Help! My Favourite Carrot Cake!

[lastboltnut]

Hi all,

My wife has been eating at this stalls since her childhood and after knowing her, I have aslo been eating there. We like their "Black" Fried Carrot Cake most.

After eating for a few years, I recently came to realised the stall owner is my colleague's mother! As my colleague knows I love to shoot, he asked me to help them shoot to display at their stall. So please let me know is the whole plater or the closed up better?

Thanks.

#1 - Fried Carrot Cake

#2 - Fried Carrot Cake with Sweet Sauce

#3 - Fried Carrot Cake Closed Up

#4 - Fried Carrot Cake with Swee Sauce Closed Up

#5 - Where is it?

Thanks!

 

[Yapster]

Bro! You got your macro lens liao? Hehe, i prefer the close up, i prefer the colour of the carrot cake with sweet sauce, but the focus seems to be on the "Chong" leh~ The original one also look nice, but i think with more contrast, it will looks better! But ultimately, your shots is making me hungry now!~

 

[dominator]

maybe more close up and less of the plate.

 

[lastboltnut]

Yah, I did focus at the middle of the plate, which includes the "Chong". More contrast on the original? Ok, I was just worried I over-do it....as I am a contrast freak and have overdone a few pics.Ü

OT abit: Yo bro, I have got a Sigma 50mm Micro. I love the 50mm which I can use for portrait shot of my son across the dining table too.

Bro! You got your macro lens liao? Hehe, i prefer the close up, i prefer the colour of the carrot cake with sweet sauce, but the focus seems to be on the "Chong" leh~ The original one also look nice, but i think with more contrast, it will looks better! But ultimately, your shots is making me hungry now!~

 

[richliow]

Having been in the advertising/signage business for 3 years,
heres my little small input.

With close up shots, due to the small area of capture, the printed pic must be bigger....
you need at least a foot sq of print for each close up image.
(Imagine a close up shot, but you only print a miserable 4R pic to place at the stall)

Now, usually hawkers' signages are 4feet by 1 feet. (or 5 feet by 1.5feet)
that means if you want to fit in macro shots into the signage, you can have at most 3 pics,
leaving the rest of the area for other details such as pricing, stall name...etc.....

which also means, that its neither here or there, if you use close up shots.....
ie you are limited by space.
So question here is, if we want a good classy pic, but yet is limited by space.
Can we go ahead to place the close up images?

The answer will be largely no. Unless you have a very very large generous signage board with luxury of advertising space.
===========================================================

Now the neighbourhood in which the stall is operating also largely determines the choice of image....
if its in a mature estate, close up images of food will be a flop.
if its in a yuppie estate, maybe it can work....provide the setup and design of the stall itself compliments the closeup shot....

otherwise, imagine a very rundown not too clean kopitiam, with a high class spagetti stall that is 100% clean........it just wouldnt work .. =)

============================================================
what you can do.
Take shots of the full plate. Sprinkle lots of diced green spring onion ( if you know what i mean), but not too much though. you must also place corinander (Pardon the spelling)

Make sure there is contrast.....in the shots..... and make real sure, your shoot does not turn out oily.......... Oil will turn people off.....
you will have to make the texture of the food to appear with lots of the foods' inherent character, ie think Fried Carrot cake.... must be crispy right? the cai por must be diced crunchy right? the cake must be sliced and not meshed right?

Well, I do not really know whether you got what i mean....
but hey....experiment yah!!

 

[Yapster]

Yah, I did focus at the middle of the plate, which includes the "Chong". More contrast on the original? Ok, I was just worried I over-do it....as I am a contrast freak and have overdone a few pics.Ü

OT abit: Yo bro, I have got a Sigma 50mm Micro. I love the 50mm which I can use for portrait shot of my son across the dining table too.

Hehe, your contrast is now ok la. I think boosting a bit should be ok. I've seen those signboards or poster one who simply ram the colours up. They focus on the "色" to bring out the appetite of viewers.

OT a bit more: Hehe, good for you! By the way, i've got a 2nd Hand Tokina 12-24mm from a nice CS gentleman here today~ Hehe, i landed less than 24 hours and i spend money liao~;p

 

[richliow]

hey i took one more look...at your pictures.
the cake is too messy....
get the stall to cook one time for you.....

tell..them that taste does not matter as much as presentation for your shots....
ask them to focus on presentation...

make sure, (except for the egg)
the carrot cakes are sliced beautifully....

else think Ang Moh...... who does not know what carrot cake is.....
when he sees meshed up carrot cake....which is black and brown in colour....
I am sure i know what is the first thing he will correlate the carrot cake to.... in his mind...

 

[lastboltnut]

Do you mean totally not seeing the edge of the plate?

maybe more close up and less of the plate.

 

[lastboltnut]

Hi richliow,

Thank you very very much for all your inputs and sharing on how signage design should be. It is indeed a good lesson for me.:thumbsup:

However, these pics are only for them to print (I think they are printing 8R) and stick on the stall's glass display only, not for the signage. They feel that a pic is worth a thousand words especially for elderly who can't read what they are selling (now they have no pics on their signage).

About preparing the food......firstly, I feel paisey to tell them how to cook (as they only want a simple pic) And secondly, my feel is, its hawker center, so I do not really want to have pics which differ much from what is produced and served at the end of the day.
Just like what you said, a classy pic in a Hawker Center...

By the way, would you please explain why a close up shot needs to be printed bigger than a full plate shot? I thought that a close up will show the food in bigger size than a full plate and thus smaller print is ok relative to full plate print? Thanks in advance!

Having been in the advertising/signage business for 3 years,
heres my little small input.

With close up shots, due to the small area of capture, the printed pic must be bigger....
you need at least a foot sq of print for each close up image.
(Imagine a close up shot, but you only print a miserable 4R pic to place at the stall)

Now, usually hawkers' signages are 4feet by 1 feet. (or 5 feet by 1.5feet)
that means if you want to fit in macro shots into the signage, you can have at most 3 pics,
leaving the rest of the area for other details such as pricing, stall name...etc.....

which also means, that its neither here or there, if you use close up shots.....
ie you are limited by space.
So question here is, if we want a good classy pic, but yet is limited by space.
Can we go ahead to place the close up images?

The answer will be largely no. Unless you have a very very large generous signage board with luxury of advertising space.
===========================================================

Now the neighbourhood in which the stall is operating also largely determines the choice of image....
if its in a mature estate, close up images of food will be a flop.
if its in a yuppie estate, maybe it can work....provide the setup and design of the stall itself compliments the closeup shot....

otherwise, imagine a very rundown not too clean kopitiam, with a high class spagetti stall that is 100% clean........it just wouldnt work .. =)

============================================================
what you can do.
Take shots of the full plate. Sprinkle lots of diced green spring onion ( if you know what i mean), but not too much though. you must also place corinander (Pardon the spelling)

Make sure there is contrast.....in the shots..... and make real sure, your shoot does not turn out oily.......... Oil will turn people off.....
you will have to make the texture of the food to appear with lots of the foods' inherent character, ie think Fried Carrot cake.... must be crispy right? the cai por must be diced crunchy right? the cake must be sliced and not meshed right?

Well, I do not really know whether you got what i mean....
but hey....experiment yah!!

hey i took one more look...at your pictures.
the cake is too messy....
get the stall to cook one time for you.....

tell..them that taste does not matter as much as presentation for your shots....
ask them to focus on presentation...

make sure, (except for the egg)
the carrot cakes are sliced beautifully....

else think Ang Moh...... who does not know what carrot cake is.....
when he sees meshed up carrot cake....which is black and brown in colour....
I am sure i know what is the first thing he will correlate the carrot cake to.... in his mind...

 

[lastboltnut]

Thanks bro. So you are the guys who got the 5 month old Tokina (nikon mount) selling for $600 lah!:bsmilie:

Hehe, your contrast is now ok la. I think boosting a bit should be ok. I've seen those signboards or poster one who simply ram the colours up. They focus on the "色" to bring out the appetite of viewers.

OT a bit more: Hehe, good for you! By the way, i've got a 2nd Hand Tokina 12-24mm from a nice CS gentleman here today~ Hehe, i landed less than 24 hours and i spend money liao~;p

 

[Yapster]

Thanks bro. So you are the guys who got the 5 month old Tokina (nikon mount) selling for $600 lah!:bsmilie:

Err, no wor. Mine is an one year old plus lens leh~ But price around that range. Slightly lower than 600~ Hehe~;p

I am still waiting for 11-16 leh~

 

[richliow]

hmmm
about the part regarding the clean slicing...
its not about making the shot classy...
its just to remove the messy feeling....

but hey, if you wan to retain the original feeling...sure...no probs... do go ahead.. =)


now for a close up shot....the print is to be square...
for a full plate shoot, you can path away the excess, ie background, and it still looks like a shot...

but i guess i am coming more from a signage angle...
cos....for pathed full plate shoots (ie oval...shape) we can squeeze in more "plates" into the signage....... lets say 6 shots

for close up shot.. the shots are squarish by nature..if we squeeze the pics in........ the only way to squeeze 6 shots in...is to make the "image boxes" smaller than they should be...


and thats not very nice to look at..... its causes details to be drowned away due to to small eventual images......

..............................

another angle to view. it..... if you print a full round plate.... say..... 30 cm in diameter
the entire cycle of plate is in full focus and in detail......

but say you print a close up plate.... say the image is 30 cm square by 30 cm square....
the real detail shown will be very small in the 30 cm by 30 cm square...... maybe at most 10 cm by 10 cm..... so in contrast..... (with limitation of space)

the equally sized close up plate pales in "details" compared with a full plate....


full plate close up
++0++ +++++
+000+ ++00+
00000 ++00+
+000+ +++++
++0++ +++++
======================================

Walk into any Thai Express Restaurant....
observe their pictures on the wall......
then take a mental image in your brain....
scale them down to say 6R or 8R....
superimpose them onto the wall again,...using imaginery means...
can you visualise the damping of the original grand effect?

 

[lastboltnut]

So, it wasn't you.Ü

11-16, when its out then you sell me your 12-24 at $400 loh. I can wait till Feb.Ü

Err, no wor. Mine is an one year old plus lens leh~ But price around that range. Slightly lower than 600~ Hehe~;p

I am still waiting for 11-16 leh~

 

[lastboltnut]

Ah!! I see what you mean now.Ü

Thanks for taking the touble to explain and share.:thumbsup:

hmmm
about the part regarding the clean slicing...
its not about making the shot classy...
its just to remove the messy feeling....

but hey, if you wan to retain the original feeling...sure...no probs... do go ahead.. =)


now for a close up shot....the print is to be square...
for a full plate shoot, you can path away the excess, ie background, and it still looks like a shot...

but i guess i am coming more from a signage angle...
cos....for pathed full plate shoots (ie oval...shape) we can squeeze in more "plates" into the signage....... lets say 6 shots

for close up shot.. the shots are squarish by nature..if we squeeze the pics in........ the only way to squeeze 6 shots in...is to make the "image boxes" smaller than they should be...


and thats not very nice to look at..... its causes details to be drowned away due to to small eventual images......

..............................

another angle to view. it..... if you print a full round plate.... say..... 30 cm in diameter
the entire cycle of plate is in full focus and in detail......

but say you print a close up plate.... say the image is 30 cm square by 30 cm square....
the real detail shown will be very small in the 30 cm by 30 cm square...... maybe at most 10 cm by 10 cm..... so in contrast..... (with limitation of space)

the equally sized close up plate pales in "details" compared with a full plate....


full plate close up
++0++ +++++
+000+ ++00+
00000 ++00+
+000+ +++++
++0++ +++++
======================================

Walk into any Thai Express Restaurant....
observe their pictures on the wall......
then take a mental image in your brain....
scale them down to say 6R or 8R....
superimpose them onto the wall again,...using imaginery means...
can you visualise the damping of the original grand effect?

 

[Yapster]

So, it wasn't you.Ü

11-16, when its out then you sell me your 12-24 at $400 loh. I can wait till Feb.Ü

Haha, i need to see the review first man~;p
But this 12-24 is good~~

 

[lastboltnut]

Ok, I will wait for u.:bsmilie:

Haha, i need to see the review first man~;p
But this 12-24 is good~~

 

[Yapster]

Ok, I will wait for u.:bsmilie:

Haha, ok, i wait for you to sell me your new 11-16 also. Hehe. ;p

 

[psychobiologist]

choose a different background, or a different plate color.

the plate colors are different in both, might be a slight white balance difference in the shots.

think of what color will augment and make the yellow carrot cake stand out the most,

and what color will make the black carrot cake stand out the most. up the contrast and saturation a little.. just have to "loook" attractive

 

[lastboltnut]

Thanks psychobiologist, I will consider the background colour the next time I have similar shooting.

Yah, I will snyc the WB and up the contrast a bit more.

Thanks!

choose a different background, or a different plate color.

the plate colors are different in both, might be a slight white balance difference in the shots.

think of what color will augment and make the yellow carrot cake stand out the most,

and what color will make the black carrot cake stand out the most. up the contrast and saturation a little.. just have to "loook" attractive

 

[yqt]

.............About preparing the food......firstly, I feel paisey to tell them how to cook (as they only want a simple pic) And secondly, my feel is, its hawker center, so I do not really want to have pics which differ much from what is produced and served at the end of the day........

you are right, for food shots meant for the purpose of advertising what you're selling, the image should be as close as possible to the original. You can style it so that it look nicer but the basic look must still be there, ie meshed up/small slice carrot cake must be shown to be meshed up/small slice carrot cake, big slice carrot cake must look like big slice carrot cake. It don't matter what other people sell or how carrot cake should look like. The only concern is to tell others what you are selling, how your carrot cake look like, not how a carrot cake should look like. Of course, you can try to improve the look by lighting it to show some highlight, add a nice plate, bring out the different colour elements ( white from the carrot cake, slight browning from the egg white, yellow from the egg yoke, red from the chillie, green from the chopped spring onions, etc ), add some smoke/steam, basically make it look pipping hot, nice and tasty.

To close up or not to close up:
First, basic question, where is the image going to be place and where is the image going to be view.

Going by the 8R size, the max distance it can be view clearly from is about 15 ft.
Base on 8R if you were to show the whole plate, the piece of carrot cake it self will be about 10 to 15mm. Try to think what 10 to 15mm will look like from 15 feet. I would not be suprised if it look a little like a plate of fried kway tiow.
If you were to do a close up of the plate, ie showabout 1/2 of the dish, the size of the same piece of carrot cake itself would have incress in size to about 20 to 30mm. Double the size. Try it on your monitor screen.
Cropped full plate, enlarge to full screen size, stand about 10 to 15 feet away and see the image.
Same image, cropped in tighter to about 1/2 of the dish. enlarge to full screen size, stand about 10 to 15 feet away.
See the difference?