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Hey Everyone!
Yesterday I photographed this Moroccan-style soup for the NZ Homeschool recipe book that we’re compiling, and thought I’d post a couple of the photos for critique:)
Which angle is best? Is the setup too busy? In the second photo, should I have simply had the black cloth for both behind the setup and the table, instead of the checked one on the table and the black hanging behind, for a more professional look?
These were taken on my SONY DSC-HX300 with natural window light :). The first photo was taken at 6.93mm, f/3.2, 1/125 sec, and ISO 160. The second was 23.17mm, f/4.5, 1/125 sec, and ISO 160.
Thank you for any advice for next time!
–Laura
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I am no expert on cookbook photography, but those pictures look simply delicious. So you succeeded there.
Good job on using natural light.
I find the colours in tablecloth in the first picture to be just a tad too much; maybe a pure white background would be worth experimenting with. There is so much colour that my eye is not drawn instantly to the meal, but rather wanders around looking for the subject for a few seconds. It depends how much you want the meal to blend in/contrast with its background.
Of course, it’s a matter preference, as well as how this image is being used. One could argue that the image being conveyed is “This is a deliciously spicy Moroccan meal…” rather than “This is what the dish looks like,” especially given the sheer number of elements in the picture. If of course that’s what your aiming for, you’re right on the money.On the second picture, IMO, the little bit of the tablecloth in the background (against the black background) really does seem out-of-place. Choose one or the other, not both.
Happy cooking,
WilliamThank you very much for the critique, @cheesestick!
Yes, I do feel like the background in the second photo should just be the black cloth…and come to think of it, maybe in the first photo also, as, like you said, it is colourful and distracting from the actual food. Thank you for pointing that out, as I hadn’t really thought of that before, and am wishing that I shot the same scene without the checked cloth. As you can imagine, it’s too late to retry as the soup is all eaten now lol!
–Laura
I was attracted to the 2nd shot much more than the first. I’m no expert either, but to my eyes, you did so much right in both shots – odd numbers of objects, placement, lighting is great, nice triangles for the eye to follow, tack sharp focus! If the tablecloth bothers you, you could select just the tablecloth area and drop exposure until it goes all black (or if it won’t go all black, also de-saturate just that area to black & white.
As for suggestion, the bowls on the left are not complete enough for the mind to fill in the entire shape (round) – just a tad more included on the left of the shot probably would have improved the shot.I would agree that the background is distracting. I like the low angle of the second shot best; the soup is also more prominent. I think I would pull the soup a little more to the center of the image. But in that shot the lighting looks a little more flat.
I like all your ingredient props. I think I would do a couple less lemons. The bread is looking somewhat pale, it’s probably the lighting. Good job at having layers: board, plates, bowls. The burlap doesn’t seem to go in such a little amount. My eye is confusing it with the bread.
That’s a unique recipe for the cookbook, Laura. You’re getting better with your still life shots.
-HannahWow, Laura, I’m impressed. It has been SO fun to see your growth in photography! VERY well done with the lighting. And like others mentioned, you were successful in making all the food look appealing! Second shot is my favorite as well.
With the first shot, one of the things that’s giving it such energy is the angle the board is placed on the tablecloth. The diagonal lines are certainly giving a sense of energy. Plus there are checkers on the cloth, giving action as well. If you wanted it to be more of a “restful” shot, you’d want to line the board up with the tablecloth so they were both going straight in the same direction. I’m not sure how much leeway you have with cropping, you might be able to just crop out the tablecloth altogether and manage a crop that looks something like what I attached (that is, where the edge of the screenshot cropped, not where the crop overlay is). 🙂
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Thank you for all your critique David, Hannah, and Lydia!!
@dotremain, thank you for the suggestion of desaturating the background, and leaving more of the bowls in the photos. When you said about triangles, were you referring to the three bowls – two soups and a bowl of yogurt – as making a triangle? Did you have any other triangles that you could see in the photo?
@blessingscaptured, thank you for your advice! Yep, agree about there being too many lime wedges! When I showed my dad the photos, he commented that no one would actually have that many lemons with their meal! And yes, the burlap seems out-of-place, probably since there was more in the setup (on the other spoon) but that was cropped out, so only a tiny bit could be seen
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@lenspirationlydia, in regard to cropping, the book is square, so because the photo of the soup will be filling the whole page, it needs to be square too! It’s a little limiting having to crop all the photos for the book square! I have another photo (as you can imagine, I took heaps!) that was a lot closer up, and I think it can be cropped to where there is no tablecloth showing…:)And thank you all for the encouraging words, too:)
–Laura
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