lemon blueberry bread

[dishingthedivine]

Given that the weather is rotten, I thought a fun way to accomplish this weekend's assignment (BLUE!) was to make a lemon blueberry loaf. I have a food blog, so I was also attempting to capture other pictures along the way. Despite my best efforts, I could find no way to photograph the dough in the bread pan just before going into the oven without making it look utterly boring (see below photo). What do you suggest regarding angles and lighting to help make this pop a bit more?



canon rebel xti
f 4.5
1/60 sec
iso 200
flash comp forced -1
exposure bias -1/2
focal length 31 mm
in photoshop, I cropped it and seleted "auto smart fix" to fix the lighting/color levels a bit

Thoughts? Solutions? The winner could get a loaf of lemon blueberry bread! Or, well, probably not. Unless you live next door. In which case you really should just come over and SHOW me how to do this instead of writing it out on DPS.



***NOTE: UPDATED PICS BASED ON COMMENTS POSTED BELOW!!!***

[freezeframe03]

I will suggest that you take a shallow depth of field starting at one corner of the pan in the lower left corner of the frame and a lower perspective at just above the edge of the pan. Whether that will look any more interesting or not I have no idea. Possibly even laying the spatula on top of the dough coming from the right side of the frame. For what it's worth...

[Sterling]

Taking a shot from a corner to introduce some diagonal lines is a good idea. You could also try a smaller aperture to keep more of the pan in focus (this would be easier turning the pan sideways). Moving more above the pan would let you shoot down onto the dough, which looks a lot more interesting than the pan.

[Ottor]

You've seen "Water Drops" ..... well, how about some really gooey, sloppy, messy "Dough Drops" ??

r

[sk66]

I'd sugest a "brighter happier" environment. The problem is the setting is dark/dull, and you're probably not going to make raw dough "appetizing" so the best you can do is make it "attractive".

[popeye236]

Maybe get someone to pour the batter while you photograph it as it falls into the pan? Against a plain background with perhaps some texture (you could change the background afterwards). Looks yummy!!

[dishingthedivine]

thanks for all these suggestions! I'm going to try making this recipe again soon (it needs some tweaks!) and I'll photograph it again and let you know how it turns out. maybe next time I'll go with muffins instead of a loaf (cook faster and are slightly more visually appealing even when the batter is raw ). You've got lots of great ideas. I'm looking forward to trying some of them.

[dishingthedivine]

Okay, I made this bread again tonight and re-read your notes before shooting these photos again. Let me know what you think of these updated ones (one of them, I did some quick photoshopping - it's not necessarily pretty, but my hope is that at this resolution you won't notice ):







what do you think? Do you have a favorite?

[freezeframe03]

I'm favoring the one in the middle except I would reverse the focus. Focus on the front of the pan rather than the back of it. Food photography is difficult. Your pan shows lots of love, so I'd invest in a new one to photograph. I see in the second and third photos it looks like you cleaned up the drips from the sides...this is good. Lastly, a white spatula would be better. Well, I guess that wasn't lastly...it still needs a little something for added interest...maybe somehow including the recipe in the composition...

[Nicole]

I hate to say it in a way, but a new pan (or at least one without the rust on it) would probably help. I see freezeframe also suggested that. I'm still not really feeling like cooking it based on the pictures. Another suggestion for composition might be a light environment and then pouring the dough out of the bowl and into the pan if you really want a shot of the pre-cooked bread.

Very rarely do I take pictures of food in the middle of cooking, but if I do, I usually seem to include either the raw ingredients (e.g. fresh blueberries, sugar, flour, etc) or I include cooking utensils that create some sort of texture or other focus in the shot. I'd suggest taking a look at a few food photography blogs to get some ideas for future shoots We all have to start somewhere. Food photography is always so much more difficult than it looks