food C&C

squareballoon

Ok, So I'm being very brave and putting up my first photos for c&c. I've feeling my DOF was a bit narrow. The great thing about this shoot what that I got to taste everything afterwards It is food for the newly revamped Exchequer bar in town.

Paulw

The normal expert on food photography isn't around any more.

But, from my view - brilliant photos.

Nice use of DOF to focus on the foods.

Maybe you should focus in more (or crop in more) to bring the food out more?

KarmaGarda

#1 - Very good, but there's a lot of empty foreground space that kind of pushes the food too far back in the photo.
#2 - Great photo. Excellent use of DOF here for me isolating the cheese and ham.
#3 - Another great photo. Again, I would crop out the front edge of the table, but it's not as distracting as in #1. Love the bokeh you managed to capture in the this one
#4 - Seems a little over exposed for me. And the positioning of the Bokeh just above the desert is slightly distracting. It would have worked really well slightly away from the main subject.

4 very good photos, but the #2 and #3 are excellent. Definitely the 2 winners for me.

smelltheglove

I'm not mad on the first one and the second one could have done with less dof in my opinion but as a whole they afre very good images. I would agree with Paul on cropping a little tighter on the last two, the crop of the second and angle are both perfect imo.

Just note that for images such as these you do not need the norm crop ratio, you can crop to whatever suits the image i.e. a little closer to a square foor the last two.

AnimalRights

Nice C&C Karma, besides that I think the pictures are fantastic too.
I like the way they look as if they're about to be eaten, whereas a lot of people do them as if they're just put together to be photographed for one of those cheesy menus etc

trishw78

I'm not mad on the first one it's a bit too Tilt-shifty looking. There is a lot of foreground in it.

But otherwise a good job.

Thank God I waited till lunch time too look at these.

squareballoon

Thanks everyone. I certainly felt that the first had too much nothingness at the front but didn't know how to rectify it. A different proportion crop would work better.
I find the last one boring to look at as it's so centred. I probably should have put it off center with a spoon to fill the space?
btw, even though the first is the least popular photo it is absolutely DELICIOUS!!!

Paulw

Image #4 - I'd crop away the left side of space, and crop down to just above the ice-cream/cream.

Image #3 - I'd crop up to the napkin, and crop away the far tables/

Image #2 - I'd crop up to the start of the board, and then crop away everything after the board.

Image #1 - Tough one, since it's so wide, but I'd certainly remove most of the foreground space. Maybe crop tight to the board on the left, and even crop off the tail of the board on the right.

Just my opinion.

squareballoon

Thanks everyone. I really appreciate the feedback and should have posted before I sent to client as they are all over their promotional sites now. Will know better next time

Paulw

As long as the client is happy, what people on boards think isn't important.

trishw78

If the client has them on there site. Then job well done.

KarmaGarda

trishw78 wrote: »

If the client has them on there site. Then job well done.

Ditto to above. They are excellent photos, a set to be proud of. And I've no doubt the client thought the same.

shepthedog

Gorgeous set of images.. I actually like the space in the shots, theres no hard rules to shots like this and I think food photography is one of the areas where you can let your creativity run wild.. Great colours aswell..

squareballoon

thanks again, it was my first time taking photos of food. Also first time taking interiors commercially but quite nice to take pics of things that weren't moving for a change;) Some of the rest are here

AnimalRights

Paulw wrote: »

As long as the client is happy, what people on boards think isn't important.

For future customers it could be.

squareballoon

I suppose it forces you to up your game next time and possibly think differently about how shots can be posed to make the client happy rather than satisfied.

pixbyjohn

squareballoon, a very nice set of photos and you obviously went to a lot of preparation and trouble to get them as perfect as possible. It is a pity that on the Gallery the spelling of culinary is wrong which is not your fault.
( Browse the selection of images of our venue and culnary extravagance ).

squareballoon

thanks for that pixbyjohn. I'll try and let them know about the spelling.

Fionn

were these taken on the premises? maybe a table cloth might have enhanced it a bit?
good shots all the same i'm not sure about the Bokeh itwas making me a bit dizzy
I must try this at some point myself - hopefully not my own cooking - it wouldn't be suitable for publication

well done

Borderfox

smelltheglove wrote: »

I'm not mad on the first one and the second one could have done with less dof in my opinion but as a whole they afre very good images. I would agree with Paul on cropping a little tighter on the last two, the crop of the second and angle are both perfect imo.

Just note that for images such as these you do not need the norm crop ratio, you can crop to whatever suits the image i.e. a little closer to a square foor the last two.

I dont think you could have less dof in the second, its already wafer thin. I expect you mean more dof?

For me the last two are really nice and I would have scrubbed the others or changed around. Maybe shoot narrow dof and wide dof to give you a choice. I would have a worry about the sharpness in the second last with such a narrow dof.

squareballoon

There are another couple that I took where the dof was too thin and ruined the shot but because they were shot on the premises and were being looked at over my shoulder by willing eaters I had to work quickly.
They don't have table cloths and because it wasn't specifically a food shoot I just used what was there.