Food Shoot #4 – Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Photos taken September 24th, 2012

For this photo shoot, my classmates decided to bring in pumpkin cupcakes decorated with cream cheese frosting and cinnamon. They brought a lot of good props, such as pumpkins and a cornucopia, to give the shoot an autumn feeling. This time, I really tried to play around with the objects and organization of the scene. We used the boom light and both fill lights (with diffusers attached to them) for this shoot. This created really harsh shadows though – in order to combat that, I tried turning on the classroom’s overhead lights. That worked really well to soften the picture while still leaving distinct shadows.

WHAT WORKED:

The above image is my favorite because I feel it is the most interesting to look at of those I took. Our teacher provided some wood panels for use as props, which blended really well with the color of the cupcake paper. This really allowed the warm colors of the cupcake, frosting and cinnamon to pop out from the background. The depth of field and object placement also turned out really nice in this photograph.

I also liked the pictures below. These pictures feature props in addition to the cupcakes. I really liked the simplicity of the top image, but having the props was nice too – they gave context to the cupcakes as well as adding a burst of intense color.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK:

Although the top picture is my favorite, there are some things I’m not really happy with in it. The paper obscures the actual cupcake in the image, only allowing the frosting to be seen. So, while the viewing angle may be dynamic, it’s hard to tell what kind of cupcakes they are exactly. That is why I really liked using the pumpkin props – they clue the viewer in to the fact that these are pumpkin-flavored cupcakes.

Also, while I like the composition in the image on the top right of my “other liked” photos, the top view does not really do the cupcakes justice – you lose the depth of the frosting this way, and it makes the food look really flat. However, if the angle of photography was too shallow (like in the top image) it was hard to see the actual cupcake. My favorite cupcake shot is actually in the top left photograph from the compilation – the viewer can easily see the height and shape of the cupcake, as well as the actual cupcake itself (not just the frosting). Despite this, I felt that the topmost image had the stronger composition, so I chose it as my favorite.

Overall, while I played around with the scene and objects this time around, I wasn’t really happy with the composition results I got. I will have to practice more at setting up a pleasing scene.

 

Food Shoot #3 – Guacamole and Chips

Photos taken September 17th, 2012

Guacamole was the subject of today’s photo shoot. There were a lot of extra props we could play around with for this shoot (different kinds of chips and whole avocados and tomatoes, among other things). My partner and I used the boom light and one fill light with a light diffuser for this photo shoot. The lighting came out a little harsh, but it looked fine as long as you took your pictures on the right side of the dish.

WHAT WORKED:

The above picture is my favorite because I feel that it is simpler than the ones with all of the extra vegetables in the background, and I feel that the composition is dynamic and interesting as well. The red of the tomatoes in the guacamole is reflected in the red cloth, and the brown color of the chips is repeated in the cutting board underneath the red cloth. One of my favorite things about this picture is the strength of the angles – the angles of the plate match the angles of the cutting board below it, and the darkness of the shadows complements the black color of the background. The circular shape of the guacamole bowl makes for a strong focus point, yet the angles keep your eyes moving around the picture.

I also really liked the pictures below and thought their compositions were strong as well. However, when my partner and I came to photograph the food, we didn’t play around with the last group’s setup very much at first (visible in the top two photographs). The photos came out well, but I think would like to try playing around with the setup of the food some more the next week in order to personalize our photos.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK:

I played around with my composition a lot. The square plate made it difficult to frame the picture well, so some of my composition attempts came out rather poorly. The two pictures below are some of my worst examples. In the picture on the left, the food feels like it’s being squished into the corner. On the right, the top half of the plate was cut off. I was trying to focus on the chips on the front of the plate, but the composition wasn’t tight enough to make this work.

I also had some problems getting the depth of field/focus of my picture correct. My camera was having problems picking up light, so I had to use a pretty big aperture. Because of this, my depth of field was pretty narrow, and sometimes items on the plate would be out of focus. In the picture on the left, the bowl of guacamole is out of focus, which is not what I wanted at all. In the picture on the right, the location of the lime pulls the viewer’s focus away from the guacamole.

 

Food Shoot #2 – California Roll Sushi

Photographs taken September 9th, 2012

For this photo shoot, my classmates Millei and Rachel brought in sushi for everyone to photograph. This time the focus was on the main dish (there were really no other food items included on the set, except for a garnish of lettuce). Millei and Rachel decided not to set up the boom light for this photo shoot (we used it with the soup photo shoot last time) in order to make the shadows softer and keep the pictures from looking so harsh. Without the main light, however, the set was rather dark, so I had to adjust my camera’s light sensitivity settings in order to get a good picture. I played around with my camera angle (I tried some shots from above this time) and depth of field as well.

WHAT WORKED:

The picture above was my favorite from the shoot. I took the picture by the window in order to see what natural lighting would do for the sushi. After reviewing all of my shots, I feel like the ones in natural lighting came out the best. I like the top photo the most because it really shows off the sushis’ form and texture. The shallow depth of field helps give the picture a soft look and adds to the calm mood of the piece. The composition is maybe a little left-heavy, but the angles of the chopsticks work to keep the viewer’s eyes moving throughout the whole photograph.

The pictures below are some other nice pictures from the photo shoot. The top two were also taken by the window, and the bottom two were taken under the artificial lighting. They all have strong compositions, but I feel that the top photo is the best.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK:

My biggest problem was that by the time it was my partner’s and my turn to take pictures, the sushi had started to fall apart due to previous teams using it. I didn’t really notice, however, until near the end of our allotted time. As I reviewed the photographs I’d taken, I saw that most of my photos show the “bad” side of the food. I’ll have to be more careful from now on to photograph the “good” side of the food so it can look as fresh and delicious as possible. The images below show what I mean – the seaweed was tearing and rice was looking messy (if you look at the bottom two photo out of the ones I liked, however, you can see that the sushi still looked good from the other side).

Towards the end of our time, I tried taking a few photos with my camera’s flash turned on in order to brighten up the pictures. Unfortunately, this also made them look really harsh and brought back the harsh shadows we had tried to avoid by not setting up the boom light. I do not think I will try using my flash again.

 

Food Shoot #1 – Black Bean and Sweet Potato Soup

Photos taken August 29th, 2012

This photo shoot was my first-ever attempt at food photography. For this shoot, I tried to include other objects around the main dish in order to give it some context. While doing this, I strived to keep a balanced and interesting composition. I’m still learning how to use the manual settings on my camera, so my goal is that my photographs will improve as the semester goes along. For this shoot I practiced using different depths of field to draw focus on to the main dish.

WHAT WORKED:

The photo pictured above is my favorite out of the ones I took because I feel the composition is the strongest. The angle and direction of the spoon lead the viewer’s eye towards the bread, which in turn directs the viewer’s attention towards the main dish. Because the composition causes the viewer to want to look at the other objects before letting their eyes settle on the dish, I feel that this photograph does a good job of giving the food context. I also feel that color is evenly balanced throughout the photo – the red of the napkin mimics the red of the soup, while the blue flows through the whole image. White and silver (in the bread, the spoon and the dishware) are also well balanced throughout this image.

I thought the next three photos were also very good. The compositions were not as strong, but they are all decent in their own way. The first one gives a better impression of a complete table setting than the above photo, and the last two give a closer view of the main dish. I also like the strong depth of field in the third image.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK:

These last three images are examples of some pictures that did not work. In the first photo, I took the photograph from too low of an angle. Because of this, the food is hardly visible in the photograph. During this shoot, I never took any photos from directly overhead – this is something I will try the next time around. In the second photo, the composition is really static and the objects are too crowded together in the frame. Also, in both the first and second photos, the classroom is visible in the background. I will need to be more careful to make sure I only photograph the set.

The third photo is very similar to the one I chose as my best, but there are some subtle differences that make the photo not work. One, the spoon is turned in the opposite direction. This directs the viewer’s eye to leave the photograph and not look at the food. The main dish in this photograph was also turned around 180 degrees. This caused the chips and parsley to be hidden. It also revealed crumbs, dripped soup, and a defect in the rim of the plate, making the food look unattractive.