Newbie learning to take food photos

[LifeInMacro]

Hi there! Glad to see so many delicious dishes that you've captured here. It's also encouraging to see that you make great attempts to improve, which is really good.

Most replies were touching on WB and colour control, so I won't go into that. What I want to comment on is the composition and content of your images. When faced with a dish, it is very tempting to just point and shoot. Afterall you can smell the goodness and your mouth is probably tingling with saliva. But the viewer of the image does not have the benefit of the senses of smell, taste and touch. So a lot of care has to be made to the details so that all these senses can be brought to the viewer. Essentially, that's the challenge for all food photographer.

A case in point. Take this photo for example. You probably have shot this in a hurry. Frankly, the visible contents of the soup are a mess. There's also something sticking out at 9 o'clock position, which I'm guessing its probably a prawn shell. Without spending too much time, you could have used a chopstick to pick out some nice and representative ingredients and set them properly before shooting. Details are important so pay attention to them.

Tom Yum Goong

Cheers, and hope to see see more of your food photos. For now, I gotta rush home to have my dinner. I'm hungry already!

 

[ntheni]

Hi there! Glad to see so many delicious dishes that you've captured here. It's also encouraging to see that you make great attempts to improve, which is really good.

Most replies were touching on WB and colour control, so I won't go into that. What I want to comment on is the composition and content of your images. When faced with a dish, it is very tempting to just point and shoot. Afterall you can smell the goodness and your mouth is probably tingling with saliva. But the viewer of the image does not have the benefit of the senses of smell, taste and touch. So a lot of care has to be made to the details so that all these senses can be brought to the viewer. Essentially, that's the challenge for all food photographer.

A case in point. Take this photo for example. You probably have shot this in a hurry. Frankly, the visible contents of the soup are a mess. There's also something sticking out at 9 o'clock position, which I'm guessing its probably a prawn shell. Without spending too much time, you could have used a chopstick to pick out some nice and representative ingredients and set them properly before shooting. Details are important so pay attention to them.

Cheers, and hope to see see more of your food photos. For now, I gotta rush home to have my dinner. I'm hungry already!

Thanks for reminding me about the composition Bro LifeInMacro. Guess I been putting too much attention on my WB and forgot about other points.
Also I'm not the one tingling with saliva hahaha I had quite a hard time defending the food from the "Evil paw" from my hungry friends hahaha
Each time I try to take photos they will say "Can already or not? Can eat already or not? Hungry leh..." lol
I will take more photos and polish up my photography skill

 

[ntheni]

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 ...

Thank for the help kutten!! Thanks for the effort showing me the picture. Your picture helped me understand a lot better

 

[ntheni]

Secret Recipe (IMM Jurong)

2 Stars Out of 5
**

 

[ntheni]

BBQ Stringray (AMK S11)

3 Stars Out of 5
***

 

[ntheni]

Chicken Cutlet (AMK S11)

4 Stars Out of 5
****

 

[tanshaohong]

your white balance and colour treatment have improved a lot since the start of this thread. good job man! really enjoyed your photos!

 

[ntheni]

your white balance and colour treatment have improved a lot since the start of this thread. good job man! really enjoyed your photos!

Thanks bro, lucky for me there are a few good shi Fu here to point out my mistake and took the effort to teach me what to do. Still not very good at it but will learn more to improve.

 

[holywing]

possible try not to crop so much and try to reduce the noise...

 

[ntheni]

possible try not to crop so much and try to reduce the noise...

Thanks for your comment bro, the close up photo i took because I want to show the detail of the food. Maybe next time I wil try other angle. As for the noise very hard to reduce because most of the photos I took is under low light. Still looking for some program to reduce the noise

 

[asthio88]

Very nice ntheni!!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Some of the pics look a lil dull (on my monitors) like the chicken cutlet & those from secret recipe. Perhaps up the vibrance/saturation a tad to make them more salivating? ;p

 

[ntheni]

Very nice ntheni!!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Some of the pics look a lil dull (on my monitors) like the chicken cutlet & those from secret recipe. Perhaps up the vibrance/saturation a tad to make them more salivating? ;p

Bro, I try to up le but up already the colour made the food look fake hahaha that why up a bit only

 

[ntheni]

Tip Top Curry Puff (AMK)

Have been eating their curry puff since I was a kid. Standard drop but still find it better than Old Chang Kee curry puff.

4 Stars Out of 5
****

 

[ntheni]

Pasta with Chicken Strips in Spicy Tomato Sauce
Breeks (Changi Airport T2)

3 Stars Out of 5
***

 

[ntheni]

Food at Imperial Herbal Restaurant (Vivocity) was fine but not fantastic

Sambal Kang Kong
Imperial Herbal Restaurant (Vivocity)

2 Stars Out of 5
**

 

[ntheni]

Prawns with Pumpkin Sauce taste rich & creamly at first mouth but you will feel "sick" of it if have too much of the prawns.

Prawns with Pumpkin Sauce
Imperial Herbal Restaurant (Vivocity)

3 Stars Out of 5
***

 

[ntheni]

Stir Fried Black Pepper Beef
Imperial Herbal Restaurant (Vivocity)

3 Stars Out of 5
***

 

[ntheni]

Imperial Herbal Restaurant (Vivocity)

2 Stars Out of 5
***

 

[holywing]

i find your photo lack of something. maybe u can try to ask how to improve your photo.

 

[nikonriana]

You're making me real hungry and i'm 2 hours more to dinner... ARGH!!!

haha.. anyway on the side note, yes i think the lighting can be improve... not an expert in food photography here, but just my humble opinion...