nyc's feast of san gennaro

Andy

every september, the streets of nyc's little italy are closed off to cars, and the annual orgy of food and italian culture is opened up for everyone, the feast of san gennaro is a feast for the eyes, the stomach :eat and the photographer, :photo of course. this photographer tries to attend each year, even though it's been virtually the same since i was a kid :rolleyes



these are just everyday new yorkers, out for probably the best lunch they'll have all year :lol3



this is a real treat, it's buffalo mozzerella, in between corn bread, and then lightly grilled.



i asked this fine gent how long he'd been doing the festival, he said, "not long, only 57 years :lol3



now *that's* a sandwich....



everyone leaves room for il dolce - in this case, some delicious cannolis :food


enjoy (italian street festival) photography,

kdog

andy wrote:

these are just everyday new yorkers, out for probably the best lunch they'll have all year

What was that that somebody said about unflattering candid eating shots? rofl

But really, you managed to capture the essence of the festival in a few photographs. Nicely done.

-joel

gus

That corn bread & buff cheese looks like the go mate. I dont think it would get a tick from the national heart foundation :uhoh

rutt

Great expression. Here is something you do which I'm just starting to think about, purposfully tilt the camera to show the shot from an interesting angle. In fact, I think I recognize this angle with the horizon tilted at about 30 [IMGl]http://www.moonriverphotography.com/photos/37064485-Th.jpg[/IMGl] degrees and the right side up. It's a cheerful angle. Has to be done right or it looks like a mistake but with enough tilt it looks like your signature.

Generally, I find this kind of event very hard to shoot. My shots are often disappointing to me. This shot and the one of all the guys chowing down are useful examples of how to make something of them.

Now pictures of food, I think that's a whole specialty all by itself. It's pretty easy for it not to look right. It's like portraits or even sexy shots. The pheromones have to be there. Of your food shots, the only one that looks appetizing to me is the corn bread on the grill. Deeper DOF would have been better for the fried things with tomato sauce in the first shot. I'm sure they are already pretty greasy and it doesn't work for some of them to look "soft" instead of "crisp".

I love the pile of onions and peppers in the shot I quoted above, but it really a food shot and my response isn't really a food response.

That first person shot of the sandwich has some sort of a yellow cast. I don't want that sandwich. But again, this isn't exactly a food shot.

That last shot of the cannolis has the same issue as the first. If they aren't all sharp, they look greasy which is an actual danger with this kind of food.

I used to go to this festival when I was in High School in NYC. I remember eating some sort of sausage sandwich that was too much for my considerable powers of digestion at the time. There is also a scene in The Godfather, Part 2 at this fair about a hundred years ago.

Dee

Yum
Good grief, I never heard of this festival! That's what you get for living on the Island or in NJ rather than Manhattan.

I'm just having lunch now, but looking at those pics sure made me hungry. However, I wouldn't be able to eat any of them on my low fat low salt diet unless I was prepared to run around Little Italy 5 times! I could eat maybe ONE Cannoli. Never heard of cornbread with Mozzarella in the middle either! Guess they're not using low fat low salt Mozzarella like I can get in the store either!

And yes, food shots are VERY difficult. I love the expression on the older man frying up those onions! So NY...

rutt

Better? In hopes of making them look less soggy I subjected them to DM's basic LAB recipe (see: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=18308) and a little very careful and assertive sharpening ala http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=9739 (as always better with full res).

USAIR

Good shots Andy
Now I hungry
We have something like that here in Newport Ky. called Italianfest
Great food and great time
#1 and 4 are my favorites

Thanks
Fred

Andy

rutt wrote:

That first person shot of the sandwich has some sort of a yellow cast. I don't want that sandwich. But again, this isn't exactly a food shot.

rutt - think back, many many years to when you were a child going to the san gennaro festival: ok now, close your eyes tight, and imagine the people, the smells, the sounds... got it? now, imagine and recall that each stall has a tent, an awning or other cover... think of the riot of colors that is present! now, add to that mix, the strong midday sunshine from an atmospherically clear sky ... and you'll now understand why the colors, everywhere in that place, are hinky.

they are, a true representation of what i saw.

ps: my shots are jpgs straight from the camera, as i simply copied to my laptop then uploaded a few for posting...

rutt

andy wrote:

rutt - think back, many many years to when you were a child going to the san gennaro festival: ok now, close your eyes tight, and imagine the people, the smells, the sounds... got it? now, imagine and recall that each stall has a tent, an awning or other cover... think of the riot of colors that is present! now, add to that mix, the strong midday sunshine from an atmospherically clear sky ... and you'll now understand why the colors, everywhere in that place, are hinky.

they are, a true representation of what i saw.

ps: my shots are jpgs straight from the camera, as i simply copied to my laptop then uploaded a few for posting...

The awning or tent makes sense. I was trying to figure out where that cast came from since the hand in front doesn't have it. Still, it doesn't help the sandwich look good to eat. I edited the shot of the fried things because I wanted to see if it was just the color, contrast, and sharpness that kept it from looking as delicious as it probably is. I guess my experiment makes me think that might be true, but it's a little inconclusive. I do think you need sharp focus everywhere with fried food.

I know almost nothing about it, but I do know that food photography is a specialty.

Khaos

Man I wish I was there. Nice set.

rutt

andy wrote:

rutt - think back, many many years to when you were a child

Many many years.
[IMGr]http://rutt.smugmug.com/photos/37104198-O.jpg[/IMGr]

andy wrote:

recall that each stall has a tent, an awning or other cover... think of the riot of colors that is present! now, add to that mix, the strong midday sunshine from an atmospherically clear sky ... and you'll now understand why the colors, everywhere in that place, are hinky.

they are, a true representation of what i saw.

I thought about this while I was running. That first person sandwich shot with the yellow shadow causing a cast on the one arm and sausages on the grill. The problem is there isn't enough context for the viewer to decode that yellow light. So the food looks unappetizing and the arm is puzzling. Not for you; you were there, but certainly for me. I'd like to have seen that yellow awning or some sort of clue.

I had the idea that you could accentuate the yellow in the arm and then use the black curve in CMYK to make the sausages look more normal, but it didn't work. That arm is already too yellow without being able to see where the light is coming from.

So I took the opposite approach and clipped the yellow in LAB and added some black and cyan in CMYK. (No selections.) No sharpening this time. I understand these were just out-of-the-camera jpegs and normally you'd correct exposure and sharpen a bit. I just wanted to see what would happen to the food if I corrected the colors to fix that cast. Here is what I got. Looks better to me without those unexplained impossible colors and the food looks a lot more appealing. Andy won't like it because he remembers something different, but what about others?

wholenewlight

rutt wrote:

Andy won't like it because he remembers something different, but what about others?

I just know I'm gaing weight simply looking at the food on this thread. :

I wasn't bothered by the yellow cast - just figured florescent light - but I'm not as selective as some.

Your correction is an improvement, though. Truly you are the guru of color management and post-processing control. Your posts are always an education for me.

Andy

rutt wrote:

Many many years.



I thought about this while I was running.

as i said, rutt - these were straight from the camera jpgs for a quick fun post within 30mins of leaving the festival - realtime reporting if you will

thanks for the color theory - i'll file it away for when i process these for real from raw files.

Harryb

Hey Andy,

Now that's one of the few things I do miss from NYC. How much weight did you put on?

Great shots, you really caught the feeling of the fest.

rutt

andy wrote:

as i said, rutt - these were straight from the camera jpgs for a quick fun post within 30mins of leaving the festival - realtime reporting if you will

thanks for the color theory - i'll file it away for when i process these for real from raw files.

You should take it as a compliment. I liked the shot enough to think about it as a color puzzle. A picture has to be pretty interesting for me to think about it that way without looking at it.

Now the selective focus on the fried food, that's another story. I think that a good lesson in something to avoid in food photography.

Andy

Harryb wrote:

Hey Andy,

Now that's one of the few things I do miss from NYC. How much weight did you put on?

Great shots, you really caught the feeling of the fest.

believe it or not: i had just had brunch prior to heading over there (client meeting) so i ate *nothing* at the festival. word.

Andy

rutt wrote:

You should take it as a compliment.

of course i do! i'm not one to think i can't learn something, and i thank you very much. i was merely saying that these were reportage shots, not worked up.....straight from the camera jpgs.

cheers rutt!