Author Topic: Food images, Critique please (Read 6943 times)

richlonardo · « **on:** May 01, 2015, 21:54 »

Alright, Well messing around with my photo tent again and made a wood prop. Submitted these today but don't feel they are good enough. Thoughts from the pros?

richlonardo · « **Reply #1 on:** May 01, 2015, 21:55 »

No idea why images are that big....sorry

Fudio · « **Reply #2 on:** May 02, 2015, 08:45 »

Critiques can be pretty subjective when technically there seems to be nothing wrong with your shot. It is bright, sharp, good WB etc. I guess the question really is why don't you think it's good enough? Good enough for what? Obviously you have a nagging suspicion.

rimglow · « **Reply #3 on:** May 02, 2015, 09:15 »

Composition sucks. Who cares about the wood boards. Show more of the subject. Your lighting is a little on the boring side. Try decreasing the brightness on one side, a little, to enhance the roundness of the object. I usually have my backlight the brightest, the left light less bright, and the right light even less than that. But then of course, lighting is subjective.

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #4 on:** May 02, 2015, 09:59 »

The lighting is very engulfing, which is kind of boring. And yeah, the composition isn't too hot. I get the copyspace thing, but you've really cut off too much of the avocados. The cherry one is a bit better.

Fudio · « **Reply #5 on:** May 02, 2015, 11:57 »

I’m afraid I have to agree with both rimglow and Sean Locke Photography on this. They both make some good points which I suspect you were already subconsciously aware of. To be perfectly honest, to me a light tent really is not a tool for food photography. Even with power adjustments the lighting really is too flat in one of those to bring out the shape and texture of most foods in a dynamic or interesting way. Rimglow’s go-to lighting setup is very similar to my own, with a main backlight to bring out form and either one, two, or three fills (depending on the subject) with any number of bounce cards and mirrors for kick. The shot here http://www.savourns.com/eggs-benedict-with-smoked-salmon/ is a very quick one from yesterday, main light backlit with right fill and left bounce. Simple setup but works well with 90 percent of food shots.

A couple of points and pointers I’d add are:

In the cherry shot, my eye is immediately drawn to the black cherry hiding in the bottom of the bowl. You might want to either a) replace that one with another more in keeping with the rest of the cherries in the bowl or b) bring that one up to add more of a contrasting point of interest in the bowl itself. A few more cherries overall would not hurt either in my opinion with a few scattered near the bowl to loosen up the compo a little.

In the avacado shot structured the way it is I find the cut on the avocados a little too rough. Everything else in the image is so clean that I am guessing you really were not going for a rustic feel for this one. To get a really clean cut on avocados make sure they are super chilled and use the thinnest, sharpest blade you can get your hands on. Like an Olfa blade or boxcutter.

I find it difficult to comment on another’s sense of composition but for me too I would not have cropped either image exactly where you did. Keep in mind that designers can instantly look at an image and see which part they will need. Why limit their choice? Add as much as you can (within reason) and let them crop out what they don’t need.

cuppacoffee · « **Reply #6 on:** May 02, 2015, 12:44 »

As someone who has purchased food images in the past for tons of grocery store newspaper ads and flyers our company always looked for the simplest, the cleanest and the best from the many pages of similar food items that we found from all the microstock sites. I know it's boring but we preferred knock-outs (with paths). We strove to plant the idea of the shopper being able to come into the store to find the freshest items available. We bought in volume and had no time to retouch so we looked for pristine fruit/vegetables, over-saturated colors (we knew the colors would get duller when converted to cmyk for newsprint), no dead leaves, minimal or greenish stems to add to the look of having just been picked, care in set-up and prep to make the images "chef" quality, full fruit/vegetable/cut of meat/simple pastry like bread and rolls (no cropping as we would often cut them out of the background so no reflections from the background) or simple backgrounds that wouldn't detract from the main subject (if we did not cut them out). When looking for images of prepared meals we wanted simple with the focus being on one main ingredient. If we were selling pork chops we wanted a simple, easy to prepare meal with the chops being front and center, a simple side and some garnish. If you want to shoot foods for higher end uses (like fine art to hang on a kitchen or restaurant wall) that is a different audience. From first hand knowledge, microstock food is a big seller for grocery inserts. Danny Smythe is the king of the simple, clean, better than real grocery flyer food image, his images are seen in all major brands over and over, even if the newspaper insert is looked at quickly and thrown away.

Mantis · « **Reply #7 on:** May 02, 2015, 20:28 »

Quote from: cuppacoffee on May 02, 2015, 12:44

As someone who has purchased food images in the past for tons of grocery store newspaper ads and flyers our company always looked for the simplest, the cleanest and the best from the many pages of similar food items that we found from all the microstock sites. I know it's boring but we preferred knock-outs (with paths). We strove to plant the idea of the shopper being able to come into the store to find the freshest items available. We bought in volume and had no time to retouch so we looked for pristine fruit/vegetables, over-saturated colors (we knew the colors would get duller when converted to cmyk for newsprint), no dead leaves, minimal or greenish stems to add to the look of having just been picked, care in set-up and prep to make the images "chef" quality, full fruit/vegetable/cut of meat/simple pastry like bread and rolls (no cropping as we would often cut them out of the background so no reflections from the background) or simple backgrounds that wouldn't detract from the main subject (if we did not cut them out). When looking for images of prepared meals we wanted simple with the focus being on one main ingredient. If we were selling pork chops we wanted a simple, easy to prepare meal with the chops being front and center, a simple side and some garnish. If you want to shoot foods for higher end uses (like fine art to hang on a kitchen or restaurant wall) that is a different audience. From first hand knowledge, microstock food is a big seller for grocery inserts. Danny Smythe is the king of the simple, clean, better than real grocery flyer food image, his images are seen in all major brands over and over, even if the newspaper insert is looked at quickly and thrown away.

And he plays a mean set of drums!!

dpimborough · « **Reply #8 on:** May 06, 2015, 14:20 »

Buy yourself a very sharp paring knife keep it only for prep work on food.

The avocado looks like it was sawn with a blunt knife.

Keep your incisions clean and precise. Clean up any loose bits with a knife or scalpel.

A sharp pair of scissors or scalpel to trim the ugly bits off stalks (on the cherries).

Ugly or discolored fruit should be discarded at the time of purchase. Get a larger number than you think you need so you can select the best for shooting.

Wash fruit and allow to dry to remove sticky residues.

And you should spend time clean the skins of the fruit of any imperfections including dust and lint in photoshop or whatever you use.

Perry · « **Reply #9 on:** May 06, 2015, 15:54 »

* Boring flat light

* Too few cherries, the bowl should be full. The arrangement of the cherries isn't appealing. There's even a small dry leaf(?) in the bowl. You should select the most beautiful cherry and have that as a "hero" on top / in focus.

* The idea of the copy space is a valid one, but the wooden background with the uneven gaps is distracting and a bad background for text (a wooden background without the gaps would be better.

* Avocados without the "seed" look strange.

jefftakespics2 · « **Reply #10 on:** May 07, 2015, 09:42 »

I think you either need to go more "rustic" with more dramatic lighting and textures or super clean with crisper lighting and better detailing on the fruit etc. You are sort of stuck in the middle right now.