Lighting on food

[sanbizweb]

My family and I went out for Japanese food the other day to a new restaurant and I really wanted to document the experience and of course mess around with my new 7D and new 50mm lens. With that said, I took this picture (the first is the original and untouched but others I modified with some post processing to change the lighting, exposure, etc.

Tell me what you think is right and/or wrong with each, please. Thanks.

[Kaye]

Hi Yuni,
Got your PM thanks.

Without seeing this meal in real life, it is hard to tell the most realistic colour/lighting for this shot.

But I personally like the lighting in No.4 the best and also think the colours look more natural. (Next for me would be No. 5).

Nos 2 & 3 have a little too much white balance I think. eg. the lemon has lost its colour.

Your original to me seems to have similar colour tonings to No. 4. but is a little on the dark side.

If I was shooting a meal like this, I would personally try to focus on the whole meal (unless of course you want only a certain part of the meal to stand out) perhaps aiming for a nice DOF in the background or whatever else is on the table.

Just my thoughts.

[jerryph]

I am not really into food photography, but since you asked me to reply in PM, here are just my general impressions.

- Basically all the photos are very close with minor WB and exposure changes so no need to comment individually.

- As an exercise in playing with bokeh it has blurred areas in it which is ok

- The photo has nothing central that the eye is drawn to

- The angle is such that if I was not told what it was, would be difficult to tell what it is.

As far as I am concerned, food photography has one goal, to make your mouth water. To do that, I need to clearly see what it is,the shot has to be able to speak for itself.

Extremely shallow DOF here really hurts more than helps and your angle here can be said to do the same. There is nothing in focus except the lettuce and unless one is a rabbit, won't really make any kind of an impact... lol

I don't often post for CC, but before I do, I CC my own pic very hard. Always, always ask yourself:

- Is it basically technically correct, meaning, if I saw this with my own eyes, would it be representative of the real object/person? Is it properly lit, has interesting shadows, have dimension?

- what am I trying to say with this photo, and does it accomplish in displaying what I want it to?

- does it evoke anything? Does it make me hungry, sad, happy, mad?

So Yuni, does your photo for you answer any of these questions? If not, how could you improve it so that it did? What would you do next time to make it better?

[sanbizweb]

[QUOTE=jerryph;43145]

- As an exercise in playing with bokeh it has blurred areas in it which is ok

Well, this wasn't an excercise on bokeh though. It was an excercise on lighting and pushing limits.

I was tyring to take the shot in a very dark place without the use of a flash. I was trying to push the 50mm lens. I was also trying to see how high my ISO had to be in order to still see object and trying to figure out the graininess. I was trying to see the limitations of my new 7D.

- The photo has nothing central that the eye is drawn to

I was hoping that the eye be drawn to the focal point which was the fish itself, the only part that is REALLY in focus.

- The angle is such that if I was not told what it was, would be difficult to tell what it is.

For this shot... it was just food. It didn't really matter.

Extremely shallow DOF here really hurts more than helps and your angle here can be said to do the same. There is nothing in focus except the lettuce and unless one is a rabbit, won't really make any kind of an impact... lol

Well, the 50mm lens has a very shallow dof (f/1.2) and that has been the 'issue' (if we want to call it that) that I've had with this lens. The focal point is just under the lettuce actually, on the fish itself, which that was the goal. The shallow dof was on purpose to see the extent of the lens.

- what am I trying to say with this photo, and does it accomplish in displaying what I want it to?

I wasn't really trying to say anything at this point. lol I just testing the dof at f/1.2, the lighting, the ISO and graininess with these pushed settings.

Thanks for the critique! :) Much appreciated.

How about this one? What is this? Does that make your mouth water? LOL!

Technically speaking, I believe it's a bit dark though. Maybe increasing the exposure would have helped. :rolleyes:

http://sanbizweb.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/img_0669.jpg

[sanbizweb]

Thanks Kaye for your reply. Sorry mine has taken so long. :(


But I personally like the lighting in No.4 the best and also think the colours look more natural. (Next for me would be No. 5).


Your original to me seems to have similar colour tonings to No. 4. but is a little on the dark side.


That's funny that you commented on that because #4 was the one that I clicked on the 'auto' tone button on Lightroom.

That's my issue, figuring out the correct 'tones' together with the w/b and 'contrast' seems to be something that Lightroom seems to continously be correcting me on. :( I'll get it right eventually.

I didn't upload the entire series of photos but they were really taken to test out my new lens - 50mm f/1.2 USM lens. I'm not used to it and it's very difficult for me. I didn't want to shoot with flash and I'm assuming that's why the color in the original was so 'yellow'? That was actually the color of the ligthting in that place.

I tried lowerd the f#s to get more light and of course got this huge dof. :(

I tried increasing the ISO's (got up to 3200) and wasn't happy.

I tried bracketing (is that what that's called?) the exposure, increasing it, and it didn't work either. :(

What do you do in this case? Resign yourself to using a flash? Using my macro lens might have been a 'better' option?

I'll have to try something like this again and see what happens.

Any food for thought is welcomed! LOL! Sorry, I just had to! (lol)

[mickncrispy]

Hi Yuni, congrats on the new camera and lens. I love my 50mm lens (I only have the 1.8) and the first week I had it I shot everything I could find at f1.8 :) From your 1st set #4 looks to me like it has the most realistic colour, I don't mind #1 but perhaps is a little underexposed. It has the most detail in the fish which some of the lighter versions seem to have lost. To answer your question above I would probably have used some bounce flash if possible so that I could use a smaller aperture or lower ISO but I don't know if using a flash in a restaurant is appropriate either.

[sanbizweb]

Thanks Lisa for your comments.

Hi Yuni, congrats on the new camera and lens.

Thanks! :D

the first week I had it I shot everything I could find at f1.8

I don't feel so strange now. :) I had it on for 3 weeks. It really broke my heart to have to take it off last week. :p

I don't mind #1 but perhaps is a little underexposed.

That's what lightroom keeps telling me. lol

I've attached the original histogram of Image #1 (0674Hist1) and the modified histogram of Image #4 (0674Hist2) after I clicked the "auto" button under "tone". You'll notice Lightroom had a serious issue with the 'brightness' (or lack thereof, I should say) and the contrast. Notice I had my ISO at 1600 and the photo was still underexposed. :( Maybe having increased the ISO would have helped although I did that in other shots and it didn't do much difference. :(

To answer your question above I would probably have used some bounce flash if possible so that I could use a smaller aperture or lower ISO but I don't know if using a flash in a restaurant is appropriate either.

I didn't bring my external speedlite and I didn't use the internal flash b/c I know some people get REALLY REALLY annoyed at having a flash going off all the time. Also, this was a new restaurant I had never been to so I didn't know what to expect. I just knew I needed to click away with my new lens. ;)

[Kaye]

I tried bracketing (is that what that's called?) the exposure, increasing it, and it didn't work either.

What do you do in this case? Resign yourself to using a flash? Using my macro lens might have been a 'better' option?

Yuni,
Personally I would have tried a macro lens as I feel you would have got better focus on the "whole" meal, but will let the lens experts say more on this.

Different types of lighting will create a different hue on shots, so therefore I guess you need to play around with your wb settings even at home under different lights with no flash.

Just an idea for those times you cannot use a flash.... you could carry around one of the small LED torches which seems to give a fairly "real to life" type of light!!!

I cannot see an advantage in using bracketing, as I presume the meal was not moving :D :D

[sanbizweb]

I cannot see an advantage in using bracketing, as I presume the meal was not moving :D :D

So that's what that's used for! LOL! Good to know. ;)

Thanks Kaye for the suggestion and the help.