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carballo · Joined: 23 Sep 2008 Posts: 5

I'm discouraged. For the amount of pictures from my portfolio I see that sales every day I go less. Colleagues with my same number of photos get better yields.

So bad I am?

I do something wrong?

(sorry for my English, I use translator and over I'm sad)

hhltdave5 · Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 8:59 am

You mainly do food which is what I work with most of the time so I think I can give you some ideas. Your work is quite good but I see a pattern in your work. A good portion of it is isolations or on whites. You put some food items down, arrange them in a nice way and get the shot.

Now what do I see that you can do to improve this? First I would think more natural settings such as a counter top, prep area, table etc. When you do the isolations or on whites you are limiting where the images can be used. Think more about doing it as a family would see food.

For example you have shots of tomatoes, lettuce, onions etc that could be used for a salad. Instead of just doing it sterile on white get a nice strainer, a warm and worn cutting board, a knife, have the items spilling freshly washed from the strainer onto the cutting board.

Get multiple shots of one set up or what I call "the shot within the shot." Get an overall shot then look into the shot and find another shot closer up, then change the angle of the camera etc. You can get half a dozen shots from one setup.

Do what I call "building the shot." Start with the main set up then add something that fits in with the main items. A knife, a grater, bowls, and so on. Combine these two methods and you now have a dozen or more shots.

I would also change up your lighting a bit. You are getting good isolation but you are loosing those nice popping highlights (spectral highlights) in many of your shots. Think of using back lighting. This will not only properly light the image from the front but will bring into play what is known as the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection. Basically what this means is that you are allowing the light from the back area to reflect up toward the camera giving those spectral highlights.

Here is a video that Laurin and I did on this that may be helpful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPlyldgFcW0

I would also think of showing more prepared food. Most of what you have is ingredient driven meaning you are showing the food in the natural state. This is fine but to balance it you need to show the food prepared. Without this you are missing an entire area of potential sales. Be careful though. If you are not versed in cooking you can mess up the shot. Food prepared for photography is often different than food prepared for eating.

I would try to get away from doing the same thing that everyone else is doing. I see lemons, apples, kiwis, etc. These have been done to death long ago. There are so many to choose from that the buyers often get bored going through so many that they will often choose something up front. Seeing that there are so many of these being submitted the older ones fall way back in the search very quickly and that is where they die.

Do things that are not done so often and whatever you do, do it better and different from everyone else.

Finally I would watch the product that you use. Many times your product looks nice and fresh but there are some where the product has seen better days. The bananas are pretty well bruised, some of the pepper stems looked old as well as some of the pineapple leaves. Unless you are purposely showing a food that is not in its prime use the best looking foods you can.

I hope this has helped.

warrenprice · Joined: 15 Dec 2009 Posts: 419 Location: Central Texas

It helped me. Thanks, Dave.

carballo · Joined: 23 Sep 2008 Posts: 5

Thanks Hhltdave5!

Delighted to have received your comments, I have been very helpful and makes me re-open mind. I was convinced that the problem may be the key words, as I see many of my photos are forgotten. I sincerely appreciate your hard work in helping me look and new points of view. Try to reinvent!

royster · Joined: 19 Apr 2009 Posts: 275 Location: England/Greece

That's what I like about these forums.The people here give away their time and experience freely to anyone that asks even though they may be competing in the same type of photography.
Well done guys keep it up

ktgraphics · Joined: 16 Jan 2008 Posts: 817 Location: Ont, Canada

Yeah but each offers their own style and ideas. :)

royster · Joined: 19 Apr 2009 Posts: 275 Location: England/Greece

aquafish · Joined: 10 Oct 2007 Posts: 81

I think you have a very professional portfolio. I just searched food white background, food isolated, a million results! - that's nearly 5 percent of the entire Shutterstock collection. Try looking for areas where there is more opportunity would be my advice and good luck!.