Personal challenge last week was to shoot my food. I learned that shooting food is hella hard. Oh yeah, my diet is horrible.

This is my default food when in a rush (I eat this a lot).
http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/4069/food1yt3.jpg

Sparky's Hotdog.
http://img307.imageshack.us/img307/4091/food2dt8.jpg

Another fast food lunch.
http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/381/food3is7.jpg

More.....

Home grilled steak. I pulled this out midway through cooking to shoot (properly cooked food aren't photogenic :) )
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/6200/food4xd5.jpg

My daily breakfast (or oatmeal). I added the fruit to add color (I didn't eat them)
http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/5498/food5au3.jpg

i love how the first one looks! its peanut butter overload! :) this can already pass as an advertisment..

are these shot with ambient light? nice.. :)

thanks for sharing nick!

i was just about ready to leave the office when i saw your photos. it just made me really hungry. i specially like the P&B sandwich (is that wheat bread?) YUM! :Grin:

great set nick! you can almost taste it! hahaha :Grin:

wow, delicious pics nick!:)
nice to see a food thread again,

cant see a P&B pic btw..must be my server..:(

Tito Nick,

You do realize it's morning here and most of us haven't had any breakfast yet.. now you made me hungry!!!

Now I want a Filet Mignon, A Taco, and a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich! (Goodbye diet!)

Hmmm but seriously, I love the 2nd, 3rd and 4th photos the best.. :) I can almost taste it na talaga... Now I know what I want for lunch.. :D

Thanks for sharing!! :)

Tito Nick,

You do realize it's morning here and most of us haven't had any breakfast yet.. now you made me hungry!!!

Now I want a Filet Mignon, A Taco, and a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich! (Goodbye diet!)

Hmmm but seriously, I love the 2nd, 3rd and 4th photos the best.. :) I can almost taste it na talaga... Now I know what I want for lunch.. :D

Thanks for sharing!! :)

Canon eh. :)

nick, the 1st pic was my breakfast today but not much on peanut butter. i hate too much sweet but sometimes, i can't control to eat more ha ha.

i'll try to convince my wife tonight on that tempting grilled steak... hmmm kagutom hehe

As usual... your snapshots are our photographs. Nice work here.

If I may though... is it true that food shots need to have little or no bokeh even when shot at angles like the ones you showed us?

I remember a old thread here that P&S actually do a better job due to their smaller sensors. So if I wanted to shoot food without having to get a sooper dooper macro lens, a high end P&S would suffice.

I maybe wrong though, but just wanted to ask anyway.

jeez nick! i could almost taste the juiciness of that steak! grrrr. all that macro detail is bad! hahaha...

but the angle chosen was really fantastic. its hard core advertising...hard sell! im getting a steak later!

meanwhile...you eat a lot ok? baka may humirit na naman, ruin pa your appetite.

i need to go to the canteen now... you nick.. how could you! :D

I can almost smell that hotdog!

Excellent as always Nick.

@nick
saw the peanut butter sandwich na..
i like the styling of the PB on the bread..thick and creamy..:)

the peanut butter sandwich made me hungry! i want bananas on top of it tooo! i want ribeye too! yumm.. the shots are awesome primarily because they are effective enough to make us hungry!!

As usual... your snapshots are our photographs. Nice work here.

If I may though... is it true that food shots need to have little or no bokeh even when shot at angles like the ones you showed us?

I remember a old thread here that P&S actually do a better job due to their smaller sensors. So if I wanted to shoot food without having to get a sooper dooper macro lens, a high end P&S would suffice.

I maybe wrong though, but just wanted to ask anyway.

Prior to this food challenge, I only had one experience with food photography when I shot for a restaurant chain and that the shoot was in a controlled environment (studio). So, I'm a newbie at this, specially at candid food photography.

Anyway, as far as bokeh is concern, my personal style is to shoot everything clean (no bokeh), only because I shoot most inanimate (still) objects in a controlled studio. But for this exercise, I was shooting my actual food and don't have the luxury of a studio, so I approached it editorially.

I've seen it work in a variety of ways. It depends on the quality of the background. One thing I'd ask before shooting is, do the lights and background colors blend together in a pleasing, natural combinations? If it is, I'll probably shoot it between F1.4 and F3.5. If the blend will look artificial, I'll change the background or shoot it really tight at F9. But if shooting with a really interesting background (say, a pastry and coffee in an outdoor Paris cafe with a not too crowded plaza as backdrop), I'll probably shoot tight and wide, at f11 or maybe even F16, with no blur or fuzziness.

After all that long-winded blurb, my newbie answer is "it depends" on the scene. Hope the more experienced food photographers will jump in and provide a better, experienced answer.

is that wheat bread?

Funny, someone else asked me the exact same question today. It's plain white bread.

@Nick, amazing shots. Do you need macro lens to be able to capture that much detail?

I LIKE the cereal and peanut butter bread. There's something that gives a warm and fuzzy feeling about these kinds of photos. Martha Stewart? Hehehee.

i just ate my breakfast but now after seeing this thread i'm hungry again,, i like the peanut butter shot as well as the steak and oatmeal shot.. TFS

i personally hate peanut butter !! BUT I DO LOVE YOUR SHOTS!!! :Grin:

Yummy peanut butter. Good shot bro.:D:Dum:

http://sunnybernard.multiply.com/photos/album/10

I wish i didnt open this thread, its making me too hungry. Great Job! Great Photos.

Now I want a Filet Mignon, A Taco, and a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich! (Goodbye diet!)



oh, i like:D