Playing with Food

[FeatherMonkey]

A mixture of light, just playing at work C&C much appreciated

A trio of SalmonIMG_3693

A plate of Pork
IMG_3655

[Ziggy]

I really like the first one. Nice light and well presented.

The second one just seems a little busy to me.

[chrisjaz]

The first one is really good , although i would have liked to see all the plate , the second i agree a bit to busy .

[FeatherMonkey]

Thanks Jim, think I'm still missing on right side a little had to stop mixing the light. Strangely enough they've got a similar amount of components but yeah see what you mean.

I'm still shocked how small I have to go to make the plate look balanced. I've got a few more of the pork I'll do some pp and see if I've got a better composition.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done on both.

[IzzieK]

Stef...it is nice to see food photography here at CiC, Keep them coming until we get used to it...I did some yesterday but I still have to process it to show to my class. Very interesting.

[wilgk]

Nice to see something some of us have not tried before, so thanks for sharing your learning.
I agree with the other comments, maybe it's just the different point of view on the second that gives it the busy feel.
I do look forward to seeing more of your work though, so welcome aboard!

[GBO25]

I agree with the earlier comments, the first looks the best but it'd be nice to see all of the plate. The 2nd one looks busy because of the angle it was taken from plus you can't see all of the closer piece of food. But the depth of field with the bokeh background looks good. Keep 'em coming.

[Barbara Ponder]

Number 1 is my pick I don't like salmon but looking at it makes me want some! Number 2 is a bit busy for my taste.

[bnnrcn]

I like #1 and I would like to see the whole plate as the other members mentioned before

[Loose Canon]

Hi Stef!

Cool to see someone doing this.

I’d toss out a couple of ideas just off the top and see how they play if that’d be hokay!

Hard to go wrong with a black BG. The first shot is quite nice. The plate set at a 45* angle helps the composition immensely. I was wondering if the composition of the food itself might be better if, say, you brought the middle portion forward, in front of the garnish. This would have kept the composition on diagonals, opposing diagonals, and forming triangles rather than the straight horizontal line the food itself forms? I would guess that the straight-line composition draws unneeded attention to the fact that near corner of the plate is out of frame due to the largish empty space on the plate in the forward corner. Maybe if the middle portion was moved forward the corner of the plate need not necessarily need to be in frame.

On the second shot there are what I would consider some unappetizing spots of “stuff” on the plate. Crumbs, pours, etc. and intentional “stuff” is nice, but this looks like an oversight rather than something deliberate.

Also on this one I think there may be too much garnish getting if the way of the main subjects. I would think the garnish needs to compliment rather than overwhelm and this may be contributing to why the shot appears “busy”. Maybe just something to add splashes of color or texture where desired. The main focal point on #2 appears to me to be on a piece of the garnish. The focal plane on the plate seems to indicate this. Not good. Also the horzontal straight-line position of the plate might be better served on a diagonal like the first one. The plate is not forming level lines for that matter and that may be a function of the imperfections of the plate. It could be fixed, but wouldn’t be as noticeable in the first place if the plate were differently positioned.

The lighting looks pretty nice in the first shot. The second looks a bit flat to me. Also the out of focus bright stuff in the upper right of the second BG seems to draw attention and does not re-focus attention back to the food. It looks kind of cool on it’s own however!

The main food dishes are always the Star of the show and these look delicious! The salmon in the first shot looks great. Nice speculars and it looks moist and inviting. The piece of pork in the middle of the second (bacon?) photographs as a little dried out as does maybe the rear piece. There are ways of getting around this at the shoot. Maybe as simple as brushing a little melted butter on it!

Anyway, just a couple of thoughts Stef!

Food photography isn’t necessarily easy. Composition, color, presentation play a huge role just like the actual cooking does and you have to be fast because the subject lifespan is short. There are tons of tricks the stylists use and they don’t have to involve lacquering everything and a lot of artificial stuff either!

So my hat is off to you for going for it! Are you also the Chef here?

[IzzieK]

+1 to Terry's comment...

[FeatherMonkey]

Thanks all. Sorry been busy in answer to Terry's question yes a chef.
Terry brilliant c&c just what I was after so to answer a few bits. Yeah I was struggling a little with composition actually propped it up with the tripod bag had to do a little pp to hide it. Love the idea about triangle's hadn't thought of that tbh is as dish goes plus a dressing which doesn't stay put( yeah know a few of the tricks didn't have ultratex on hand). So a plus one for triangles from me. As for light fighting the norm by hitting it with the flash, by then I just couldn't get close to using the natural light.

Shot 2 yeah thought I had it with the straight plate and busy diagonal. I even lightened the garnish, I see now not enough. I did miss focus thought I'd hit the pancetta(didn't think of butter nice tip, a little gutted I'd forgotten the glycerine for garnish) too, at the time hoped I had enough dof(f11) to catch the first 2 elements with garnish. That plate is a bit of a pain. Worse bit, but this was for a different angle, I added crumbs, cracked pepper missed them when I took that.

As for that corner exactly what I thought, its actually a chain guard for the door. These where done in the kitchen a few for work whilst practising better than the phone shots that make me cringe.

Many thanks Terry plenty to take on board. I wouldn't mind nailing this eventually to add another string to my bow.

Thanks everyone still find it strange everyone voting for the whole plate I see this a lot less now guess the composition was asking for it. Also favouring the flash lit one, makes think I'm going in the right direction with artificial lighting.

There will be more soon I'll need a crack at story/recipe telling and more c&c.