Second Try At Food Photography - Milk & Cookies

[The Student]

Aright guys, here it is round two for me.

My first attempt was sushi and you can find the thread here:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=134536&highlight=sushi

This is my second ever attempt at food photography and for this round I chose milk and cookies. I shot this on my dining room table and for lighting I had a soft box as my backlight, a strobe with a snoot as my key, and a strobe pointed at the wall to blow it out. I shot this with a Olympus OM-G camera with a 70-150mm f3.8 lens and the film was Kodak Porta 160VC.

I tried to take what you guys told me the first time into consideration for this shoot. Anymore criticism for this shoot is more then welcomed and I am already planning on doing another one soon.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3113/2552761682_cd99e4e1d9.jpg http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3178/2552761298_ef454c8cce.jpg

[Moojangles]

i like the angle of the first one, but why stack them on an upside down white thing? Looks unnatural to me... lay them out on a plate as if they're about to be eaten? Right now it looks like an odd sculpture.

[Zander]

I liked your sushi shot better.

[The Student]

i like the angle of the first one, but why stack them on an upside down white thing? Looks unnatural to me... lay them out on a plate as if they're about to be eaten? Right now it looks like an odd sculpture.

Thanks for the feedback Moojangles.

I've been told by my girlfriend the exact same thing you said about the stacking. To be honest I was going for a more vertical placement to better match the tall glass of milk. I am personally torn on if I even like it or not.

I do want to try this again and will use a wire rack to place the cookies on. I'll let you know when those are posted to see if it worked better. Thanks :dankk2:

[tex098]

The composition is OK in both. The first one is alot nicer than the second because it looks a little too flat to me. I think that the camera angle is very nice in the first photo.

[Andrew Brinkhaus]

I do want to try this again and will use a wire rack to place the cookies on.

Good idea. Try to get some shimmer off the metal, and really get in there close on the cookies surface, hungry people want to see some detail. One thing you will notice if you look at professional food photography is generally the item(s) takes up the entire frame, if not exceeding the edges.

Also, try making the cookies backlight/kicker a little sharper, similar to your sushi shot. A little warmth in the color would really add to the "fresh out of the oven" feel. The colors in your shots now feel a little... sterile.

Can't wait to see your next go of it!

[Frizzle Fry]

Showing a lot of detail is key. If you can think of a way to give visual cues that the cookies are "hot out of the oven," and the milk is "ice cold," it will go a long way toward selling it.

Maybe the chocolate on the cookie appears melted (shiny surface)? How about a glass of milk that has condensation on it? The beading water gives a sense of "cold milk." There's a lot of room for creativity here.

Sidebar: What other subconscious visual cues are used in photography to draw the viewer into the scene? Interesting stuff.