Shooting Food....

A

aerosolcheese

Well-known member
My dad and I opened a restaurant about 9 months ago and I'm redesigning the menu. I decided to include pictures of the food, so I have been styling the food to the best of my ability and shooting the pics with my d100. Here is a shot of a double cheeseburger. This is the first time I attempt something like this, so if anyone can give me some pointers, I would appreciate it. I really don't have much time, I only took about 20 min out of my day to shoot this one...
beast2.jpg
 
Lovely shot, and I bet you'll do well.

You could try with some more backlight to separate it from the background some, as seen here:
3ptBack.jpg

and the table is a little too busy for me; the color is too strong and could be toned down some; UNLESS you'd include it with some cutlery or a "serviette". I am not sure if that is what you normally serve the burgers on or not; if not, try something more neutral, or go the other way, and make it look like the way you normally serve them.

But it does look yummy!!

EDIT: wait, has the picture just changed? The table now seems more blurry than before? It is an improvement anyway.
 
haha thanks... I didn't think I would get this many replies on a saturday night... anyway... I just added a little bit of a blur to give it that "heavenly" look.,
 
"Don't look at me like that! I'm not just a piece of meat!"

Honestly that shot looks great... I agree about the lettuce and tomato, but man all you guys with your DSLRs are killing me... the potential is so high. That definitely looks pro to me.
 
I agree! Makes me want to get a DSLR and try getting some great shots like that. I know in commercials they don't use real food as it doesn't look as appetizing or even very good at all. I forget what they use and I may be wrong on this, but maybe the same applies for pictures as well. But, then again for your needs maybe making fake food isn't really neccessary.

Just a thought.

-Kegan
 
Perhaps you could crop off a few cm off the top?Nice lighting though :)
 
That pic looks great. I agree about the lettuce and tomato being on top. UNLESS, thats not how you serve it.

Also, what might really make the image look delicious is right before you build the burger, pull those slices of tomato out of a tub of ice water, keep 'em crisp, preferably keeping the water droplets on the tomato.

Rick
 
rlm7189 said:
That pic looks great. I agree about the lettuce and tomato being on top. UNLESS, thats not how you serve it.

Also, what might really make the image look delicious is right before you build the burger, pull those slices of tomato out of a tub of ice water, keep 'em crisp, preferably keeping the water droplets on the tomato.

Rick
Click to expand...

water droplets do add that stronger touch to the photo, making it inviting.
 
Water drops on the lettuce and tomato. Boost the saturation on the cheese and tomatoes. Make the top of the bun darker, it'll give it a more 'toasted' look and feel to it. If you're going to re-shoot, don't melt the cheese anymore than it already is. In fact, you might want it a little less melted than in that picture, because it's on the verge of dangerously melted, so it doesnt look appetizing. In terms of the stylings of the meat, the distribution of the seeds on the bun, and the overall build of the burger, I'd say you're gonna have yourself a damn good looking menu. But try the donig the things I suggested, they might help.
 
I didnt see the image with the stool in focus but i think i would preffer if the blur was more convincing as if it occured as a gradient. backlight would defenilty help and a diffrent type of blur if used if it was done in post.
Ide say it looks delicious as well but something doesnt look 2 kosher :).
 
Isaac_Brody said:
I cropped and did a little photoshop color work on it. So hungry now. :)

hungry6up.jpg
Click to expand...

Well, this is as good a picture, or actually way better pic, than I've seen in restaurants!

(and nice post-work, Isaac!)
 
yum... oh great, now I'm hankering for a Sloppy Joe.. :crybaby:
 
Oh, and dont be afraid to calculatingly squirt just a touch of ketchup and/or mustard with a squeeze bottle on top of the burger so it just peeks out from under the bun. Kind of like you are decorating a cake, only instead of icing, you are layering condiments on this bad boy. That will make it ready to chomp! Ahh, not like it doesn't look incredibly delicious now....before I've had lunch...
 
hahaha thanks to all for the replies... I'm gonna try it again with two 300w britek softboxes rather than the sunlight through the window that I have above. I'm also waiting on my 80-200 AF-D rather than the crappy 70-300g that I used in that shot above.
 
A light coat of varnish works great on bread or buns. They appear moist and warm looking.

I guess you could always add some wisps of steam if you have motion.

Looks nice otherwise.

I useed to laugh watching food preps putting Acetone in chilli or Clam chowder.
Right before the camera would roll, they'd step in with an eye dropper of Hydrocloric acid, and squirt it into the soup. The stuff would start boiling and steam would shoot out "ROLL CAMERAS!" Looked great on screen though.

Jeff :beer:
 
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