Newbie learning to take food photos

[2.8photography]

hi, thought i'd just give you a little tip that has helped me with food photography (which i also do a lot of) especially when it comes to complicated lighting conditions (e.g. sitting at a window-side table and getting both natural and artificial light on the plate). not sure if you're familiar with it already but here goes

what i normally do to reduce a particular colour cast is use the 'replace colour' tool under 'image' --> 'adjustments'. then you can select a colour you want to get rid of and play around with the threshold and mainly the saturation; i do sometimes change the lightness though. that should probably allow you to remove just the yellow cast (and desaturate it down to a grey). sometimes if the cast is only on one side of the photo you can simply use the marquee. but i usually make sure this is the last step of my pp so i get most of the contrast/brightness/saturation work done first before using this tool and then finally finishing with some precise levels work if needed.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3141/5842309368_da64068c6a_z.jpg
this one was mainly removing a slight blue cast from the restaurant lights as my WB was set based on sunlight colour temp (sorry i havent used clubsnap in a while so i cant seem to get the preview out)

 

[ntheni]

Thanks for the tip 2.8photography, is it something like this? But look like got some blue cast in it which I can't/don't know how to remove

 

[2.8photography]

i dont think there's really a blue cast in the pie photo (except at the top right, but if it's not on the food it should be fine).
for this shot maybe you can try increasing the contrast a little

this is probably the kind of colour cast you should be worried about http://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/hgwcache/review_photo/44866.jpg/500_290_1311422486.jpg

just thought i'd share that with you cos i saw you talking about a photoshop course or smth on a previous post haha

 

[ntheni]

i dont think there's really a blue cast in the pie photo (except at the top right, but if it's not on the food it should be fine).
for this shot maybe you can try increasing the contrast a little

this is probably the kind of colour cast you should be worried about http://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/hgwcache/review_photo/44866.jpg/500_290_1311422486.jpg

just thought i'd share that with you cos i saw you talking about a photoshop course or smth on a previous post haha

Thank you so much hahaa ya was thinking learning more about photoshop, I just know some simple basic only.

The photo you post
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3141/...64068c6a_z.jpg

Very nice!! The color very vibrant!!

 

[kutten]

Thanks for the tip 2.8photography, is it something like this? But look like got some blue cast in it which I can't/don't know how to remove

There is no blue cast at all. Still have some Yellow cast on egg white and plate. Egg white is more severe.
Place the eye dropper on the plate, a white plate should give quite equal amount of RGB reading (press "F8" to show the info tab).
Anyway, this Photo is very much better than before. Good try ...

 

[ntheni]

There is no blue cast at all. Still have some Yellow cast on egg white and plate. Egg white is more severe.
Place the eye dropper on the plate, a white plate should give quite equal amount of RGB reading (press "F8" to show the info tab).
Anyway, this Photo is very much better than before. Good try ...

Thanks kutten, I will try and post again

 

[asthio88]

You are getting there, ntheni. The problem with adjusting (reducing) via saturation is it sometimes reduce the 'overall' saturation hence making the photo dull. I don't see any blue cast (as seen on my monitor).

As pointed by kutten, you can use the eye dropper to have the reading on the neutral area. I mentioned in my earlier post the simplest way is using the white point (or gray point) dropper in curve if you know which part of the photo is gray or white. You may need to adjust the luminosity if it's too bright or changing the blending mode. It may not be perfect all the time but it works on most occasions. Like what I did to your don chicken pie, one click on the plate (which I assume is white) with the white point in curve did eliminate the obvious yellow cast. It didn't work as well if I were to click on the egg white (which is also white) and there would be a slight blue cast. It's trial and error.

You can refer to the following tutorials if you are photoshop user:

1. Using the white/gray/black point in curve:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmX2xu73tW0
( http://www.digital-photography-school.com/color-correction-with-the-curves-eyedropper-in-photoshop )



2. Using Gray Fill (only works if there's 50% gray tone somewhere in the image):

http://www.digital-photography-school.com/precise-color-cast-correction-with-gray-fill-layers


Other:

http://casaveneracion.com/color-correction-in-photography/


Cheers...

 

[ntheni]

Thanks asthio88, sound complicated... but lucky you post some link for me to see hehee I will try to learn it. Thanks!!!

 

[asthio88]

Thanks asthio88, sound complicated... but lucky you post some link for me to see hehee I will try to learn it. Thanks!!!

You are most welcome.... Let me know if there's anything I can be of help

 

[ntheni]

Japanese Fried Noodle
Tampopo (Takashimaya)

2 Stars Out of 5
**

 

[ntheni]

You are most welcome.... Let me know if there's anything I can be of help

Bro asthio88 & Bro kutten, i used the eye drop on the white plate and now we have blue cast in it. So how to remove the blue cast?

 

[ntheni]

Egg Tart
Jade Palace Seafood Restaurant (Forum)

3 Stars Out of 5
***

 

[asthio88]

Bro asthio88 & Bro kutten, i used the eye drop on the white plate and now we have blue cast in it. So how to remove the blue cast?

Hi ntheni, are you using the white point dropper in curve? You see the white on different parts of the white plate is not the same, you must take into consideration of the reflection (if there's any, due to lighting or from the food itself) as well as the shadow area. So which part of the white plate to click? It's the most 'neutral' area without reflection, shadow or cast. For me, I click on different areas and use the one that yields the best result. As mentioned in my earlier post, it's trial & error.

And what I did to the above picture (as posted earlier), was a click (with the white point dropper) on the plate. Sorry I can't remember which part though. As you can see, the photo is not perfect after the adjustment (it's a lil bright and some cast remained like in the egg white area) but the obvious yellow cast is gone. You can continue with another adjustment on the remainder area using the mask. Keep trying...

Have a nice weekend.

 

[ntheni]

Thanks bro asthio88, I will try to find the area. Will practice more!! Really thank you for your time and hope you can comment more on my future post

 

[RhysCheng]

Swensen Spice & Chic

nice attempt. maybe u wanna make ur aperture higher coz as u can see, half of ur chicken is out of focus, quite distracting. work hard!

 

[ntheni]

nice attempt. maybe u wanna make ur aperture higher coz as u can see, half of ur chicken is out of focus, quite distracting. work hard!

Thanks RhysCheng, will try to focus more next time

 

[asthio88]

Thanks bro asthio88, I will try to find the area. Will practice more!! Really thank you for your time and hope you can comment more on my future post

Hi ntheni, you are most welcome. I am still learning too and am glad to share. Yup, I do view your thread often and don't be afraid to post even if the photo is less thn perfect

 

[kutten]

Bro asthio88 & Bro kutten, i used the eye drop on the white plate and now we have blue cast in it. So how to remove the blue cast?

Yes, there are blue cast on the plate but not severe.
It is hard to determine the color cast visually unless it is very obvious. The best way to check for color cast is to make use of LAB Profile. Normally in the info palette, the default two display profiles are RGB and CMYK. Now, press 'F8' to bring out the info palette, next to the CMYK palette click on the small eye dropper and select "Lab Color'. When this is done and you will see RGB and LAB profiles from now onward.

LAB consists of Lightness (L) , A and B channel :
L - contains brightness information with no color information, value range from 0 (pure black, L=0, A=0,B=0) to 100 (pure white,L=100,A=0,B=0),
AB both zero indicates both black and white contains no color information.
A and B - both contains color information only, no brightness information.
A range from -A (green) to +A (Amber) and
B range from -B (blue) to +B (Yellow).
Ok, now look at your photo and the LAB info, -3 indicates slight blue cast. but sample point 2 is more severe (-14).
this is how you determine color cast. I got something on, got to go now. will show you how to remove cast tomorrow

 

[ntheni]

Yes, there are blue cast on the plate but not severe.
It is hard to determine the color cast visually unless it is very obvious. The best way to check for color cast is to make use of LAB Profile. Normally in the info palette, the default two display profiles are RGB and CMYK. Now, press 'F8' to bring out the info palette, next to the CMYK palette click on the small eye dropper and select "Lab Color'. When this is done and you will see RGB and LAB profiles from now onward.

LAB consists of Lightness (L) , A and B channel :
L - contains brightness information with no color information, value range from 0 (pure black) to 100 (pure white),
A and B - both contains color information only, no brightness information.
A range from -A (green) to +A (Amber) and
B range from -B (blue) to +B (Yellow).
Ok, now look at your photo and the LAB info, -3 indicates slight blue cast. but sample point 2 is more severe (-14).
this is how you determine color cast. I got something on, got to go now. will show you how to remove cast tomorrow

Wow.. That very detail!!! Thanks kutten!!! Will try it out

 

[kutten]

To remove the blue cast, place a sample point on the plate (use color sample tool, plate is preferred as it occupied bigger area than egg white) :

1) Bring out the curve layer
2) Press "Shift"+"Ctrl" and "Click" to mark the control points on the all the R,G, and B curve.
3) select "R" curve ( see attached picture), drag the control point up or down until the A value in the LAB info is close to 0. (need to use eye dropper to check the sample point for LAB info, quite tedious ...)

4) select "B" curve, drag the control point until B value is close to 0
5) if A value is shifted, go back to step (3) to fine tune. (in this photo, "G" curve don't seem to affect much on the cast so I don't use it.)

A better way to move the control point is to select and highlight the value in the output range (see the 216 value with the blue circle), then position the eye dropper over
the sample point (do not click as you do it the output value will be deselected), then adjust the up or down arrow key on the keyboard until the A value is close to 0.

if the egg white still remain some other color cast, you can bring out a new curve layer to repeat the same steps. But it may affect the white plate that you have already adjusted, so use selection tool to select the egg white and make sure the adjustment applies only to the egg white.

In any photo, you can make use the LAB info to check the white cloud, white plate, white shirt, black hair, black tyre e.t.c (or tree, blue sky [different AB value] etc when you understand the LAB concept) for color cast.
normally, AB values within ± 2 should be acceptable. If you want perfect 0, you are going to waste a lot of time on PP :what:

There are many ways to remove color cast, google search for other methods and stick to the one which is best for you.
Bottom line, it is better to improve the WB setting and lighting so that you don't have to waste so much time on the PP.

Hope this help ...