textures and have tried a couple. When I shoot straight down I think they work, but when I shot at an angle I couldn't get the textures to match the angle of the photo. Maybe easier just to get a few different wood backgrounds.

The attached was shot over a year ago when I was still learning how to turn the camera on - the wood bg is a texture.

And I should have done a better job of cleaning the plate.

Michael

 

[photo1x1.com]

Your biggest impedance is your insistence on eating the food you're trying to photograph.
Prep the food for photography and not eating if you want the photos.

Can't over-stress the importance of this (and I think it might have already been mentioned once or twice).

But there is nothing that I am willing to do about it.

I was a wartime baby and food was rationed so I am not willing to paint etc good food and then throw it away.

I am self publishing and will do the best that I can with real food.

Jamie Oliver and Loftus use real food ;-)

Michael

I highly value these words. Don´t waste food for whatever purpose. Food is thrown away every day without people thinking what effect that has on your food prices and of the prices of food for the poorer regions in the world. The more you throw away, the more expensive food will get, believe it or not. And it does make a huge difference for poor people if rice costs twice as much or even more.

Beside that real food has been a trend for the last few years. Many people and media (but not all) prefer that to the rather unreal look of the years before, using glycerine, etc.. You can use oil though to keep the food "alive" a little longer.

In regard to your photography:
In your first image you used a 35mm f1.8 lens, but you closed the aperture pretty much to f5.6. Modern food photography works with rather shallow depth, so experience with smaller numbers and you´ll see a big change. Also try to use longer lenses to get an even shallower focus and more blur.
Get lower with your camera and shoot more horizontal to get even more blur to the background

The light streaks from the table are from the back, but the reflection comes from the right IMO. However, I wouldn´t mind the reflection too much - if you used a white plate instead, that wouldn´ be a problem at all.
You could use the window as a second light source though - open it!!! I´d use it as the main light and use the flash as backlight, BECAUSE: backlight is your biggest friend when it comes to food photography. I wouldn´ worry too much about color temperature of the different lights. Both should be close to daylight when you cook your lunch , and the table probably changes the light color more than a cloud outside would.
I´m not the biggest food photographer, but here is just one of my straight out of camera shots to show you what pretty simple backlight can do.

View attachment 130444
I could have cleaned the silverware though

To be honest I don´t like the table too much. Think about getting some old wood - be it real wood, or parquet floor that you can quickly set up and tear down (not the kitchen material I have used - that looks too artificial).

Thanks very much! Some very helpful stuff!

I have some wood textures and have tried a couple. When I shoot straight down I think they work, but when I shot at an angle I couldn't get the textures to match the angle of the photo. Maybe easier just to get a few different wood backgrounds.

The attached was shot over a year ago when I was still learning how to turn the camera on - the wood bg is a texture.

And I should have done a better job of cleaning the plate.View attachment 130448

Michael

Haha, yeah - cleaning is sometimes something that is done in photoshop, even though it would be much easier with a piece of cloth .
I like this one better, but in general try to be a little more creative with how you set up the food. In my shot abov, the cook set up the food - so I´m not a pro in this regard either. But put less food on the plate and maybe use a bigger one. Get some topping, and put some spice on top to give it a nice touch once you´re finished.

 

[Dave442]

Regarding the reflection, usually a flag or a scrim can be placed to resolve the issue. The best thing to hold these are some C-stands, although I have more microphone stands laying around so I often use those to hold a flag. The C-stands are heavier and can be placed very close together.

 

[chuasam]

Your biggest impedance is your insistence on eating the food you're trying to photograph.
Prep the food for photography and not eating if you want the photos.

Can't over-stress the importance of this (and I think it might have already been mentioned once or twice).

But there is nothing that I am willing to do about it.

I was a wartime baby and food was rationed so I am not willing to paint etc good food and then throw it away.

I am self publishing and will do the best that I can with real food.

Jamie Oliver and Loftus use real food ;-)

Michael

I highly value these words. Don´t waste food for whatever purpose. Food is thrown away every day without people thinking what effect that has on your food prices and of the prices of food for the poorer regions in the world. The more you throw away, the more expensive food will get, believe it or not. And it does make a huge difference for poor people if rice costs twice as much or even more.

Beside that real food has been a trend for the last few years. Many people and media (but not all) prefer that to the rather unreal look of the years before, using glycerine, etc.. You can use oil though to keep the food "alive" a little longer.

In regard to your photography:
In your first image you used a 35mm f1.8 lens, but you closed the aperture pretty much to f5.6. Modern food photography works with rather shallow depth, so experience with smaller numbers and you´ll see a big change. Also try to use longer lenses to get an even shallower focus and more blur.
Get lower with your camera and shoot more horizontal to get even more blur to the background

The light streaks from the table are from the back, but the reflection comes from the right IMO. However, I wouldn´t mind the reflection too much - if you used a white plate instead, that wouldn´ be a problem at all.
You could use the window as a second light source though - open it!!! I´d use it as the main light and use the flash as backlight, BECAUSE: backlight is your biggest friend when it comes to food photography. I wouldn´ worry too much about color temperature of the different lights. Both should be close to daylight when you cook your lunch , and the table probably changes the light color more than a cloud outside would.
I´m not the biggest food photographer, but here is just one of my straight out of camera shots to show you what pretty simple backlight can do.

View attachment 130444
I could have cleaned the silverware though

To be honest I don´t like the table too much. Think about getting some old wood - be it real wood, or parquet floor that you can quickly set up and tear down (not the kitchen material I have used - that looks too artificial).

Thanks very much! Some very helpful stuff!

I have some wood textures and have tried a couple. When I shoot straight down I think they work, but when I shot at an angle I couldn't get the textures to match the angle of the photo. Maybe easier just to get a few different wood backgrounds.

The attached was shot over a year ago when I was still learning how to turn the camera on - the wood bg is a texture.

And I should have done a better job of cleaning the plate.View attachment 130448

Michael

There's something just not quite right with your photos but I don't know what it is. I don't know a lot about photography but I know a lot about food..I love food. I have a ton of food books

 

[OGsPhotography]

Cook your chicken better!

Use a bone in skin on breast the presentation would be ten times.

Add some height to the plate.

What is that supposed to be. Beets and lemon chicken? Coleslaw?

Cook something people want to see/ and eat. Plate it like you care, its not a cobb salad, or is it?

Only other meal Ive ever seen lined up like that is conb salad ir a kids meal. Is it a book for people who are scared to have their food touching?

Turn the beets into a salad, who eats beets like that? Really where is this food " from", like what nation eats like that. Hard to get a " good" picture of " bad" food.
Maybe Im wrong. Maybe thats what Jamie Oliver does, who knows, I put his cookbooks in with the other British arses ( Ramsey). I dont buy them, them guys are soooo popular people literally give tbem to me as " gifts". I dont even think they write anymore, 99% chance they are too cool to cook, they no doubt use " ghost" writers and have a staff of " food photographers", and cooks, fakes and hacks.

I do half respect what Jamies trying to donfor the kids school lunch program. I dont understand why hes doing it in America and not his own Island. Ramsey is highly entertaining. They can bith no doubt cook circles around me and thats ok.