Assignment #110: Commercial Food Shoot (ASSIGNMENT)

Janet texted me and is swamped at work. She has requested I set this up for her, ie: her idea/concept of the assignment. She will judge this assignment upon closing and select the best in her opinion.

This assignment is a take-out, er.... take-off from a previous food assignment #18. However, this one will have a bit of a twist and more of a commercial angle. "Commercial Food/Product/Menu" is the assignment.

Your objective is to capture an image which would be suitable for a commercial application. This could be a static food item or meal. It could be an item or series of items with text, as in a menu. Appetizer, food, dessert and beverage are all fair game.

Consideration should be taken in the areas of food placement and presentation, lighting, context, colors, depth of field, manner of use (menu, billboard, web etc) Text is allowable either in/on the image or as a set-up description.

This assignment will close at MIDNIGHT July 1st, 2013.

Specifics:
1) Camera phone, point & shoot, DSLR, or even film; all shooters are welcome and encouraged to participate!
2) Post processing is allowed (and encouraged) for this assignment. It's CREATIVE!
3) All forum posting rules apply regarding suitability of an image to post.
4) Your photograph for the entry has to have been taken between now and Monday, July 1st at midnight.


Some examples might include:

Possible menu shot for beef tenderloin:


Or BBQ:


With a little creative cropping and some text, possibly a dessert item on a poster:




Or maybe a cookbook image?


.

<Runs off to dig through Instagram for inspiration>

Question about the entry. Do we need to label what type of commercial use it would be for? e.g. menu, mag advert, cookbook or <fill in the blank>?

I'll let Janet try to respond, but my "guess" is, yes - set the stage somehow. Or introduce copy/text on the image itself. An example might be the following. It's main content is a commercial level quality of a food shoot of some variety and it has commercial aspects to the content. At least that's how I'll approach it unless I hear different. Based on what I 'think' the assignment is, I'd do an entry like this:



Neighborhood flyer

thanks, btw, did you shoot that ^^^. Nice!

Yep. SaltLick at Dell Diamond maybe three? years ago. It was when ST_Scott hosted a TWT photo seminar at Woodbutchers church rec hall. Dinner the night before the class. And Thanks!

Disregard.....

What Scott has posted above is correct ( and looks great!)

The judging will lean more toward the photo itself than the entire presentation, but let's see your best magazine ad!

Well there we go!

.

Edited above. Thanks Scott.

not sure I got the food stylist skillz or the photog chops for this one.
First pass. Self-critique below. Other insights/critques welcome
-not the best angle
-need some fill light
-corn needed a spritz of oil and some garnish like paprika. Butter slid off before I got take the pic
-different lens & tripod to get it crisper
-needs to be in focus the breadth of the plate; too shallow a DOF.
-make the pile of slaw "prettier" and trim the tassle stub on the end of the corn.

I would tend to agree with your comments and add placing the main item more to the front to make it "THE" item. The rest is just a supporting cast of members I think.

However..... that said, the way you presented it as a 'package' looks ok (short of the DOF and other stuff you mentioned) if you maybe had a glass of tea, and some other items to add to the entire package.

What I'm learning is, this is NOT easy stuff to shoot.

My 2-cents....

+1 on the not so easy part. Staging a plate you're gonna eat later better mean you like it stone cold.
food styling for photography

The bright table cloth seems to wash out the subject a bit, I think.

Tracker said:

+1 on the not so easy part. Staging a plate you're gonna eat later better mean you like it stone cold.
food styling for photography

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I know. I used to work at the corporate offices of a restaurant chain. The shoot of a new ad campaigns were always interesting.

47wing said:

Making Sunday Sauce - Food photog for THE Yankee rag

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interesting. My first observation is most all his pics are either a very low angle shot or straight above.
In my previous IT life, I had a big commercial photography studio as a client in Las Colinas. They often had multiple food stylists working on multiple shots. Interesting to see some of the tricks in their bag.

OK, I have to admit it's kind of cool there's several folks poking around the inter-webz on this one for ideas/techniques etc.

Our own TexTom has a bunch of tricks up his sleeve on food shoots..... Might want to PM him for some ideas.

For me, it's a matter of committing the time, planning and effort. This one requires some more serious pre-planning and effort, IMHO.