Some food pictures

[snousle]

These photos were taken using the new lighting setup. This begins the "shortlist" of photos that will be used for the web page. This also represents the limits of my abilities so far, both in presentation and actual photography. Photographic suggestions would be welcome, since I have a sense that these could be further improved, but other than some focus issues I'm not sure exactly what's wrong. (I don't know about the wide-aperture approach, it's starting to annoy me more than please me, but I see it in magazines all the time.)



Uncooked squash agnolotti:



...with some beurre blanc, caramelized shallots, and parsley. This, or something like it, is going to be one of my standards, since it's popular, vegetarian, and not very difficult to make.



I'm unsure whether this faux-grungy-antique plate is going to work. It's from a set my mother gave me a few years back. Would you want to eat off of that?

Another presentation:



Some pork and zucchini with said agnolotti. This particular arrangement is not actually something I would serve, but it illustrates some difficulties I'm having with color. Things in the red range look indistinct and washed out, while the zucchini is so dark as to lose all detail.



A presentation I'm thinking of for a "tapas party" where many small plates are served and shared:

Comments

[darkphuque.livejournal.com]

Food Stylists the arrange the food for a magazine photo shoot have some interesting techniques for doing the photography and, more often then not, the food isn't what it seems to be. I remember a TV program all about such things and the use of things like Vaseline and cold creams adding to, or in place of the real food was normative. I don't remember what they used for Ice Cream, but it wasn't real ice cream because the lighting would have melted it. I don't remember the source, but there was a PBS program about such things. Maybe, with some research you could get a copy of the show?

[snousle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know they cheat like hell, and for a variety of reasons I don't do that. Personally I find that practice quite distasteful!

OBVIOUSLY LIES, WHILE DISTASTEFUL SELL....

[darkphuque.livejournal.com]

I guess its all about the image and that is what sells. When I thought about marketing my Pastries/Cookies/ Tea Sweets, I checked out how much of the food photography was done with phony stuff and came away shocked. But I wonder... are the food shots in Food Magazine done with phony stuff? That would be criminal to know that a particular shot in Gourmet was done with nonfood products,made to look like food products.

Might it be possible to talk to a couple of Professional Chefs to get input?

[growler-south.livejournal.com]

As I see it, capturing photons in a grid and converting them to digital data is cheating already. The aim of a photograph is to convey to others what you experience with your own eyes, and if the camera needs a helping hand in the form of vaseline to capture that, then it's only a little bit more cheating.

Besides, a photograph can't express the smell, feeling or taste of food, so you're perfectly justified in bumping up the beauty to compensate. ;-)

Disclaimer: For some reason Brian gets upset when I photoshop my images, so dont feel like you're the odd one out here.

[snousle.livejournal.com]

I feel my soul slipping away already!