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adinamnt · Joined: 25 Feb 2012 Posts: 4

Hi,

I'm trying for the second time to get admitted at Shutterstock and I'm thinking to include some food photos in the set of 10. I'm posting here a few, please tell me your opinion about them. Thank you.

ruxpriencdiam · Posted: Fri May 04, 2012 6:42 am

The lighting is uneven also the chicken looks way undercooked and not tasty looking at all. And chicken 1 the DOF is too shallow on the plate.

We need the 100% crops to check noise and focus.

Dave will be able to help more, shooting food is complicated.

hhltdave5 · Posted: Fri May 04, 2012 7:15 am

In order to do food photography well you need to break the process down into several areas: Proper food purchase, proper cooking, effective lighting and styling. Just making something to eat and putting it on the plate is really just taking pictures of food and not food photography. Just taking shots of food is what I call "Plop and shoot."

Let's take your first shot which looks like green beans. First they look like they are out of a can which is usually not a good idea. Canned products are loaded with salt and cooked to death before they are canned. Over cooking causes this kind of grayish color to the beans. Not appetizing.

The best way to cook vegetables for photography is to what do what we call blanching and shocking. You take fresh green produce and put it in boiling water for barely a minute then take it out and put it in ice water. This will bring out the chlorophyll which makes it look very green.

As Barry mentioned the chicken looks pretty under cooked which not only is not something nice to look at but could end up killing someone if they ate it.

Food is prepared differently in many cases for photography than it is for eating. Many times the outside will look like it is cooked properly but the inside is not. This is done by searing the outside just enough to make it look cooked. Over cooking protein can dry out things like chicken so it is often just made to look like it is cooked.

You can of course cook it all the way through if you are careful as not to dry it out. It just depends on how you want your final product to look.

Watch how you place garnishes on the plate. If you look at the chicken you will see that you have a bunch of dried herbs on the right side and hardly any on the left. It should be more evenly distributed. Don't place them piece by piece because then it looks over styled but be careful about applying things like this.

Food photography is not as easy as it looks. When I do my food photography workshops the one thing that everyone says is " I never knew there was so much involved in this." It is all about the details and paying attention to them.

Now this does not mean that you cannot take a good food image unless you go through long detailed steps in buying, cooking, styling etc. In the end it will help create a better image because you are controlling every aspect of the shot. I make about 98% of everything that I have in my portfolio. If you buy a food item already prepared just make sure it looks good, you light it properly and use the necessary props to give you a good image.

I suggest looking at good food images to get an idea of what to shoot for.

jhuls · Joined: 02 Jan 2012 Posts: 1046

I think "chicken roast 1" was meant to be raw right? the problem is that you haven't told a clear story. If you are showing food prep then it needs to be more clear right now you have it styled as a something that has been cooked and ready to serve. Also it has thawed or sat out too long and there are parts of the chicken that appear to be cooked and others that seem raw which also plays into the confusion. Remember when shooting, others only know what you show them, they don't know what the thoughts were in your head when you shot the image, you need to tell the whole story.

adinamnt · Joined: 25 Feb 2012 Posts: 4

Thank you very much. I really didn't realize all the details you mentioned.

I'm an amateur photographer but I really want to improve in this area. As for cooking, it's clear I'm not good at all. This is the kind of food I eat, and I asure you it is prety healthy (the chicken is well cooked but it was boiled in water in the oven, with no added oil, that's why it looks colorless). So I should stop shooting what I personally eat, it's pretty tasteless but I didn't realize this is obvious in the photos. Maybe I should try to shoot raw fruits or vegetables for now.

I also like to shoot flowers or other nature scenes, but I learned Shutterstock is not very interested in this kind of photos (the first set I submitted for admision was rejected for "limited commercial value"). However I will post some flower photos, please tell me if they would have any chance to be accepted (they weren't submitted the first time). Thank you.

ruxpriencdiam · Posted: Fri May 04, 2012 8:39 am

OOF composition and lighting and forget flowers for a first ten.

adinamnt · Joined: 25 Feb 2012 Posts: 4

What subjects would you suggest for the first ten?

copidosoma · Joined: 17 Nov 2009 Posts: 3800 Location: Canada

adinamnt · Joined: 25 Feb 2012 Posts: 4

very useful information, thank you very much

rinder99 · Posted: Fri May 04, 2012 10:26 am

Commercial Food or Product Photography is an artform and a speciality. You have to be an artist at styling and lighting techniques and that can take years to do at the level here. Food has to read delicious and appetizing , yours does the opposite Im afraid. Same goes for flowers and Landscapes, They must be at the pro level or pretty close to it. Your job as a stock photographer is to tell a story visually to help a buyer sell a concept or promote a Idea In the simplest way possible.Go to Youtube and type in rindersmith. Dave and I have 3 books out that might help. heres a simple shot I just did about Dental care and brushing your teeth.

www.rindersmithphotography.com

hhltdave5 · Posted: Fri May 04, 2012 11:09 am