Breakfast for Dinner

[thekevinmonster]

I want to submit photos here that I think aren't so terrific. I could take a great photo and say, "what's wrong with it?" but I'd rather take a crummy one or a so-so one and find out why it is the way it is.

I like food, so here's a food pic:



Background and what I did: 50mm lens, F/7.1, 1/13th shutter speed. The table was against an east wall, and the sun was coming in from the north west. Low sun, 7:42pm thanks to my EXIF :P No other lighting (if I turned on the overhead room light, I would have had mixed white balance and it would have either been all yellow or blue :P)

What I don't like: The image seems muddy and lacks 'pop'. I did some curves adjustment in Bibble already, as the original was far too flat. I couldn't seem to get the midtone 'bright' enough without blowing out the (few) highlights.

Man, I feel like I'm speaking French

Feel free to comment on anything!

[ELAY]

Caveats -- I am not a food photographer; I am going to approach this on the assumption that you were trying to take a really good picture of eggs and what I think are hash browns.

I will start out by saying that my favourite part of the photo is the artful placement of hot sauce (no joke). It catches the light nicely.

Here are a few thoughts:

1. I am not sure you got the depth of field right. The back part of the food (hash browns?) is not in focus.

2. When I think of successful food photography, things are usually set up to really draw the eye to the food. In your case, the plate, because it is transparent and because of the texture, kind of distracts from the food. I wonder if an opaque, solid colour would have shown your dinner off better.

3. Sort of on the same theme, the cutting board distracts a bit too, as does the diagonal from the cut off tabletop. Some really good food shots have kitchen or cooking elements in the frame, but the photographers manage to select/arrange their objects to complement the food. It's almost like you need either more clutter (bottle of hotsauce and casually placed basket of eggs in the background) or less (plate in lightbox).

4. I think your instincts on the lighting are right -- it needs a bit more contrast. More intense lighting might have helped, but you should be able to get something with curves.

Going to eat lunch now...

EL

[clockdoc]

One thing to remember about food photography is that the food being photographed, particularly if it is cooked, is probably inedible. Having said that, the food is prepared to give the appearance of being ready to eat but rarely does that equate to how it is prepared for the dinner table. Elay offered some good suggestions so I won't duplicate them. For starters, I think you are going to have to rely on using more light as opposed to available window light. Try using the overhead light but do a white balance first. You may be surprised. If those are hash browns, try under cooking them and see how they appear when photographed. Study your major food magazines or online recipe sites. The Food Network recently had a competition for a cover shot on a noted food magazine. The 'chefs' competing not only had to prepare a great tasting dish but had to serve it in an appealing manner. Several times I heard the photographer, who was also one of the judges, comment on the fact that as served, it would not photograph well. Keep shooting! You have taken the first big giant step in food photography. I'll be happy to help where I can.

[windrider86]

I would think try shooting it from another angle and possibly put some props in. A well placed napkin, silver ware or even a flower or greenery. Dont make the picture as a while too big, you want to keep the focus on the food/plate.

[thekevinmonster]

Thanks guys! ClockDoc, I know you've chimed in on my stuff before... I really think of the photo as an afterthought. My real intent is to make something tasty. But, I want to capture the visual impact of it at the same time, so I don't really want to make inedible food...

I'm really aiming at 'does my blog look good in this' food photography, not professional stuff. And, I'm aiming at making my photography skills better.

One of the things is that I was fairly rushed. I just had an afterthought, "I should photo this!"...

Elay: The DOF is weird, yeah. Sometimes it works, although I'm getting 'tired' of seeing all those extremely shallow DOF food shots on the internet. it's hard to do, my 50mm lens really makes the blurry parts 'bloom' and they look bigger than the rest of the food. I was surprised it was as bad as it was, I figured F/7.1 would get most of it in focus, but I *was* quite close-up.

Ditto to the cutting board and plate.. that was a gaffe... I'm actually making a lightbox that fits most things I want to photograph, I just haven't.. uh.. made it yet.

The hot sauce was kind of tricky. The typical bottle of Red Hot sauce makes for big splats. I really wanted more control. It looks like a cayenne pepper got shot over my food...

Thanks for the comments!

[rdaw]

Just FYI, the photographer who took my wife and my engagement pics also was quite an accomplished food photographer, and I asked him about it, and yep, clockdoc's right on the money - the cup of coffee that's in that great breakfast picture is often 10W30 motor oil, and sausages they do all kinds of weird things to - coat them in glycerine, spray them with silicone to get that shiny just-cooked look...yummy!