Come in here and critique some food photography (cake!)

[yllus]

A friend of mine is getting ready to open up her own bakery, meaning it's almost time for her business's website to go live. Being the most serious about photography out of all the people we commonly we, she asked if I would come over last weekend to take some photos.

We're going to try again this weekend or the next, and aside from adding more variety to the plates and backgrounds used, I'm curious about what I can do better. I'm going to stop short of buying lenses specifically for this task, but there must be improvements I can make at low cost.

Here are the resulting photos - criticism/feedback would be much appreciated.


Photos

1. Red Velvet Cake - full cake on round white plate

2. Red Velvet Cake - full cake on round white plate II

3. Red Velvet Cake - single slice on white plate

4. Red Velvet Cake - single slice on white plate, cinnamon hearts in background

5. Chocolate Cake w/Butter Cream - single slice on round white plate

6. Chocolate Cake w/Vanilla Butter Cream - full cake on wood spinner

7. Strawberry Shortcake - single slice on round blue plate


Equipment

- Canon EOS 40D DSLR body
- Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 lens
- Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens
- Canon 430EX II flash (not used)
- 2 x 500W Portable Halogen Work Lightgen Floodlight
- 2 x Bainbridge white foamboard

 

[ElFenix]

on the first two pics i'd move the focus point a bit further back. because you're focusing on the front, the back part of the cake is outside the dof and sort of blurs into the background. for me, it's kind of weird to look at.

 

[yllus]

Lessons I think I've learned:

- Bring light stands of some sort. The amusement of your assistants hand-holding 500W lights is something only you experience.

- While it didn't seem like it at the time, I actually did not have enough light for the job. Use a flash pointed at the (white) ceiling.

- This would also help me lower ISO (800 for those photos).

 

[ghostman]

I agree with ElFenix - the first two shots need more DOF. Shots 3 and 4 are the best - they are very sharp, shows good texture and well exposed. I prefer #4 over #3 because all of the cake is in focus. But I think the cinnamon hearts are a bit distracting since it's not clear what they are by just looking at the photos. The slice of chocolate cake (#5) looks underexposed. If the cake is on a white plate, make sure the plate is white in your photos. I prefer the photos of sliced cake than the whole cake. If presenting it as an ad, I think it would look better if you showed the full cake with a slice taken out and placed on a plate. That way, you see the outside and the inside of the cake in one shot. The strawberry shortcake (#7) needs more light where it matters; in this case, most of the cake is in shadow.

If the cake will be mostly displayed on plates and uniform white, a light box would be ideal for this. If no light box can be used or if you want to include larger items in your shot, I'd take the 430EX flash off-camera and bounce it off a large white surface or through a large white translucent surface (like paper). Either add another flash for the other side or use some foil as a reflector to bring some detail to the darker side.

 

[Caecus Veritas]

in addition to the comments above, i found the background for 1 & 2 sorta distracting. maybe it can be composed better?

 

[yllus]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
on the first two pics i'd move the focus point a bit further back. because you're focusing on the front, the back part of the cake is outside the dof and sort of blurs into the background. for me, it's kind of weird to look at.

Originally posted by: ghostman
I agree with ElFenix - the first two shots need more DOF. Shots 3 and 4 are the best - they are very sharp, shows good texture and well exposed. I prefer #4 over #3 because all of the cake is in focus. But I think the cinnamon hearts are a bit distracting since it's not clear what they are by just looking at the photos. The slice of chocolate cake (#5) looks underexposed. If the cake is on a white plate, make sure the plate is white in your photos. I prefer the photos of sliced cake than the whole cake. If presenting it as an ad, I think it would look better if you showed the full cake with a slice taken out and placed on a plate. That way, you see the outside and the inside of the cake in one shot. The strawberry shortcake (#7) needs more light where it matters; in this case, most of the cake is in shadow.

If the cake will be mostly displayed on plates and uniform white, a light box would be ideal for this. If no light box can be used or if you want to include larger items in your shot, I'd take the 430EX flash off-camera and bounce it off a large white surface or through a large white translucent surface (like paper). Either add another flash for the other side or use some foil as a reflector to bring some detail to the darker side.

Guys, thanks for taking a moment to take a peek. Very much appreciated.

I think the DOF thing is mostly a matter of personal preference, and the people who were there to view the results immediately (I stopped every hundred photos or so to download them to a laptop) thought the DOF looked good. Since then, I've been hearing a lot of people say they wished more was in focus. I think next time around everything will be shot stopped down to f/8 or so.

#5 is definitely underexposed, though it took someone else to say it for me to notice - I'll take note of the plate colour as a general guide in the future. The DOF on that shot is to me also a little irritating.

We had a slice vs. entire cake debate on the day of shooting, and we all agreed that if given a choice between one or the other, a slice is the more interesting photo. Next time we intend to follow the example of a number of baking cookbooks we got our hands on - showing the cake with the piece cut out just slightly pulled out.

My perception of #7 has always been one of dislike, now I know why. More light was definitely needed.

 

[jpeyton]

4 was the best.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Overall I think your photos could use slightly more brightening and you need to experiment more with your framing. Also check out some food magazines for inspiration.

http://www.foodportfolio.com/f...photography/index.html

If you compare your shots with the ones above, there's a certain "nom nom nom -ness" that the latter has a ton of. Also, the more I get into commercial photography the more I realize just how much staging is used. Photographers literally CONSTRUCT the scene and obsess over little details. It's all incredibly planned. There's very little of this "take what's given to you" that landscape and candid photographers like me are used to.

The big thing with backgrounds is that while they're out of focus, you still want them to complement the photo in some way like in texture, color, atmosphere, story, etc. A few random bowls and cups isn't going to do it.

1. White balance is a bit too blue. Framing and setup could be better.
2. Framing and setup could be better.
3. Needs wider DOF. Brighten.
4. "
5. "
6. Framing is uninteresting.
7. Lighting is too dark for the face of the cake facing the viewer.

 

[virtuamike]

The technical stuff isn't going to help you as much as food styling.

Go to the store and grab some magazines. Figure out what it is that makes their food look so appetizing. You need to showcase it better.

 

[soydios]

technicalities: use a tripod, set the camera to base ISO (like 200), and modify the aperture so that the entire subject, but nothing else, is in focus.

 

[shocksyde]

You're on the right track, but I find the lighting to be a bit flat and uninteresting. Also, you need to brighten some of those photos.

 

[twistedlogic]

Though I know nothing about food photography, by comparing your shots to the one FBB linked, it appears you need to use more color and tighter framing/cropping.

I really like how Michael Ray Photography used fresh strawberries and leaves along with there product. And as FBB mentions, the backgrounds either add to the shot (green BG with the salad type wrap, and a purple BG on the raspberry/blueberry angel cake) or are just blown out and seamless.

Now for some odd reason I'm getting hungry.