Early morning on the rocks.
/QUOTE]
Awesome shot. The colors are so warm and beautiful.
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Photo of the Day - February 2010
- Thread starter pdxflint
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Hi Chef... Food photography is quite an art. The pix you see in books and magazines have generally been produced by a whole team of cooks, food stylists, nutritionists, assistants and photographers, in a studio setting (plus they're creating dishes specifically to photograph... not to eat). Each shot will be accessorised with colour coordinated crockery, cutlery, tableware and tablecloths... maybe with some arfully out-of-focus details in the background, to give the impression the shot's been taken in a Spanish bodega, or English pub or American diner, etc.
The stylists will make sure that everything looks not just good... but perfect (which may mean fake 'ice cubes' that don't melt under lights, drops of glycerine to add 'freshness, etc). All I'm saying is that it's no surprise that your flash-on-camera shot fails to bring out the look and flavour of the food you cook. There are books you can buy, detailing the tricks of the food photographer's trade. Until you're able to produce top-notch pix, maybe think about paying an experienced photographer to do some shots for you... 'cos the shot you posted will not attract customers to try your food...
Thanks Doylem, I know that most food pictures and even many food shot on tv are "fake" where the food is posed, along with props. We did have a pro take pictures of all our menu items for use in print and on our webpage, what I am trying to do though is take shots of our features and post them on our Facebook page to get the word out.
I will look into getting my hands on a book related to photographing food though.
Thanks,
Chef Jay
The Craggy Cliffs of Newfoundland
Close to Crow Head, Newfoundland. Just down the road from Twillingate.
Close to Crow Head, Newfoundland. Just down the road from Twillingate.
I imagine you have tables at this restaurant, and even windows? Why not show the plate at a set table? perhaps with the drink of the night as well....
Here is one i took on the kitchen table by the sliding glass door(hopefully i havent posted this one before)...
Clickable....
NeGRit0, oh DUH. I do not know why I did not think of that before. Actually I was thinking about it right before I saw your post this afternoon. I did not actually get a chance to try it as the weather today was pretty bad, although I did play around with my speed light a bit to see if I could get better results. I think I got some improvement, but not enough to try to share here. I did find some websites with tips and a couple of books that look good on Amazon. I am going to hit up the library next week on my day off for a book on photography basics I think.
Thanks again for everyone's help. Hopefully next week I will have a much improved picture to post. The rest of this week is going to be a bit hectic preparing for Valentine's Day, so I am not sure when I will have much chance to do anything photography related.
Chef Jay
What sort of speedlight do you have? I'm not sure but I think a coopix 5700's pop up should be able to trigger an off camera flash like an sb600 or above. I might also play around with bouncing the flash and maybe some warmer colored paper as a diffuser. Also shoot in raw for the added flexibility.
H2Ockey, I have a SB80DX. I *THINK* the on camera flash may be able to trigger it, I have to find the manual for the speed light. I have also been thinking of using a paper reflector or diffuser as Ruhlman posted some pictures on his blog the other day using that technique.
All of this is very interesting to me as I have always loved taking pictures, but never really put much energy into making them better. Now I want to make them better, and I find in a way it is similar to cooking. Attention to detail and experimenting with different ways to achieve the result I am looking for.
I am really glad I ventured into this forum and made a post, it has really opened my eyes and mind to improving my photos.
As for Raw shooting, I have the problem that Aperture does not support raw pictures from my camera. I am going to try using the .tiff format and see how that goes. I think I tried that a while back, and for some reason stopped, it was either because my memory card at the time would only hold a few pictures, or because the buffer in the camera filled up really fast, and caused a major delay. If it was the card, that has been resolved as I got a 2 gig card a few months ago. If it was the slow saving, well then I will cross that bridge somehow. I plan to start using my tripod more, so that should help. I seem to recall that I could take 3 pictures before the camera would fill the buffer, so with a tripod, it may not be such a problem.
Thanks!
Chef Jay
Nothing remarkable, I know. I wanted to try a photomerge to see what the results would be like. We're headed to Europe in a few weeks and thought the opportunity might present itself. This particular trial is generated with seven shots.
I have the same camera and yes the Tiff format fills a memory card and the buffer very quickly. I think the image quality of the camera is very very good, my only issue with it is the terribly slow write speed to the memory card. You could download Nikon ViewNX for free from their website, it allows you to make a few edits to the raw file (like white balance) and then export to a different format and/or resolution to work with Aperture.
I look forward to more food pictures as well yummie!
Playing about with depth of field. Two spiders webs, one behind the other. Again, I seem to have the focus just slight of sharp where I'd want it, but don't notice until I get it off the camera (despite doing it manual and checking twice.) Any tips or is it just experience?
I think I'll have some lunch now.
I think I'll have some lunch now.
Ullswater, this afternoon. The weather looked promising in just the way I like it: ie it could get really wet or really amazing (and I never know which... i just wait). In the end it rained, I got wet and I'm busy deleting the few pix I took...
Fate
Just started playing around with a reverse ring I picked up for macro shots. DOF is razor thin but it's fun to experiment with.
As an aside, I wrote up my personal theory on fate described in the flickr post of the shot http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpaphotography/4343656072/ . I'm a huge LOST fan so this photo and post was inspired by the show I guess you can say.
Just started playing around with a reverse ring I picked up for macro shots. DOF is razor thin but it's fun to experiment with.
As an aside, I wrote up my personal theory on fate described in the flickr post of the shot http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpaphotography/4343656072/ . I'm a huge LOST fan so this photo and post was inspired by the show I guess you can say.
Thanks. I think it's important to give context for the series I'm putting up at the moment because otherwise they're just pictures of piles of stones to most people.
I'm always glad when posters include location information with landscapes and cityscapes because there's nothing worse that seeing something so amazing you want to see it for yourself but have no clue as to where it is! doylem has almost singlehandedly convinced me to visit the Lake District sometime soon.
Anyway, on with the show - this is Kilmashogue Wedge Tomb:
Detail of a cist at the Bronze Age wedge tomb at Kilmashogue in the Dublin Mountains. The tomb originally consisted of two chambers set in an oval mound of stones. Some time after construction the chambers were partially dismantled to facilitate three further burials in the form of cist graves. This is the best preserved of the cists: its capstone has been pushed aside allowing visitors to see how the burial chamber below was constructed - four rectangular shaped slabs form the walls of this 1m square chamber. The cists, when opened in 1953 by members of the Royal Irish Academy, were found to contain two middle Bronze Age food vessels and a late Bronze Age cinerary urn.
HI. I find it hard to trust my eyes on anything requiring a very thin DOF and sharp focus, which is why I tend toward landscapes. All I can suggest on something like this is that if your perception of sharp in the viewfinder is not matching up to what you get in the computer is to bracket your focus point. Shoot three or five consecutive shots moving the focus ring just a hair each time. Something to try at least.
Dale
Shipreck in Point Reyes Seashore National Park, CA
Olympus E-3 with Zuiko 7-14 @ 7mm, ISO 100, F8, 1/320s
wow, well done, i really like that
Sometimes when too focused, i dont notice the little obvious stuff either. Todays pic was taken at Red Rock National Conservation Area:
Clickable...