What could I have done better to win this contest...

RandallPMcMurphy

Contest was a food photography contest...I'm a food guy and not a photography guy, but...since I like taking pictures and like cooking food, I figured hey.....I'd give it a college try.

The first contest, I won (olympus point and shoot as a prize)

The second contest, I thought I had in the bag, but I guess you can't win twice? (it isn't in the rules)

Just curious if my eyes are just jaded....and what I could have done better with my shot.

Here was my submission, and following, are the winners. The contest was you had a cook a few certain dishes/recipes from a menu. theme was a holiday cocktail party.




Darn, unfortunately, the winning pictures they took off the site in big format and the only version I could find is this.



Hard to tell from the small pictures.

Qarik

I like your shot overall. I think it is a bit underexposed imo. The food lucks yummy though. The only minor point is that there are too many elements which contributes to more cluttered feel. The bokeh is wonderful.

JustPlainMe

To start, I like your shot a lot! I'm definitely not a food photographer . . . I've learned how very hard it is. And the middle shot of the winning pictures doesn't do anything for me at all.

However, I agree that the shot is cluttered. The candle right behind the glass is very distracting; and the hard shadows from the plate on the left take away from the colors. The food is gloriously blurred with a beautiful DOF, but the shadow screams . . . I'm here, look at me!

Maybe a tighter shot of one of the plates with the glass at an angle behind? Who knows with these things. Photo contests often don't make sense to me. Take it all with a grain of salt! I'm glad you won the P&S, though. Please keep in mind that by pointing these things out, I'm actually critiquing myself---I would not have done nearly as well on a shot like this. I'm too chicken to post here.

Sarah

RandallPMcMurphy

thanks for the input, these were my two other ones I was choosing between.

In hindsight, I might have chosen the shrimp one as better photography, but...wanted to go for the wow factor as well.



I was initially trying to get this shot to be good, but couldn't get the right DOF and frame it right in my kitchen. Between the lighting and the 50mm lens I was using. I think next time I'll try my 18-200 and some better lighting.



I wish the DOF was everything on the table

I recently picked up some cheapie clamp lights from lowes with some 100watt bulbs that should help with the shadows. I built one of those cheap lightbox things with a white shower curtain and some foam board.

dontchu laugh!


Any suggestions on the ghetto setup above? I've been playing with the lights in different places but was a little dissapointed with the results.

managed to pull this one out.....does it still look too dark/underexposed?




btw - I'm shooting with a D300 and a 50mm 1.8 . I usually set the exposure at +.3, and keep pretty much the default profiles on the camera as far as everything else. I'm not brave enough to mess with them. Also, haven't vetured into RAW yet.

Qarik

I think I prefer the shrmip shot as well.

Your last shot could be straight out of a cook book. really well done..except still a bit dark for me. Maybe the historgram look okay on that but I still prefer a higher key shot on food. Somehow it makes it more appealing.

jfriend

RandallPMcMurphy wrote:

I was initially trying to get this shot to be good, but couldn't get the right DOF and frame it right in my kitchen. Between the lighting and the 50mm lens I was using. I think next time I'll try my 18-200 and some better lighting.



I wish the DOF was everything on the table

This shots was taken as 1/160th and f/2.8. The f/2.8 is giving you very shallow depth of field. If you want much better depth of field, you could put the camera on a tripod, use a remote shutter release (or the timer) and take this shot at f/16 and 1/5 second (which if I did my counting right is the same exposure). The f/16 would give you a lot more depth of field.

Also, for this shot, you really want to watch your background and make sure that it doesn't detract from your shot. In most cases for a shot like this where you want all the focus on the foreground, you probably want nothing except a plain color in the background, perhaps even black. You can see how the lines and shapes of the chair are intersecting with things on the table and the stuff on the left of the background is just clutter. The background will end up more in focus if you go to f/16 to get greater depth of field so you will have to worry about it even more.

You might also want to take some shots from a higher perspective so we can see more of the multiple dishes at once. A higher perspective sometimes makes it easier to manage the background too. Your 50mm prime is probably sharper than your 18-200. Unless you're trying to get some sort of unique perspective with the at 18mm or 200mm, I'd stick with the 50mm for shots like this.

RandallPMcMurphy

thanks for the input. Next week I have a lot on the "menu" so will give everyones suggestions a try.

Unfortunately, since I'm making the food to eat and not just take pics of like in cookbooks, the environment/backgrounds are always going to present a challenge I think, I have a small window to take shots before it gets cold! haha.