Food Photography : Cakes

[itsybitsyspidy]

Exams over, tinkling with the Nikon CLS in my own home.

All shot with SB cam left 9oclock and diy reflector cam right 3oclock.

Black stain near the 'T' is caused by a dirty wall. Didn't realised that when taking this shot.

 

[jbma]

I think a little more DOF would be better.

 

[Stereobox]

thanks for sharing, itsy! i hope you've enjoyed eating them as well as photographing them =P

if i may say so, personally i find your angle too low (especially for the 1st two). if you take a look at most menus, there is usually a balance between the top of the cake n the rest of the dimensions. unless your aim is to exaggerate and emphasis the proportion of the bottom? also, the colour of the background and the plate used don't go well together with the cakes. it's always good to remember good food styling always go with good food photography.

as it is, i'm very hungry right now..so the cakes looks tempting!!

 

[itsybitsyspidy]

thanks for sharing, itsy! i hope you've enjoyed eating them as well as photographing them =P

if i may say so, personally i find your angle too low (especially for the 1st two). if you take a look at most menus, there is usually a balance between the top of the cake n the rest of the dimensions. unless your aim is to exaggerate and emphasis the proportion of the bottom? also, the colour of the background and the plate used don't go well together with the cakes. it's always good to remember good food styling always go with good food photography.

as it is, i'm very hungry right now..so the cakes looks tempting!!

Haha,

Thanks Stereobox for the kind comments. The cakes are on their way to heaven now.

I bought the cakes from Four Leaves yesterday, unfortunately due to my initial d driving(forgot i had cakes). The cakes were abit squeezed when i came home, hence didn't want to show too much of the top. So i was thinking the next best thing would be to make it look huge, to tempt appetites. heh. i tried looking and looking, but i didn't have a background at home suitable, hence tried to pull it off using the next best thing - my wall. I'll buy a cheap piece of foamcore board from Bras Pasah the next time i pass by there, works great from what i read online, not only as a background, but also to bounce light as well, not to mention cheap too!

Next thing i'll try is to place the plate on a piece of glass, to do those "reflection" shots. haha. :thumbsup:

 

[itsybitsyspidy]

I think a little more DOF would be better.

:cry: dunno how to do that, I already shooting at F16. :cry:

 

[StreetShooter]

:cry: dunno how to do that, I already shooting at F16. :cry:

Shoot from a little further away. That will increase the DOF of your subject.
Or you can use a wider angle lens.

Focus on the part nearest to your camera, not the middle of the subject. The OOF bits are nearest your camera.

 

[itsybitsyspidy]

Shoot from a little further away. That will increase the DOF of your subject.
Or you can use a wider angle lens.

Focus on the part nearest to your camera, not the middle of the subject. The OOF bits are nearest your camera.

I using 35mm F/2. I tried shooting further away, but composition wise i can't get such a tight crop. So i should be using a wider lens? Like my 12-24?:dunno:

 

[StreetShooter]

I using 35mm F/2. I tried shooting further away, but composition wise i can't get such a tight crop. So i should be using a wider lens? Like my 12-24?:dunno:

Depends on the perspective you want.

Are you sure the aperture was f16? The pictures don't really reflect that. Check your EXIF data.

You can always shoot from further away and crop the picture.

To increase DOF, there are a few ways:

1. Make the aperture smaller
2. Increase the distance of your subject from the camera (ie focus further away)
3. The wider the angle, the greater the DOF for any given aperture

You may also want to note that depth of field is divided in thirds so that one third of the area in focus is in front of the focal point (object in focus), and two-thirds of the focused area is behind it. This means that you should, as I said, focus on the point nearest to you rather than smack in the centre of the object, in order to get more of the object in focus.

 

[itsybitsyspidy]

Depends on the perspective you want.

Are you sure the aperture was f16? The pictures don't really reflect that. Check your EXIF data.

You can always shoot from further away and crop the picture.

To increase DOF, there are a few ways:

1. Make the aperture smaller
2. Increase the distance of your subject from the camera (ie focus further away)
3. The wider the angle, the greater the DOF for any given aperture

You may also want to note that depth of field is divided in thirds so that one third of the area in focus is in front of the focal point (object in focus), and two-thirds of the focused area is behind it. This means that you should, as I said, focus on the point nearest to you rather than smack in the centre of the object, in order to get more of the object in focus.

ok gottit. thanks for the tip StreetShooter! Food photog must not only be bright, but must also everything in focus and sharp! haha.:thumbsup:

 

[Stereobox]

ok gottit. thanks for the tip StreetShooter! Food photog must not only be bright, but must also everything in focus and sharp! haha.:thumbsup:

:bigeyes: who says everything must be in sharp focus in food photography? the de-focused look is useful to emphasis certain parts of the food or 'hide' blemishes etc.

anyway, there's a technique of manually 'distributing' focus if you want everything relatively sharp. first focus on the front most area you want to be sharp, then focus to the back most area you want to be sharp. you should then set your focus point to be somewhere in between these two points. it won't look very sharp in your viewfinder, but if your aperture is small enough, the sharpness will be quite evenly distributed when you take the picture.

 

[itsybitsyspidy]

:bigeyes: who says everything must be in sharp focus in food photography? the de-focused look is useful to emphasis certain parts of the food or 'hide' blemishes etc.

anyway, there's a technique of manually 'distributing' focus if you want everything relatively sharp. first focus on the front most area you want to be sharp, then focus to the back most area you want to be sharp. you should then set your focus point to be somewhere in between these two points. it won't look very sharp in your viewfinder, but if your aperture is small enough, the sharpness will be quite evenly distributed when you take the picture.

wouldn't this technique make the shot sharp in the middle then? :dunno: haha don't really understand but i will try it out tomorrow. I shoot tethered to my mac so i can see immediately. Thanks for the tip!

 

[jmmtn4aj]

I like them. What font did you use for the labels? (Tiramisu, Black Forest, etc)

 

[itsybitsyspidy]

I like them. What font did you use for the labels? (Tiramisu, Black Forest, etc)

Thanks bro. The font used is Eurostile (which is also the font of the brand name F.C.U.K).

 

[Lil'Foot]

yo bro! your cake shooting is so much better than mine lah! omg..

how about helping me shoot some? :x

 

[itsybitsyspidy]

yo bro! your cake shooting is so much better than mine lah! omg..

how about helping me shoot some? :x

Haha, just shoot more. Care to share some of your shots? U used lighting? Usually light at 9-3oclock and 11-5oclock can make the food look good. But i'm also new at this sort of lighting, just have to play around with the position of your light until you are happy with the outcome of the shot!

keep shooting.