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.