DSLRUsers.com

I was helping out with photographing the new winter menu at a restaurant
and it was decided that no plates would be used for some shots.

your thoughts?

Yumo. They work for me.

The lamb looks a little rare. Might redo that one.

I like the removal of plates, you don't eat them, they don't ususally add to the shot, so these work well for me (IMO). Some nice looking food too if I was eating real meals.

I don' tlike the lamb or gourmet pizza shot. The shadows are too harsh on the lamb shots.

The rest are absolutely divine and making me wonder why I'm drinking this crappy soup at the moment....

yeah most of the food was cooked for display only, guess it really shows up on the lamb, something for future reference thanks.

I guess i wanted to shoot it like a spider.


don't like the pizza one Wayne? i know theres a hint of flaring but i like that fact you can see the ingredients. how does'nt it work for you?

The food looks great but I do find the shadows on all shots to be intrusive. Can you let us know the lighting set up for these shots - appears to be only one light source.

sirhc55 wrote:The food looks great but I do find the shadows on all shots to be intrusive. Can you let us know the lighting set up for these shots - appears to be only one light source.

well i used three, one main back light and 2 side lights

Thanks for the info Redline. I would suggest then that the backlight is too powerful. A light setup with backlight at 11 through 1 and side lighting at 7 through 8 and 4 through 5 may soften the shadows

sirhc55 wrote:Thanks for the info Redline. I would suggest then that the backlight is too powerful. A light setup with backlight at 11 through 1 and side lighting at 7 through 8 and 4 through 5 may soften the shadows

ok

hi

great shots...can you share the lights setup?

thanks

Christian

byrt_001 wrote:hi

great shots...can you share the lights setup?

thanks

Christian

I had a set of flood lights as a back light, one single light on the left side(7 oclock) and a mirror around the 5 oclock region.
hope that helps

redline wrote:
I had a set of flood lights as a back light, one single light on the left side(7 oclock) and a mirror around the 5 oclock region.
hope that helps

They are very wonderful!!
Only one comment tho, the tomato on the last shot doesnt look very appetizing... maybe a bit redish one to mean 'fresh'??

Do you have a little pic around of the studio and setup?? please?

I didnt like the pizza shot as it looked rather flat compared to the others due to the nice backlighting and reflection from the non-plate

Sorry redline..none of these are doing anything for me. I can see a lot of effort has gone into the food preparation but I think your lighting is killing the mood.

Those cakes would beckon with some glistening highlights but as has already been mentioned it seems you have too much light coming from behind which is throwing the viewer's side of the product into shadow.

The last food shoot I was on was also a wintery theme and I think the key was the colour of light (slightly warm) and positioning. We had one light up high and behind, almost like a hair light and the only other light was a softbox from the left..a white board reflector filled the shadows on the right and yes, lunch was great!

Hope this helps a little..unfortunately I can't post the pics cos technically they're not mine to show! I was only assisting on the job!

Liam =]

Edit: on second glance, i think your rear light is in a fairly useable position..just dial it back a little or diffuse it some more. And get some light onto the front...

Redline like the plateless idea but not so keen on the shadows

All looks yummy though as food will be thing of the past for me soon, and it is a good idea though and keep playing i guess pending on how fussy you want to be.

Chris has nailed it wrt his lighting comments.

The shots are very obviously lit from the back, and therein lies the problem: the lighting - or at least the frontal shadow - is almost the dominant feature in these shots.

As Chris has said, the lighting needs to be better ballanced, probably by reducing - significantly - the intensity of the rearmost light.

I like the idea in principle, but the realisation is not so appealing.

they look so nice. awesome shots.

very nice idea with the no plates.

These shot have great potential. Just not quite right yet though.

i really do appreciate the feedback here it really great.
I did some other shots with plate are they just as bad?




any good wayne?

There is alot of potential here redline.

I think you also need to put some more PP into them as well..the colours seem very dull and lifeless but the detail is there - i think they need to be pushed a bit.

Liam

That steak has my name written all over it! Mmmmm, I have the perfect drop of red that would go with it too......

I really like the plateless idea, but agree the shadows are a little too dominant. Great stuff though, love food, and now I'm hungary

As examples of the food I think the shots work fine. The shadows don't bother me and I think your client will be pretty happy. We can get too pendantic about shadows, but the fact is, they exist in nature and wherever there is light.

I like the shots however...

It could be the conversion to jpeg but I find the colours are a bit faded.

How much saturation should you be using, I don't know, however it seems like a little bit more might entice me to eat my screen...

I hope you don't mind me messing with your image redline but Leigh is onto something there..

I've applied a standard S curve to show how much oomph you can get out of these shots - makes a huge difference!

Liam

Great concept! Have you thought of using a light table and having the light coming up from under the food?

A big sheet of white perspex will do the job and drop out the background shadows.

it all looks yummo to me. the lamb could be a bit more Pink

I'd feather select and use curves to even out some of that shadow and dark greens, but that's closer to making me hungry.

I was gonna say more color in the veges and contrast on the meet. The shot do look delicious.