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seaspray2 · Joined: 09 Jan 2012 Posts: 270

Just looking for thoughts on this apple. Thanks in advance. I have been following the forum and appreciate all the time and effort you all put into it.

kenny123 · Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 3:41 am

original cropped too tight-crop shows out of focus and noise

semmickphoto · Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 5:53 am

Might also be too dark

themightyshrub · Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 6:12 am

You need to light the subject more. Just a little fill light at the front will make all the difference. You won't be able to just raie the exposure in post, partly because there's noise, and fiddling with the image will just make that worse, and also because if you take the exposure up any higher, those highlights will blow.

I also agree that it's cropped to tight.

As well as this, you need to think 'what makes my picture special?'. Why would people want to buy your picture of an apple over the THOUSANDS of other pictures of apples that are available. Food is an oversubscribed photo area, so the picture needs to be more than just technically good to make it, especially on a first ten.

See if you can find some posts by Dave (I think his forum name is hltdave5). He's the food master. Study his port and read all the advice he has given on this forum. He knows his stuff.

hhltdave5 · Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 8:23 am

Well thank you Heather for the nice words.

Everyone is correct. The main issue with the shot is that it under exposed. When doing food photography there are a couple of rules that really need to be followed.

First, use the best example of the food as possible. You want to showcase the food and if it is not up to par or the viewer cannot see it properly then it is not being shown off at its best. You want to make the viewer stick their head into the monitor and eat it up.

When it comes to exposure learn to use your eyes. When you look at the shot does it look right? Is it properly exposed? Is the focus point sharp and crisp? Learn to really "see" what you are creating and not just "look" at it.

Now you did do something interesting which most do not do and that is to show the apples from the bottom and not from the stem end. I give you points for being different.

From what I can see the focus does look soft on the main front apple but you did work toward using DOF in a proper manner which is also good.

As far as it being cropped too tightly I am not going to bust your chops too much on that point. How an image is cropped depends on several things, if copy space is going to be left for the buyer, are you cropping off any key element in the shot that should not be and if you are trying to show a certain part of the image.

To show you what I mean I just did a series of shots dealing with cupcakes. I wanted one to show off the use of frosting and topping but still let the viewer know it was indeed a cupcake. I shot it this way and am very happy with the results.

http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?gallery_id=66695#id=94204876

You can see that it is cropped rather tightly but it does two things, it allows copy space to be put in and it also shows off the frosting and topping.

So, a tightly cropped shot need not be a bad thing if done properly. In your shot you needed to give it a bit more breathing room because you would not really want to show off the end of the apple.

So, use your eyes properly, think through your shots before even picking up the camera and with food work follow my #1 rule and that is to pay attention to the details no matter how small.

seaspray2 · Joined: 09 Jan 2012 Posts: 270

I do like the open style crops but i see what you mean about the emphasis on the apple end....maybe not so good. I will submit another shot but you maythink it is too tightly cropped also. Thanks again for all the help

mauijon · Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 4282 Location: Maui, Hawaii

Wow, we haven't heard from Heather in a long long time. Howzit goin?

jeffbanke · Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 5:56 pm

Yes, I do think it is cropped too tight, although easily fixed ;-)

seaspray2 · Joined: 09 Jan 2012 Posts: 270

Wow...how did you do that? if it's not too hard to describe? Do you think that I could use this one for a submission?

ruxpriencdiam · Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 6:30 pm

Flowers are not recommended for your first ten.

All Jeff did was create a new file and add some black along side look carefully and you can see it.

How about the crop?

seaspray2 · Joined: 09 Jan 2012 Posts: 270

just adding the crop

seaspray2 · Joined: 09 Jan 2012 Posts: 270

I will post a better crop.

semmickphoto · Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 6:54 pm

Too much noise and too soft. Probably need to lower the ISO or shoot with better light.

jeffbanke · Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 12:18 am

seaspray2 · Joined: 09 Jan 2012 Posts: 270

thanks all for the advice. I forgot about no flowers in the first 10. Do you think the apples would be okay with a reshoot and better crop? Thanks again