Strawberry Sorbet

[cookincanuck]

This is a shot I took of some strawberry sorbet I made this summer. It was shot with natural light, coming in from a window to the left (undifused, but not direct). I like the shot of the sorbet in the glass, but am not crazy about the background items (lighting, etc.). What would you do differently here? Thank you.



Canon Rebel XSi
Len 24-70mm
Aperture Priority
Focal Length 65mm
ISO 200
Exposure Bias: 0.67
Shutter 1/250
Aperture 3.2

[littlemoments]

add whip cream

[TNH]

Wow, that looks delicious!!! You've made me hungry.

One thing that I noticed is that it looks like the very edge of the bowl, on the left side is cut off. But it's not too noticeable. I really didn't notice it until I clicked on it to look at it bigger on Flickr. (By the way, your Flickr stream is AMAZING! All the food looks so yummy! )

And if I was taking it, I would probably take out the lemon. The bright yellow takes your eyes away from the sorbet. (I can understand why it's there, though, since it's part of the recipe.)

Altogether, I think it's a fantastic photo! I am not too good at food photography, so I am just amazed when people get great photos like this! All of your photos are really, really great.

[cookincanuck]

Thanks so much for the feedback. Littlemoments - believe me, now whipped cream is needed on this sorbet. The strawberry flavor speaks for itself!

TNH - I noticed that the left edge of the glass was cut off, too and now it bugs the heck out of me. Even though the lemon is part of the recipe, I agree with you about the color detracting from the sorbet. Next time I'm shooting a photo like this, I'll think to simplify the colors. Thanks so much for your kind comments about my Flickr stream. I'm still learning, but trying hard!

[Matthias099]

Like your photo too.
Only thing I might add has nothing to do with the photo technique but with the sorbet . . . . to me it looks almost like someone already took a spoonful of it from the top. Did you intend to make it look like that? I know sorbet is kind of tricky to work with but maybe try to get a completely round scoop into the glass . . . ? That's just my 2cents worth.

[cookincanuck]

Matthias, I never noticed that little divot in the sorbet, but you're absolutely right. I need to make sure the sorbet is frozen more solidly next time before scooping.

[Doug Sundseth]

Food photography is pretty much still life. Generally in still life, you want to simplify to just the essential elements and arrange and present them very carefully.

With those precepts, my opinions:

There's too much stuff here. The sorbet is the intended subject, but there are parts of several spoons, a napkin with a moderately obtrusive pattern, and three out-of-focus elements with strong and saturated colors.

The elements aren't arranged to create a very pleasing composition. Usually, with multiple elements like this, you would want to arrange the major elements in triangles or diagonals. I think if you were to move about 30 degrees to the left and frame a bit more loosely, you would have a more pleasing composition, but I would expect to need to try several different arrangements (quickly, so the sorbet doesn't melt ) to get something I really liked.

As a suggestion here, I would remove the second glass, remove the spoons, remove the napkin (or hide most of it below the side of a simple plate), and I'd start by placing a single strawberry and slice of lemon (a whole lemon would probably be too large) in a triangular composition with the sorbet.

I like the addition of the strawberry leaves to the top of the sorbet; they add a very nice color contrast without detracting from the composition. But I'd try to get as perfect a scoop as possible, since in a simple composition, every flaw draws more attention.

All that said, you've made me hungry for the sorbet, so the primary goal of food photography is certainly satisfied.

Finally, if you're serious about food photography, Nicole S. Young has a book on the subject that has been well reviewed: Food Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots. I haven't read it myself, but she takes brilliant food photos and speaks and writes well, so I'd at least take a look at it if I were you.