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I've been snapping pics for a food blog lately and I think they come out ok but could use a hell of a lot of improvement. I was hoping you guys could give me some specific pointers. I have a Canon Rebel XT but the only lens I have is a 50mm lens that I got for photographing paintings. Obviously I need more flexibility with lenses. My other big problem is lighting. I have one light source in the kitchen (an overhead) and many of our pics are shot after dark. Plus during the day the sunlight isn't so great anyway. Right now we're battling an insane mixture of color temperatures. Here are the main limitation: 1) We don't cook just for the photos. That means that my shots are usually limited to a few quick snaps before we eat. I don't see this changing. 2) The budget is really low. So I need suggestions to improve the lighting that won't break the bank. I do have one of those metal dome lights with the clip on it. I try to bounce it off the ceiling but am not sure how successful that is. 3) The budget issue applies to the lens as well. Here's my workflow as of now: shoot in RAW adjust color temperature in the canon RAW conversion thingee adjust levels in photoshop until it looks more or less ok (and remove crumbs and poo poo like that) occasionally add a tiny bit of unsharp mask. We've been experimenting with styling the pics with table cloth and stuff like that. Anyway, here are some of the pics for your perusal and ridicule. They more or less travel backwards in time so if they get worse as you scroll don't be surprised. All suggestions are welcome! I don't expect to be able to get shots like this guy because I don't see having the time to stage and style the shots when we're like "hurry up, dinner's getting cold!" but it would be nice to move in that direction...  ^ First experiment with shooting outdoors on an overcast day.      This was a tough one because of the overall brownness of the dish, even though it was awesome. I think I made a beautiful dish look not so appetizing.              
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Dec 2, 2009 15:50
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charliebravo77: I found a sweet deal on a used Tamron 28-200 3.8/5.6 Lens. Maybe I should pounce on that... I'm gonna watch those videos today. Thanks for the link. And, yeah, I go a little overboard on the low DoF thing sometimes. I try to bracket a few different settings but sometimes I'm rushing and I forget to cover myself. rigeek: The 50mm is nice but I feel very limited. Half the time I'm backed halfway across the room trying to get a whole plate into a shot, or overhead shots I'm standing on tables and poo poo. It would be nice to have another option I guess. Since lighting is my biggest obstacle I'm probably best off investing in that. What's a good cheap, easy to set up, small footprint flash set up that I could do? I'd love to remodel the kitchen to have a permanent lighting set up! How sweet would that be...
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Dec 2, 2009 17:49
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Yup, I know all about compression. (I used to be a hack independent filmmaker and did a compression shot or two in my day) I've thought about the differences in tele vs wide and just would like a little more flexibility. But yeah the 50 is very nice in terms of minimizing any sort of weird warping. Maybe a lens isn't what I need. Maybe I need to focus on lighting. That said, this also looks like maybe a nice compromise: Canon EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM
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Dec 2, 2009 18:36
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thanks, although his blog seems to be broken...
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Dec 2, 2009 23:57
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I'm abandoning the idea of getting a new lens. I want to improve the lighting first and foremost, and the good deal on the 28-105 or whatever it was is gone. So here's my plan: 1) get a reflector. I might just get some foamcore but I need something. 2) put a brighter, daylight-balanced bulb in the kitchen overhead 3) build something like this: http://jugalbandi.info/2008/08/photography-solutions-do-it-yourself-tabletop-lighting-system/ which looks like a fun project regardless. In other news, one of our pics made it onto tastespotting.com which is a first, so we're obviously heading in the right direction.
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Dec 3, 2009 14:34
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rigeek posted:You don't even need to go that far. Have a look here: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=281524 crikey that's an epic thread! I may have to try something like that, although a box won't allow me the range of angles I want to get for each dish. I'll post pics when I do rig something. This weekend is a good possibility...
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Dec 3, 2009 21:23
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All my plans of going out and getting an additional shop light and some other stuff to diffuse the lights were thwarted by assorted things so I just grabbed a couple of 100W "reveal" bulbs (which claim to be "full-spectrum") at rite aid and bounced one off the ceiling. I snapped this with minimal fussing. It's kind of over exposed but maybe heading in the right direction? The other thing that drives me crazy is in Photoshop I have to selected view > proof colors every time I start on a new image and do a huge amount of levels adjustment or else the image comes out very faded when I save to jpeg. I swear I never used to have to do this. I trace this additional step to when I got my current samsung monitor. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? I'll open an image, it'll look fine, and then if I "save for web" it goes to hell. I have to screw with the levels like crazy just to get it to look like it did coming off the camera. What's the proper proof setup setting for doing this work?
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Dec 7, 2009 00:54
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40oz posted:Yes, that's a pretty high key image, the black band at top is distracting, and there is a sticker on the lime, but its pretty good. I think once you play around with diffusion and alter the shadows you'll get more of what you're looking. Yeah, I need to adjust things and I need a second dome light. I'll sketch out my idea later and post it. The line at the top is the edge of the counter and usually I'd clone-tool that out. And obviously the sticker doesn't matter; I just grabbed a few random things to snap for colors. quote:I'm not sure about this, I don't work digital enough, but: errrr... i went through some general calibrations when I got it but probably not in the way you're thinking... I need to spend a little time on this. Shoulda sprung for a better monitor. I have a smaller Sony monitor that gives much better colors but I can't hook up two monitors to my computer (Mac Mini) and I can't find an external video card that will work with this platform/OS. Annoying.
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Dec 8, 2009 13:31
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still only have the one light. Just been too busy to get another. But here's a shot from last night. Set up is just the regular kitchen overhead and a fluorescent bounced off the ceiling, white balanced off a card before shooting. on the plus side, i think the colors, the food and the plate look great. on the minus side of course i'm introducing all sorts of wacky shadows. I need to conform the bulbs and get another lamp.
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Dec 10, 2009 00:02
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jink posted:I think this shot could use more DOF. At first I thought this photo was way out of focus, but it seems there there is a sliver of focused area. Are you using a tripod? Can you get away with a stopped down aperture? I do have a tripod and I use it for everything. For each setup I try to do low, medium and high DOF shots, but for this set up for some reason I only got low shots. (probably due to the whole "hurry so we can eat" thing) But for this show I like it because the filling is in focus (or mostly) I'll try to be better about getting higher dof shots in the future.
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Dec 10, 2009 13:39
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That video is awesome and also it's the exact opposite of how we do things. I love it. Anyway, the little tart pic above was featured on Food Gawker! Moving up in the world...
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Dec 11, 2009 14:27
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Looks great. Congrats on the gig and on developing your skills! We just wrapped up a 12 day medieval food blog smorgasbord and i'm blogged out blog blog bloggy blog Haven't really made strides in the lighting department beyond bouncing a 100W reveal bulb off the ceiling but some of the shots came out nice and there was barely a day when one wasn't featured on foodgawker, tastespotting, foodbuzz, or all three. That said, we still have a long way to go. Here's a shot of caudell, medieval eggnog, basically:  a couple of shots of a medieval ember day tart/pie thing:   Clarree, with the bottle lit up with a flashlight, for added coolness  A medieval herb salad:  This one didn't make it onto the blog because I think poo poo got a little too real:  This one did. It's tough to photograph something that looks like this, i think:  My wife got probably the best shot of the bunch without me the one night I was out of the house when she did her thing, of course. Medieval ginger bread treats:  Any suggestions? Anyway, I'm really looking forward to doing more and more and improving... corkskroo fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Dec 23, 2009 |
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Dec 23, 2009 15:53
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brad industry posted:I guess I should post some food stuff. I haven't shot any in a long time but do some every once in a while for stock so I can write off part of my groceries. These are all lit in the studio: drat, those are looking awesome as hell! Any comments on the pics I posted at the top of this page?
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Dec 29, 2009 21:43
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just gonna post a few more recent pics in case anyone cares. The one light bouncing off the ceiling thing is still in effect: roman cheese bread ready to go in the oven  and done  a mexican-style shrimp "remoulade"  Julia Child-style gateau omni omelette 
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Jan 13, 2010 14:22
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Thanks for the detailed response. Yeah, we definitely need to spend more time on styling. And I do most of my plate mopping in photoshop since picture-taking time is still limited to the moments before we chow down. Gotta be more careful to get it all up...
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Jan 13, 2010 21:24
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Subjunctivitis posted:Is it just me or does the color temperature look strange? I'm liking the compositional improvement, but the color temp on all your photos keeps throwing me off. If you look at mysticp's and Brad Industry's photos, their color temperatures are dead on and that's huge for food photography. A slightly cool cast can ruin a great photo of a steak. A food photographer I work with has remarked that food can pretty much be a million tones of warm, but rarely ever cool. Also, don't underestimate the value of delicious, free natural light, so don't worry about spending poo poo-tons of cash on lights unless you actually really need it. I often find myself hauling about 400lbs of gear around for this photographer and we hardly ever use it. Glad to see this thread come back. We've been snapping like crazy and I'm doing a better job of balancing the color temp for each shoot. Part of it is probably that my monitor (and my eyes) are a bit off, but I'm also trying to be more prepared for each shot. Considering we're shooting food every day more or less it's a drat chore! I'll post some recent ones later. Thanks for the feedback. Personally I like the plates to look a little cool because when they lean yellow or red it looks gross to me, but I need to worry more about just getting them dead-on... BTW the shrimp post was a featured recipe on pioneerwoman's food site, which I guess is a big-deal food blog.
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Feb 15, 2010 15:44
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Here are a bunch in more or less chronological order (old to new) couple of foccacia pics:   tofu-shrimp puffs:  Tuna tart (worked the levels a little too hard on the first one, i think):   Tunisian sandwich:  homemade harrissa:  Couple homemade pasta dishes:   Artsy-fartsy homemade pasta pics:   sandwich bread:  rye pumpernickel loaf:  fun process shots:  Chinese new year /valentines day cookies:   Chinese tea egg:    Whadya think? Getting better?
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Feb 15, 2010 20:28
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strangemusic posted:Foodie derail: what the heck is that? Looks strangely appetizing, but I don't want a facehugger to come out. hard boiled eggs that have had their shells cracked and then brewed in a tea / soy sauce stew and left to soak over night. The cracks in the shell let the brew in to make that spiderweb pattern. Tastes delicious as hell. I should probably get a pic of one sliced open before they're all gone...
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Feb 16, 2010 06:37
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Thanks for the comments folks. I agree with pretty much all of it and have been getting away from the low DOF shots lately, or at least bracketing pretty heavily so I have options. And I always try to get an overhead, especially of any round dish, but it requires putting the food on the floor and our cats have become absolute monsters lately, so it's tricky. As for color temp, I'm trying to be better about it. There is an ungodly mix of lighting sources in the room and I just haven't had time or resources to do anything about it. Someday... And we're planning on heading out to a fabric store to stock up on some simple pattern and colored clothes for different bgrounds. Fyi, here was another harissa shot. I liked them both, but this one is probably better.
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Feb 16, 2010 18:33
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mysticp posted:Thanks, well I guess, I didn't make the actual food but it was delicious. that's awesome! Congrats! The shots are really beautiful. What camera do you have, btw?
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Feb 17, 2010 13:44
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Here's some malfatti. Once again, shot in front of the window with all natural light... 
corkskroo fucked around with this message at 17:47 on Feb 23, 2010 |
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Feb 23, 2010 17:44
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whatevs nobody cares here's some breadstuffs      
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Feb 25, 2010 19:10
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you guys are totally right regarding the coolness. I balanced when shooting but I guess things get a little wacky when I'm working levels in photoshop. As for the styling, the rolls are supposed to look like their on linen for a dinner table. The buns and the challah were more of a test since I hven't done any "clean" shots just on white yet. But I do need to get more bgrounds and props and poo poo. Here are some reworked versions. Better?     
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Feb 26, 2010 15:34
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also here's a sticky bun i shot on a plate that I forgot about :
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Feb 26, 2010 16:29
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An observer posted:better but get the green out of this one i swear either my eye-sight or my monitor is hosed up. I hope it's my monitor.
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Feb 26, 2010 17:09
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breathstealer posted:Could you maybe try getting some more eye-catching linen? Something more off-white or with a pattern would make your idea clearer than this, which seems like it can't decide whether it's a tablecloth or a blown out white background. well, it's a mix of both in that set so that might be adding to the confusion. And, yeah, we plan on upping our background collection a lot as soon as we can get out to the fabric store. For now I was just experimenting with clean after some pretty cluttered backgrounds.
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Feb 26, 2010 17:10
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AIIAZNSK8ER posted:Finally put a table by a window. Wife is the food stylist. Nice! We've been shooting by the window too. I'll have to do a post of some recent images when I get the chance. My wife wants everything in razor focus rather than arty DOF tricks and you always gotta please the client...
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May 13, 2010 04:03
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lil deez posted:I've been trying to build my food portfolio lately, here some of my stuff: Nice! I need to post some more recent ones. Shooting out on the front porch has been a revelation, as has experimenting with different color spaces when importing from raw.
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Jul 16, 2010 11:08
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^ I like those, although the thing you might have overdone is the saturation. Although, I like a lot of saturation (I just turned in some photos for a magazine that I oversaturated on purpose for the piece) but I think it makes it harder to understand the food sometimes.mysticp posted:Fairly ordinary stuff, but a mad amount of preparation went into this shoot - literally an hour of shooting and 6 hours of prep. This was great experience in logistics. Hah my wife is doing knife skills in her culinary program now so my fridge is filled with these. I'm like "mmm microscopic carrot cubes!" Figured I'd post an update. I've been shooting finished dishes almost exclusively on my front porch because the light rules. But the background is getting repetitive. If I ever have a free second I plan to hit the fabric store for more options but that hasn't happened yet. Drop scones:  Gooseberry tart with fresh whipped cream  Korean tacos   Some peppers   plum torte  zucchini cream soup  And some quick location shots: beans at the farmers market  A couple of dishes from a chef challenge at a museum in DC   Lamb skewers at some culinary event:  Banh mi from a trip to philly  I recently added another lens, the 18-55 IS canon. It's been invaluable in shooting portraits of people, which I've been doing at some food events. Otherwise, I've just been shooting and shooting. Hopefully there's been improvement.
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Sep 15, 2010 11:08
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^ We got the recipe from Steamy Kitchen. The key is probably to let them steep overnight. Man, I wish I had some right now!Cross_ posted:That's a really nice shot. I'm a little addicted to that effect but I probably need to rein it in. It's hard to say no when the lens opens to 1.8 I have some sweet pics of bottles of booze to post when I'm not just on my phone. Also I have some shots from a food event in a glossy magazine in November. I'm getting really into this.
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Sep 23, 2010 12:36
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mmmmmmm... poop in my mouth.... just what I want to be thinking about in a food thread! You know I kind of misspoke before when I attributed my shallow DOF strictly to my tastes (although that's an element). The main reason is that our tripod broke like 4 months ago or so and we don't have enough light to bracket as dramatically as we used to. I used to shoot each shot where I had time at multiple stops from 1.8 to 11 or 22. Not these days. Gotta get a new tripod. Anyway, here are some more location shots:  Shrimp, crab meat and avocado at a weird hybrid food-fashion event  Salmon at the same event  Tuna, same Some booze shots:     West african food:   And some home shots of tiny little egg salad sandwiches:    
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Sep 25, 2010 16:40
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Thanks for the detailed feedback. That's good stuff to keep in mind. Regarding your first two comments, those issues are answered in thd articles that they accompany (the first talks about the models posing with the food and the second describes the bowl of fufu in detail, although I can see how the pics might have problems standing on their own. And those spindly things were driving me crazy too but I couldn't remove them.
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Oct 5, 2010 13:18
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Off to shoot pics of crockpot cooking today. Wish me luck! 
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Dec 5, 2010 14:30
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Chappy posted:I took this at the chocolate buffet on a cruise I was just on. Aside from the comments above, there is something really funky about it. The color is like whoah and the look on the woman's face is also intriguing. Maybe not a food photo, but as a photo in general it definitely caught my eye. We got a Canon S95 to take on the road and had the chance to test the hell out of it on a recent trip to Prague, Krakow and Vienna. I haven't had a chance to process to many of the shots from RAW yet and the Jpegs aren't that exciting but I did run this shot from a wurstelstand in Vienna at like 1am, no flash.
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Apr 22, 2011 04:31
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Cross_ posted:Photo doesn't look very appetizing, but nonetheless I miss my weekly Currywurst and want one right now! :-( You know it looks good as hell. I thought being able to get that shot in the middle of the night without flash was pretty good. Camera is a performer.
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Apr 28, 2011 22:13
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mysticp posted:I did a shoot for this ultra modern restaurant in NYC on Sunday, these are a couple from the final edit. Their food is really out there, this is part of the dessert tasting menu - the total menu is up to 22 courses. Visually it's pretty much impossible to identify what the food is. It tastes good though! Weird. Looks good, although an all-black background somehow bugs me. Recently had the opportunity to have a pretty out-of-this world chef's menu at a restaurant in Prague. I know the pics are restaurant pics, not perfect, blah blah but the S95 did a nice job on location, I thought. Here are a few: Their take on beef tartar, sandwiched between horseradish chips:  A trout amuse in white cabbage foam:  Smoked beef tongue:  Watching the chefs prepare all the intricate dishes was really a hell of an experience. I think we sampled over 20 different dishes. Very cool.
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May 15, 2011 22:50
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LAchristus posted:Woah congrats, that's awsome! Looking forward to seeing them. These are lovely! I shoot at events sometimes and man can it be all over the place as far as light is concerned! Nice work!
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Aug 4, 2011 11:18
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LAchristus posted:Also, I would kill for a camera with better ISO performance than my Canon 40D. That limited me quite a bit. I'm still muddling along with the original Rebel xt. It's a workhorse but drat, wouldn't I love an upgrade! Some of these restaurants are so drat dark. Thank the lord for the 1.8 50mm or else I don't know what I'd do!
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Aug 5, 2011 11:09
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mysticp posted:That looks frickin awesome. I want it for breakfast. We've been shooting like crazy. I should gather a good selection.
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Mar 3, 2012 15:13
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 23:09 |
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Just popping in to say, man am I glad I started this thread. Y'all are doing some killer work!
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Apr 14, 2012 22:08
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