food not so rummy

[Richard Joe-Leonn]

Food 212.JPG by Richard Joe-Leonn on Light Stalking

[Richard Joe-Leonn]

Help please I’ve never shot food before.

[Lenny Wollitz]

Unless it’s the small photo here… there is nothing in focus. What were your camera settings?

[Jake]

I too would like to see the settings you used. I also think you could use more light.

[Sylvain]

Aside from the lack of focus there are many other areas for improvements – get rid of yellow cast and increase lighting; remove highlights on ramequin; get the whole plate in the frame; have a straight mat; make sure lettuce is not wilted; clone out the distracting lines in the lower right corner; and most of all, make certain it is a veggie burger. LOL!!!

[Aaron Geis]

I agree with all of the above.

Food is very sensitive to the quality and color of the light.

I recommend starting by placing the food in some nice light, maybe by a large window but when there isn’t direct sunlight coming through, or if there is use a sheet or something to diffuse the light.

Then get a grey card and place it in the scene and photograph that.

Then carefully arrange the shot and place your point of focus very deliberately on part of the food at the front of the plate.

In Lightroom use the eyedropper on the grey card to get the color balance right.

Copy those settings and paste them into the shot of the food.

Go through the rest of the Develop module settings in Lightroom to fine tune the shot.

[Sylvain]

Thanks Aaron for the grey card tip.

[Lenny Wollitz]

Gray card question. I shoot everything in RAW. Is there an advantage to using a gray card instead of setting the white balance in PS Camera RAW or in Lightroom?

[Aaron Geis]

The grey card gives you a precise neutral to balance with using Camera RAW or Lightroom.

Whites in the scene may not be truly neutral and grey is supposed to be slightly better than white as a balance point because it is in the middle of the range (in practice I haven’t seen much difference between balancing with a white card or a grey card but the grey card helps with exposure as well so it serves double duty).

[Lenny Wollitz]

thank you Aaron!

[Author]

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