Picking back up at The Photo Forum

AmberAtLoveAndInk · May 9, 2014

It's been awhile since I've been on! Thankfully I have been busy with spring/summer showing it's beautiful face again.

Awhile I posted a thread about an event predicament with a restaurant, well the 2 day shoot went great and despite many opinions that I may not see any business from others from this shoot, I can happily say I have!! I posted some images from the weekend on my facebook and another local eatery found my page and went ahead to ask me about how he could get me to do some food and candid photography for his place as well

Anyway, here's a few of my favorite images from the 2 day event! Opinions are always welcome, just keep it clean

The last one is me with the Beatles cover band they had, they rocked the house and for once I had my own picture taken! Courtesy of the super friendly hostess who also aspires to be a photographer

tirediron · May 9, 2014

Glad to hear that it went well!

AmberAtLoveAndInk · May 9, 2014

Thank you! The food wAs amazing!! The stuffed artichoke is pictured above, best lunch I've had in awhile!

JoeW · May 9, 2014

Several comments but first...thanks for submitting.

1. I like #1...good food photography. #2 could be a bit lighter otherwise I think the viewer's eyes are drawn to the background rather than the cup/cream. Artichoke shot is also very good.
2. The ribbon cutting needs to be back a bit (if you shot in RAW, cropped, then go back to the original file). Without more perspective (seeing the restaurant front clearer), it (at first glance) looks like people wrestling with something big and red.
3. The two cooks/chefs...that's a good shot but...don't make them amputees...show their hands (or crop so it's basically a head shot). Cutting off at the wrists is visually distracting to me.

Overall, it's a nice mix of work and I can see why you'd get some referrals. Best of luck with this.

AmberAtLoveAndInk · May 9, 2014

JoeW said:
Several comments but first...thanks for submitting.

1. I like #1...good food photography. #2 could be a bit lighter otherwise I think the viewer's eyes are drawn to the background rather than the cup/cream. Artichoke shot is also very good.
2. The ribbon cutting needs to be back a bit (if you shot in RAW, cropped, then go back to the original file). Without more perspective (seeing the restaurant front clearer), it (at first glance) looks like people wrestling with something big and red.
3. The two cooks/chefs...that's a good shot but...don't make them amputees...show their hands (or crop so it's basically a head shot). Cutting off at the wrists is visually distracting to me.

Overall, it's a nice mix of work and I can see why you'd get some referrals. Best of luck with this.

Thank you for your look on my work! I didn't even notice the hand crop of the cooks! GAHH! And yes the ribbon picture is a bit distracting, I have about 5 of them, all at different points in the cutting. This one is the most happy to me, I would've left it not so cropped but the reflection in the store glass showed all the cars and other businesses logos.. Anyway, I really appreciate your opinion!

sm4him · May 9, 2014

Several of these I really quite like; glad it went well.

On the photo of the stuffed artichoke, I wish that you'd turned that plate just a little, so that the OOF square corner didn't rise up and obscure the food quite as much.

I also wish…that I had a stuffed artichoke. Because I'm hungry and that sounds pretty tasty. ;-)

AmberAtLoveAndInk · May 10, 2014

sm4him said:
Several of these I really quite like; glad it went well.

On the photo of the stuffed artichoke, I wish that you'd turned that plate just a little, so that the OOF square corner didn't rise up and obscure the food quite as much.

I also wish…that I had a stuffed artichoke. Because I'm hungry and that sounds pretty tasty. ;-)

Thank you! Yes, I kicked myself a bit for not moving that plate a good inch in the other direction. The artichoke there is most definitely blog worthy, best one I've ever had.

vintagesnaps · May 10, 2014

Move around and change your vantage point so you aren't getting a window with reflections in your photo (or get a window with the reflections that you want if that's the case, instead of some cropped off lettering and part of a car etc. - especially a red eye catching one). Watch your backgrounds and how you're framing shots (as mentioned, cropping people off at odd places, distracting elements in the frame/in the background).

More specifically, why is one woman behind the pole to the right and somebody's arm sticking into the frame in the foreground on the left? And with the two chefs if you'd stepped to the left and framed it vertically you might have gotten a cleaner composition (no utensils sticking out of the side of someone's head) and had their hands in the frame (although of course I can't see what else was there in the background to the right). If you want to show some of their cooking equipment as part of the background then think how and where you want that in your picture.

And move your feet, move around and get what you want in your frame - go early and take time to walk around and look thru your viewfinder or at your viewscreen at how backgrounds will look before the event, so you've done some test shots and know where to get some good pictures once people arrive and you're getting them in the scene.

It looks like you're on the right track with the food shots, the cup, the artichoke; you probably need a lot more practice at events to improve the framing and composing to eliminate distractions. You could go to events just for fun where it's OK for people to bring along cameras (a summer festival, etc.); even just looking thru the viewfinder and practicing framing while you're out walking around at an event might help you notice distractions and backgrounds before you release the shutter.