Hello guys. I am from Brazil and have been shooting food for a year or so. I can clearly see the improvement I've made. But some advice is always a good thing and I'd like to hear some from you. Here are some of the best pictures I have and anything good or bad you have to say will be a great help!
These are solid studio shots with good color and composition. A few improvements would be adding salt to the french fries and making the shrimp more pink.
Hey, Scott. Thanks for your help. Yeah, I do have to work on the details. A
Hey Daniel! Nice shots & I like your variety of backgrounds, plate shapes, seasoning grit, and textures choices. Obviously I don't know exactly how you shot these so overlook any seperfulous suggestions. Here's a few tips you can try that may help:
-Depth of field (DOF) could be more shallow to direct the viewer's eye to one specific spot in the image. Let everything else fall way out of focus. F/2.8-5.6 for low angles & 3/4. I find f/8 at most usually works pretty well for mostly straight down angles.
-Lens choice is very important. Typically 60mm+ As a minimum works best for shots like these with a longer 85mm-105mm being optimum. Prime lenses are substantially sharper and always have better shallow DOF than zooms.
-Cropping of images is an art in of itself. I'd try recropping some of these tighter while keeping the food OUT of the dead center of the frame. The bruschetta is a prime example of too much plate being shown.
-Plateing of the food, plate size and placement of the food on the plate are all considerations. For example, the glazed salmon shot may be stronger if the food was moved more to the left on the plate so it could be cropped tighter. Similar suggestion on the asparagus. Also with the asparagus, an additional garnish or seasoning grit on the plate would add extra interest and break up all the white plate.
Arguably, one of the most important considerations with food photography is for it to look like it's almost close enough to smell while looking fresh & moist while maintaining textures. Work to feel these emotions when composing your shots and follow your stomach.
Happy shooting!
Hey Studio Peck! Thanks a lot for a such a detailed comment. I do have a loto to improve, I believe I still shoot too based on the eye, you know? Also, here in Brazil it's still a bit hard to work on plating because people dont work with food stylists. Most of the time the plate comes straight form the kitchen or is all ste up by the chef itselfr. We can only move an iten or two. Thats the culture here, unles you're working for big companies or advertising.
I dont have much equipment, the canons 24-105 and 50mm are the only lenses I have. I've tried to use my 50mm more these days. It really delivers more sharpening and colors, but I do like the 24-105 for being more flexible.
Again, thanks for commmenting. I read every line and promise to put them to action!