Nikas Culinaria » Food Photo 101

Tropical Still Life

Nika — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:47:16 +0000

(Don’t forget to enter Lou Manna’s “Best Looking Food of 2009 contest” to win everything you could possibly need for food photography! See my previous post for details. Contest ends February 16th, 2009)

You would think that I might have all sorts of time to dive back into food photography now that I have been laid off but its not been the case. I have been doing something MUCH more important – reconnecting with the family who I had to spend a lot of very stressful time away from this past year (really took a toll on us all).

I am trying to ease back into the wonderful world of food photography by doing some shots for Lou Manna’s contest (see above for details) – while also job hunting, an activity that takes precedence over any projects.

I am not certain that this batch of photos really hits on what is needed to win this contest of Lou’s. There isnt a whole lot of obvious styling – its much more subtle – its about the shape of the plate curves and the chunks of papaya. I consider this a study of the very odd looking papaya and, at base, I hope you learn something about this fruit and also are not repulsed by the odd black seeds and how they cling to the interior.

Some of these are more and others are less suitable for possible contest submissions. I would love to hear from you if you think any of these have an ineffable quality that you find arresting. Its ok if you dont find that in any, would like to hear about that too.

Here is an impromptu shot of the fruit after I hacked it to bits. People seem to like this one too (sans the label – a bit of photoshopping can deal with that)

This one plays with depth of field on a more obvious level.

I will be doing more studies before the contest deadline, I am not sure that this set represents the level of skill and styling that is competitive enough.

Food Photography Fame, Fortune, Free Olympus Camera!

Nika — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 14:39:31 +0000

What better way to start off the New Year than to strut your food photography stuff for Lou Manna!

Lou is running a fantastic contest he is calling the “Best Looking Food of 2009 contest” that offers the winning entry the following most fantastic swag!

Olympus E-520 camera kit
Kingston memory cards
Calumet lighting kit
complimentary admission to a Digital Food Photography for Food Bloggers Workshop held by Lou
dinner for two at a restaurant courtesy of Citysearch
exclusive opportunity to attend the photo shoot with Lou Manna at his studio in NYC to watch his vision for the cover of More Digital Food Photography be created

Follow this link for more particular details and to submit!

Enter to win!

You can see a message from Lou in his latest YouTube video below

He says in the “liner notes” to this video that

“the winning dish will be used as the subject for the cover of his forthcoming second book, More Digital Food Photography (to be published in the fall of 2009).

In conjunction with Citysearch, Olympus, Kingston, and Calumet, the search begins on January 1st and ends on February 16th, with the winner announced on February 23rd.”

If your into food photography and had been wanting to take your art to the next level I don’t have to tell you how amazing this opportunity is.

We win from the moment we enter (even if not everyone can win first place) because we get to have Lou consider our work!

Needless to say, the Olympus E-520 camera is an amazing addition to your growing camera collection. Olympus cameras are MUCH lighter than the Canon 30D that I use and the quality is out of this world. The Olympus E-520 has 4:3 sensor with 10 megapixels, a 2.7 inch LCD display, more tech details here. As this is the kit, a kit lens will be included. I am not certain which one it is as of this writing though.

Please see below for contest rules and details:

Submission Criteria: The winner will be based on the best looking food concept, innovation of presentation and not the quality of the photograph. Cellphone photos are acceptable. The subject can be a dish that you were served at a restaurant (please provide the restaurant name, chef name and description) or something that you’ve created in your very own kitchen (please provide a recipe and description). The image must be submitted in jpeg format, with dimensions of approximately 6” x 8” at a resolution of 72 dpi.

Cost: There will be a $10 processing fee for each submission.

Upon receipt of payment you will be sent instructions on how to sign into the contest page on Flickr.com where contestants can submit their photos for consideration and see the other entries.

Follow this link to contest page and submission buttons at bottom of the page

Judges: A panel of industry professionals ranging from food photographers, chefs, photo editors, restaurant reviewers, and food stylists will judge all submissions. Slated so far are Clark Wolf, Delores Custer, Chef Momo Attoui, as well as associates from the New York Times and the Culinary Institute of America.

Food Photo 101: Shooting BBQ

nika — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:00:02 +0000

(Dark and delicious BBQ’d and smoked pork butt)

I am sorry that the next class in this series has taken so long to produce.

Today I am going to step away from technical and aesthetic foci, be a bit less formal and try to tackle some of the challenges of shooting BBQ’d foods and scenes for your blog.

Some of you, like Curt, may have a preference (or obsession) for BBQ so many of your images are going to have similar BBQ related needs.

(Whole trout with asparagus, key limes, and grapefruit)

When I think of BBQ I think of my backyard and mostly grilling, which is not BBQing at all.

(Charcoal for grilled fish)

Grilling is, I think, much easier to shoot because the grill can be better lit and you are not trying to capture the unctuous depths of a pit smoker.

Compare:

Grilling

(Mozzarella stuffed blue cheese and basil hamburgers)

(Whole trout on the grill with asparagus)

Pit Smoker

(B.T.’s BBQ: Boston Butt Pork Slow roasted pit BBQ)

Both cooking methods can give you similar problems – mainly dark, lumpy chunks of delicious meat that is mostly not photogenic or not nearly photogenic enough to equal the beauty of it’s flavor.

(BBQ pork butt)

It is also hard to “food style” away the essential darkness of a perfectly smoked BBQ’d pork butt because that, in person, is what is so arresting in its beauty. In a photo, the pork butt looks like it has been burned and dried to inedibility (when, in fact, its smoked and moist).

(BBQ Pork Ribs)

Another problem with BBQ and grilling is that its a shame to lose the context by focusing too closely. If you show just the BBQ’d rib you miss the dramatic smoky grill, pit, or smoker. This means you might want to shoot outside and then lighting becomes less predictable (but exciting too). To do any sort of ambient outdoor shooting you need to master your manual settings, shoot lots of shots from many angles, and be patient!

B.T.’s Smokehouse: Slow roasted pit BBQ beef ribs

Go for detail, interesting point of view, drama, and emphasize context whenever possible.

(B.T.’s Smokehouse: Slow roasted pit BBQ beef brisket, pork butt, chicken)

Did I mention that you should be patient? Be patient with yourself mostly because you need to take the time to capture many alternative shots but you need to also take the time to go through all of those shots and asses which ones work, how they happened and also identify those that didn’t work. Those that didn’t work can be helpful teaching tools for you so that the next time you will know what to avoid (not that you would take any fewer shots, just that the ones you do take will likely not repeat too many of the previous mistakes).

(Slow roasted pork butt)

I have been including various shots above from my own grilling and BBQ. Next I am going to show some images from a shoot a couple of weeks ago that I did at Brian Trietman’s B.T.’s Smokehouse (see these two blog posts: An improbable meat nirvana in a BBQ wasteland, Criminally Good Smoked Salmon and Bacon – B.T.’s Smokehouse). I was shooting inside of his mini-restaurant and I had no special plates because I wanted the location and the non-fussy nature of the BBQ to show through.

I took a flash head but did not end up using it. Below you can see a shot of the set up – a table by some windows and a fluorescent light overhead. The light coming in from the windows was super-bright bluish light bouncing off of the snow outside. By far, the most dominant light was from the windows.

When I got in close to shoot that side of salmon, I got this (with a bit of white balance correction after shooting in RAW)

(B.T.’s Smokehouse: insanely delicious smoked salmon)

I wasn’t that happy with the light in that location and my attempts to bounce didn’t give me much sparkle as you can see below.

(B.T.’s Smokehouse: insane smoked bacon)

I did some other shooting in the mini-restaurant/service window but didn’t do much outside because the snow was just too much for getting much of a shot. I used my Canon 30D kit lens for the general shots below.

(B.T.’s Smokehouse: smoked beef jerky)

(B.T.’s Smokehouse: bacon for smoking – seasoning)

(B.T.’s Smokehouse: ribs for smoking – seasoning)

Your Task

Using everything you have learned in the past Food Photo 101 classes, go out and either shoot your own BBQ (I am sure Curt will because he has quite the set up and I am looking forward to seeing it!) or perhaps find an event where some real pit BBQers are doing their thing.

Post it to your blog and send us your link or post it to the Food Photo 101 group on Flickr.

Thats it! I am looking forward to seeing what you all submit.

Class Resources

To register for the newsletter that reviews each week’s topic, fill out the contact form at the bottom of this post (or on the Food Photo 101 page) and type “Food Photo 101” in the subject field.

Food Photo 101: Lou Manna’s Food Photography Workshop

nika — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 13:00:43 +0000

If you want to take your photography to the next level where you are using more than ambient light, where you are using strobes, then professional food photographer Lou Manna can be your gentle guide.

As I mentioned previously, you can register for this course through Workshops@Adorama. The next class, Digital Food Photography: Creating Delectable Images, is on March 2, 2008 – a Sunday, 10am to 5 pm. It is held at his studio at 126 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District, one block from Adorama.

Lou is simply fantastic. He is not rote in his approach, rather, he makes you feel like he really cares if you get what he is teaching you. The moment you walk in the door you immediately feel welcomed. He has teamed up with another food photographer who is also a chef, Dennis, who cooks lunch and the food for the shots later in the day.

When I walked in the door, I was shaking and strung out because I had the most horrific drive into NYC.

I had the misfortune to take a NY State garden parkway that was icy and wholly untreated. My car did donuts, floating in circles, rammed backwards up against a stone wall and came to rest facing traffic in the left lane (no breakdown lane on the left, just me and on coming traffic and an icy frictionless road). Two other vans swerved to miss me and flew into the guard rail, totaling them both. No one was hurt and my car started up so I was able to get out of the left lane and keep the pile up from continuing.

Even though it had some $2,100 worth of damage, I was able to limp further on into NYC for the class and then get home.

Anyways, I was hell bent on going to that class and was determined to enjoy it because I had been dreaming about it for years.

I thought I had come a long way but there were attendees who came from Chicago and even Istanbul, Turkey specifically for this class. Talk about commitment to learning food photography!

The first thing we did was pop our CD roms with our sample photos into one of the seemingly endless number of computers in Lou’s loft. In fact, we were surrounded by this fantastic mixture of technology, photographic studio equipment, food styling supplies, and century old NYC loft architecture. It was a bit dizzying!

It was great to see what other people were doing, such a great breadth of experience. We then took a break to grab some of the delicious lunch that Dennis had made for us (and which made the loft smell amazing all day).

We then got to see some of Lou’s huge body of work that spans all of the sorts of food photography that you can imagine. He does the most luminous, cheerful, bright, vibrant work. Toward the end of this we began to talk about the mechanics of how various images were shot. This was the segway to the next activity, setting up the lighting and related studio stuff to take great food photography!

We started with some of the hardest subjects you could shoot, wine and beverage bottles.

The image above shows some wine bottles that he was shooting. When working with liquid filled glass, you have to work really hard to make sure that the reflections and internal refractions and shapes all turn out pleasing in your photo. He would put up mirrors, meter light, put up dark forms, vellums, adjust lights, all the while taking test shots which we would see on a tethered giant HD flat screen TV.

The set up for any one shot can grow into an amazing array of all sorts of light modifiers. Its sort of neat to watch it grow and change to meet the needs of the subject.

Here you can see how complex it can get.

Lou does some amazing shots for Partida Tequila. Below you see a diagram he shared with us mapping out how he shot some of those tequila bottles.

After the bottles, we moved on to food shots.

I have to say that I loved the entire day and I learned many things, one of which is that I need to get a light meter to cure some of my strobe issues.

When it came time for us to do some food shots, I did a tiny bit of styling and then shot a bit but my hands were still shaking from the accident (adrenalin can really kill your dexterity) so it was sort of hard, much harder than I usually find when at home.

I would recommend this class wholeheartedly.

If you are not interested in the use of strobe, some of this may not be for you. If you want to master food photography and bring consistency to your work, the hallmark of professional photography, then use this workshop to enter the path to harnessing those pesky photons!

In search of a few good themes ..

Nika — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 16:22:58 +0000

I thought I was blocked before, the hacking didn’t help matters. I strongly urge you all to backup your databases and all blog related files. You wordpress people, you need to upgrade and not delay.

I also suggest that you keep an eye on those plugins that become classed “dangerous” because the wretched small-minded hackers have figured out how to exploit the plugin’s weakness to access your blog. In my case I am thinking its the forums (wp-forum 1.7.4) so I have disabled it. I am sorry to you all who use it but right now I have to figure out two things: a secure forum and then how to import everything from the current forum onto the new forum system.

The forum is not my highest priority right now tho because I have to do the following:

write up my Lou Manna post
find, test, and customize a new theme
Write the next food photo 101 class (so darn behind from all this disruption and I am so verrrrrry sorry)
catch up on my other posts!

There is more but I am trying to concentrate on these few things.

I am sorry if there are parts of the site that do not work correctly yet, thats part of the process. You may also find that the theme changes erratically from visit to visit or even during the same visit .. I am testing new themes when its like that. Sorry if it makes you feel dizzy!

Food Photo 101-5: Curt’s Results

Nika — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 13:05:05 +0000

Today we have Curt’s post on his results from the 5th lesson in the Food Photo 101 class. I think he did a fantastic job! Read on and learn from Curt

Finally, I have my results from Lesson 5 of Food Photo 101!

I have to first say that having weekend time makes a big difference, and I hope others following along took advantage of having natural light. This time of year means I leave either in the dark or just after dark, and I get home after dark, so the only light I get is the good old plug-it-in kind. I have a window that gets great afternoon light right onto my dining room table, and I really liked how it worked out.

Just a note about a bit of a difference I had with this lesson… I looked through a lot of my old photos along with the shots for this lesson, and I found that, even when I thought I was taking shots using the thirds, I’m off a bit. Of course, a bit here and there isn’t noticeable unless the grid is overlaid. But I found that with my stuff, I was using a slightly different ratio, I think, called the Golden Section. I’m not going to go into it too much, but the rule of thirds is a bit of a simplification of the Golden Section. It’s a ratio used since ancient Greece, and is supposed to be pleasing to the eye naturally. I think the reason is that it’s something I remember from school, and I just got used to using it then. There’s nothing wrong with the Rule of Thirds; I just found I missed it by more than a bit, but found I was hitting the Golden Section instead. Some of my photos I pushed to the Rule of Thirds, but also included examples of the Golden Section.

So what did I use for my photo subject? I went back to pears. Is this because I think pears look great? They are kind of nice looking, I suppose, but it’s mostly because it’s the fruit I most often have around, especially in quantities of more than 1 or 2.

Without further rambling, here are my Lesson 5 shots:

The first shot is a bit different, in that it’s not so much the intersections of the grid that I used, but the proportions within the grid as sections:

And the Golden Section grid overlaid:

The far left is all in shadow, with pretty much the whole section being empty space, with some shadow lines I found interesting. I also really lucked out with this glass slab; the light was hitting it ust right to have it refract along the back corner of the slab. Not planned, but I’ll take it!

Also, I did highlight some parts of intersections that lend themselves to showing off the intersections just a bit: the back corner and the part where the refracted light starts. Also, the axis for the right side of the grid goes along the shadow on the front pear, so the middle section ends up being in shadow, but with the fruit in the shadow instead of being empty.

The right side is then mostly the first pear in natural light.

Maybe not the best example, but I was happy with the shot.

My next shot, I did the “not Rule of Thirds” intentionally, to see if I could get things to look better by playing with the cropping. The first shot ends up looking just not balanced well, I think:

And it’s overlaid grid:

Nothing really fits well in the grid or on the interections, and it just looks like some pears on a table.

Now with some cropping, I think it gets a bit more interesting:

Showing the grid shows that the Rule of Thirds is more in effect now:

The main point is a blemish on the pear in the lower right intersection, with the edge of the pear in the upper right, and a shadow between two of the pears in the background is in the intersection of the upper left. Light and shadow both can be used for proportion, I think.

I also like that the background pears are mostly in the top third of the photo for some reason.

And for good measure, here’s a final shot I also liked, with the Golden Section showing the main focus in the middle section, but that’s about all it really showed me, so I didn’t include it:

I’m the first to admit I may be completely off base with this proportion stuff; for those of you in the class or just browsing, I’d appreciate any feedback, before Nika tells me how far off I am!

Class Resources

Learning from a Master – Lou Manna

Nika — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 15:59:44 +0000

OK kiddies, I just wanted to share my excitement about this fantastic class I will be taking this coming Sunday in NYC.

Lou Manna, food photographer extraordinaire, has been running food photography workshops for years and I have been wanting to attend one for years. Well, finally, I can afford to take one. This Sunday I will be driving down to NYC, into the heart of Manhattan, to Lou’s studio to soak in his experience and check out his studio.

The screen shot below shows you a description of the class.

If you want to attend his next class, check out the Adorama workshop sign up page. The next class is on March 2, 2008 (sign up here).

I just can NOT wait! You know how when a little dog is so excited that it’s wagging tail whips it’s whole little body around? Yeah, thats how I am feeling.

I will post back with a report on my experience.

About Lou Manna:

Lou Mannaâ€™s award-winning photographs have appeared in national ad campaigns, major magazines and over thirty cookbooks. While working as a photojournalist for the New York Times, Lou developed a passion for food photography as he was creating appealing images to accompany reviews by noted food critic and cookbook author, Craig Claiborne. Lou went on to establish his own studio on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan where he has produced thousands of digital images while working with a wide range of major advertising, corporate and restaurant clients including Barilla, Kraft Foods, Marriott, Starbucks, Kelloggâ€™s and Coca Cola. Honored to be one of an elite group of Olympus Visionary photographers, Lou recently authored Digital Food Photography, which is the only book on the art of food photography devoted exclusively to digital techniques: www.digitalfoodphotos.com

FP101-5: Rule of Thirds

Nika — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:00:41 +0000

Before I get into the core of this lesson, I wanted to let you all know about a change to this course.

To allow people more time to do these lessons, the timing has been changed (some of us do not have any light when we get home from work during the week!).

I will publish a lesson on the Tuesday and then Curt will publish his results (which I mirror here) two weeks later, on a day of his choosing. We will then send out the newsletter for that lesson that next Sunday. The next lesson will then be on that next Tuesday.

Thus, I am publishing this lesson on Tuesday January 15th. Curt will publish his results and you all will send me your links and/or you will upload your images sometime in the week of January 28th – February 1st. We will send out that lesson’s newsletter on February 3rd.

On to today’s class

I mentioned on the previous composition post, in swift passing, something called the thirds rule. I am going to talk in greater length about this handy concept today and then I want you to chose several shots of your own to analyze.

What is the Rule of Thirds

The term â€œruleâ€ is not meant to hem you into thinking that this is a hard and fast rule. This is more of a suggestion but an important one to help you develop your aesthetic â€œpalateâ€.

Without getting excessively technical, a composition that has itâ€™s focal points near the intersections of a tic-tac-toe box (shown below) will be perceived as more aesthetically pleasing.

A Few Examples

As with almost anything having to do with composition, its easier to show than it is to tell. I will simply show you some images that I shot this last weekend that have been marked up to show the grid.

Winter’s tulips

The grid overlay

Focal points show with blue circles

Further illustration of composition in terms of movement, notice all sorts of circular movement.

Here is another example of a photo that conforms to some extent with the rule of thirds

Cayenne Rosemary Cornish Game Hens – before roasting (I know, thats not rosemary)

The grid overlay

Grid with focal points outlined with circles

Your Homework

Find an image (or take a new one) that demonstrates the rule of thirds. If you know how to, add the lines like I did in the examples above to show how your photo conforms to the rule.

Now find a photo that doesn’t seem to be very pleasing in terms of composition and then do the same, add the lines. See how this photo may not be maximizing the rule.

Go a step further and see if you can modify that image by cropping to bring the various focal points closer in alignment with the grid intersections and see if that has a positive effect.

When you have done these things (or selected two images, one that uses the rule and one that doesn’t), upload it onto flickr, add the tag “fp101 rule of thirds” and then add those photos to the Flickr Food Photo 101 photo pool!

If you blog, please blog with your words and photos to describe how this exercise went for you. When you have done this, please send the link to me by filing out the contact form below, making sure to put “FP101-5 blog link” in the subject line.

Thats it! I am looking forward to seeing what you all submit.

Class Resources

<[contact form]

Food Photo 101 Holiday Contest Winners!

Nika — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 13:00:42 +0000

Welcome to everyone here in the new year, hope you all had great and festive holidays!

I would like to thank all of you who entered your beautiful work, excellent jobs!

I would also like to welcome the newly registered users, glad to have you all join!

As mentioned previously (FP101 Holiday Contest Prize Announcement and Food Photo 101 Holiday Contest and Food Photo 101 Holiday Contest: Finalized Prizes), we have three prizes for the top spots.

A list of all the entrantsâ€™ great photos are found at the bottom.

Decision Process

Curt and I looked at each of the photos with an eye to the things we covered in the first four lessons and whether the photo illustrated various aspects of those lessons. We had a hard time making these decisions because we do not want to discourage any of you all, in the least.

Over the next few weeks, we will send you each a note of constructive observations regarding your photo.

The Winning Entries

We awarded an honorable mention to YVONNE829 for the following photo:

Third Place

SummerTX submitted a delicious image of white chocolate raspberry cake. This image has got some great geometrics, neat stylistic details, and definitely delicious subject matter.

Second Place

Little-Rattle submitted this interesting image of a panettone pudding. We felt it did a good job of using different geometric shapes to guide the eye in a spiral into a central focus.

First Place

Tommy Williams submitted this delicious and dynamic image full of spirals, enticing lighting, delicious subject matter and serendipity (was taken on-location in a restaurant).

We think that these and the others submitted were all fantastic.

We will be running at least one more contest in the near future so if you didnt get a chance to submit your image this time around, make sure to do so next time!

Class Resources

Food Photo 101 Holiday Contest: Finalized Prizes

Nika — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 23:24:16 +0000

We have finalized the three prizes for First, Second, and Third places for the Food Photo 101 Holiday Contest (see details here “Food Photo 101 Holiday Contest” and “FP101 Holiday Contest Prize Announcement“).

The cookbook “The Prairie Table Cookbook” by Bill Kurtis will be added to the first place prize.

“From the Inside Flap
The Prairie Table Cookbook tells the story of todays beef revolution in recipes, pictures and stories. Its filled with historical recipes from the trail as well as modern dishes, including recipes contributed by todays top restaurateurs. Author Bill Kurtiss Tallgrass Beef Company represents a return to traditions started in the days of the trail drive. Free range, grass-fed cattle produce meat that consistently tastes better-and is better for you- than meat from corn-fed cattle. Discover the grass-fed beef revolution for yourself with The Prairie Table Cookbook.”

Do not miss out on this contest!

The deadline is December 30th so there is still time!

The rules are:

You have to be registered for the class (In case anyone wondered, weâ€™re only using your email info for class communication, nothing else).
You have to submit the photo to the Food Photo 101 group on Flickr, then respond to the Holiday Competition thread in the group with the photo that you are entering into the contest. (email Curt or me for help getting the entry posted to the thread). Also, add the tag to your photo of â€œfp101 contestâ€ (use the quotes).
Curt and I will decide the winner based on the best use of lessons 1 through 4.
Each person can enter up to 2 photos to be considered.
Entries have to be in by December 30.

In summary, we have the following prizes:

Class Resources

Technorati Tags: Food Photo 101, Holiday, Contest, cookbook, The Prairie Table Cookbook, Bill Kurtis, prize, Prairie, Tallgrass, Beef, Free range, grass-fed, cattle, corn-fed, Prairie Table, December

Nikas Culinaria » Food Photo 101

Tropical Still Life

Food Photography Fame, Fortune, Free Olympus Camera!

Food Photo 101: Shooting BBQ

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Class Resources

Food Photo 101: Lou Manna’s Food Photography Workshop

In search of a few good themes ..

Food Photo 101-5: Curt’s Results

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Class Resources

Learning from a Master – Lou Manna

FP101-5: Rule of Thirds

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Class Resources

Food Photo 101 Holiday Contest Winners!

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Class Resources

Food Photo 101 Holiday Contest: Finalized Prizes

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Class Resources