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My sister owns a cafe and is updating her menu. She's asked me to take photos of some of the menu items. I'm happy to help her, but I only have the D70 and kit lens - no lighting, flashes or tripods at my disposal. I ran off a few quick shots this arvo and would love to hear your comments and advice.

Many thanks

Andrew

I like the 3rd and last shots. It turned out pretty good, concidering that you didn't have anything buy the camera and the kit.

Hi Andrew
My thoughts on these are:

#1
The background and many reflections distract the eye too much. Also the teapot seems to be leaning to one side, which looks odd (to me).

#2
the closer crop (I feel) suits this look better, although the reflections are again a distraction....though hard to get away from, I understand.

#3 & 4
I prefer no. 4 over no.3, primarily due to the ange. I think it shows the viewer the size and gives the image more dimension. I think I would probably show the entire plate and watch what is in the background. Perhaps instead of the iron bars (or whatever they are), you could have people in the cafe (OOF) ??

#5
I like this one, though I would show the entire plate (again) and perhaps not have the fork in the cream....as it says (to me) "lack of detail/preparation".

If you don't have a tripod, rig up a book on a table and use the remote shutter or timer function, if you need to use shutter speeds below handholding capabilities...

Hope you find some of this helpful...

I think I might go and grab a snack now.....for some reason I'm hungry

the shots are technically fine... however the lack of light is letting you down.

try and get even just a simple reflector to help out.... you would be surprised with the difference it will make.

Thanks very much for the helpful advice guys.

Xerubus, yep I definitely need to get more light in on the shots, especially as I'm handholding at the moment. None of the shots are sharp enough for my liking and none are lit well enough.

Dave, I never even noticed the lean of the teapot until you mentioned it. Mental note to keep a close eye on this when I shoot next week. Do you have any suggestions for reducing the reflections in the teapot, either at the shooting level, or PP? By the way, the iron bars are the back of a lounge chair - if there were people in the shot, I'd only be getting their lap in. I'll try moving the table further away next week and try some people OOF in the background though as you suggest - thanks for the idea. As for the fork in the cream, that was my fault carrying the dish out from the kitchen. I also just noticed a big splotch of balsalmic vinager on the crust of the toast - will definitely have to take more time and be more careful in future. At least now, I know some of the things I need to keep an eye out for next week.

Thanks once again for all the helpful comments guys - keep 'em coming, I'm learning heaps

Andrew

I like 4 and 5, those pics would entice me to visit the cafe

You really need a light tent for these. That will help you get more even lighting, and at the same time it will eliminate most of the things that can reflect, thus addressing that problem.

Oh yes, it'll also kill your background issues into the bargain.

Make one from a simple frame of aluminium or pvc, and cover it with some simple white cloth,like a sheet.

For lighting, grab a couple of cheap halogen worklights from Bunnings, mount them outside the light tent, and a little bit away; these will get warm, so be careful, and also note the effect that the heat might have on the food.

Use a couple of varied backgrounds within the light tent - different coloured papers, tablecloths, whatever. Keep them simple: no patterns.

Also, look at the plates that the food is being served upon: the complex patterns might look ok when you're going to eat the food, but they are too busy and detract and distract from the subject in the image.

Also, keep a couple of simple props handy - a rose, some fruit (cherries, grapes, etc) ... maybe a few coffee beans scattered on a white background for a desert image ....

i like the shots, but theres to much conflict with the bg and foreground which need to be removed.
i like the last shot, but maybe without the fork altogether?
its good to exp. sometimes magic just happens unplanned.

Thanks Genista. FYI, it's Cafe Cinnamon at Ramsgate. If you're ever over the south side of the coathanger, it's worth a visit. The food's great and the coffee is as good as you'll find anywhere in Sydney, not like the crap they call coffee at Gloria Jeans, et al.

Gary and redline, thanks for the advice. I'll try knocking up my own light tent next weekend. That will give me the light I was lacking yesterday and will hopefully give my shots the punch they're missing. A tripod would make life a whole lot easier too, but my budget just doesn't stretch that far at the moment.

Andrew

After having visited many of the cafes etc in Vancouver, I also think that they could do with a good photographer, and I'd have to say that these are an improvement to many of the pictures I see. The crop in the second one feels odd because of the large empty space on the left, otherwise I think a tight crop would work well. Keep it up, I think you've got the right idea. I echo that the simpler the background you can have the better.

If you would like to see some of my food shots, keep an eye out for the Susie O'Neil So Good™ Cookbook. I would like to post the shots here but I am uncertain of my rights as all rights are owned by the brand.

EDIT - something else - having a good food stylist REALLY helps.

Thanks for the kind words Dave.

Heath, I'll keep an eye out for the book during the week - I'd really like to see your work. Would you be kind enough to let me know what equipment you used for the shoot and how you had it set-up, especially your lighting. By the way, what the hell is a food stylist?

you can get that book via a mail-in redemption of 2 so-good barcodes off 1litre soya milk cartons

The photos are 90% ours 10% from previous recipe books.

A food stylist used to be called a home economist. One difference is a food stylist gets paid a hell of a lot. Believe me! They cook the food and work with the creative director and photographer with the way it is shown in the photograph.

The setup I used was really simple because there was a perfect deck for natural light at the stlyists studio. I left the flash heads in the car! One rule - keep lighting simple.

hi
i liek the last one best, but for your first try you have done well

I would study the donna hay or good living(newspaper supplement) food shots, they all have a coupel of things in common
1. predominently white backgrounds
2. lit very well
3. kept simple in terms of composition.
4. the presentation of food is as important as the technical and artisitc qualities in the shot

Your first shots are nice but the backgound is too disturbing gettign nice diferential focus is important to emphasise the food.