Fresh baked food porn

[acsky]

Hi everyone

Since last year I've been working as the official photographer for my wife's blog, which started as a baking blog, but with time it came to include international food, ethnic food and experimental cuisine.

Naturally the first results were not very good, but I've been improving the technique with each photo session. There are a some photos which have made me happy, but now I'm trying to get better images that make the observer say "wow, that looks yummy!"

Let me know what you guys think about these. I'm especially interested in comments about composition, lighting, texture of the subject...

Thanks.

Toño

Marble Cake



Sushi Roll

[travis4567]

As a chef and a photographer I know how hard this is to do. Nice work, I would crop the first one. the second is spot on!!

[Shadowman]

My first thought was "whoa that looks good", the food not the photograph. So yes, your photography is improving.

[Mark von Kanel]

No 1 the background is to busy but otherwise its good No 2 is much better,personally i think that still life is better shot against a plain background which is why no 2 is a better image in my opinion.

[kdoc856]

I agree with the above comments. Food looks great, but in #1, why have anything in the image other than the food? If it's not important, it detracts; if it is interesting, it competes. I'd be tempted to think of the food as a portrait, and keep to a minimum much background.

[Shadowman]

If the object of your desire is holding center stage, you can ignore what's in your peripheral....unless its someone sneaking up on the last piece of cake.

[acsky]

Hi Travis.

Indeed, it sometimes doesn't get any easy. For the second one I struggled to find an angle which made me happy. I'm glad you liked it.

Thanks for the cropping suggestion, I think you are right, a little tighter composition would work better.

Toño

[acsky]

Hi John

Thanks for your comment. That's the kind of reaction I'm aiming to.

Toño

[acsky]

Hi Mark, Kevin

I see the point in your comments. Probably the background is indeed too busy.

Why having something else than the food in the image? I'm not sure... sometimes I believe it gives the subject a context and sets the mood for an expected reaction.

Obviously in this case it didn't work that way.

I placed the cake by the window 1) to have more light on the subject (without flash) 2) to give the impression of a cake just pulled out of the oven waiting to cool down.... Maybe I didn't set it up correctly.

Toño

[Mike Buckley]

I look forward to photographing some of my favorite foods and one reason I haven't yet done it is that I know how difficult it will be. It's in that context that it's clear that you're making great progress.

Regarding the backgrounds, I have a different take than the others and it's based on seeing so many photographs of food: It's important to fill the background, if indeed there is a background, but it needs to be filled with items that complement the subject. Items such as napkins, silverware, wine bottles, glasses of wine, other foods, recipe ingredients, etc., work very well if you keep them out of focus.

In that regard, the issue with the first photo for me is that though the background is nicely filled, it's filled with elements that have nothing to do with the food. In the second photo, the empty space in the top left corner is too large.

You mentioned the difficulty of finding a good composition in the second one. I wonder if that's at least partially because of the way the two kinds of sushi rolls are arranged. I don't have a suggestion about how to arrange them but I understand your difficulty. In the current composition, I want the second roll on the right to be in focus, not the third one. If you crop a a little off the top and a lot on the left to eliminate almost all of the background and almost all of the first roll on the right, the depth of field works better for me. However, that crop showcases only the one type of sushi roll on the right.

Looking forward to seeing more!

[acsky]

Based on previous comments I made a quick edit of photo No. 1, desaturating the background and cropping a little tighter to the cake.

It seems to be less distracting now.

[GrahamH]

Hi Tono,
Much more impact, and an improvement.
I've just bought some burlap and black velvet for food photography to keep it different.
I read one blog where they suggested getting wood patterned wallpaper. Easy to store and easy to use.
The sushi - someone said that compositions should avoid triangles in the corners. The top right one is the most distracting one. Perhaps move the sushi slightly further back to break the line of the plate and break up the triangle more. A touch more lighting from the rear as the current slighting is fairly flat and you are losing texture (or increase contrast a touch).
I'm no expert and so I'm learning too. Nice job overall, more posting a to be looked forward to?
Graham
Food photography should come with a health warning

[acsky]

I'm happy about how this one came out.

Lava Cake

[Stagecoach]

My first reaction at seeing the first two was the descriptions placed right over the subject. As no one else has mentioned this I assume others do not find it distracting.

Grahame

[GrahamH]

Love the lava cake image. The DoF effect is well done, the lighting so the frosting merges with the light in the background helps to hold attention on the subject.
Agree with above that the advertising signature is a major distraction (especially for a photography forum).
Graham

[Karm Redland]

Hi Tono, like the lava cake image. If you are going to brand the image you need to strategically arrange your image so that the branding doesn't distract from it. I think in the lava cake image you accomplished this.

Karm

[acsky]

Graham

I did the lava cake image around two months ago, so I had it available just as it was posted on my wife's blog. It was quicker to find that one than the original image without the site name. I'm aware that in CiC most of us don't like watermarks on top of the image, but I expected to get some feedback about the branding itself. I usually place the text on bottom left or right corner, noticeable enough so people looking for recipes on internet can see clearly the name of the page, but I try not to overwhelm the subject with it.

I'm glad you liked it, it is one of my favorites so far.

Toño

[Mike Buckley]

The photo of the lava cake is really special. Though the branding is nicest in this photo, I wonder if it wouldn't be even better to place it in two lines in the upper right corner.

[acsky]

Hi Karm

I sometimes pick a color from the image and use it as font color, just a little darker or lighter as necessary, so the branding does not distract too much from the subject.

Sometimes I wonder if the homecooks searching for recipes pay attention to the image itself, but anyway I try to make the food look tasty and appealing to the eye, so people get enthusiastic about trying the recipe by themselves.

I think the lava cake came out well

Toño

[acsky]

Thanks for your suggestion Mike.

I will give it a try.

Toño