Del Monte shoot - Day 2

Actually, it was just a half day. We ended up doing a total on 6 shots in a day and a half.

I was happy with the results and I had a half day to catch up on stuff...

:+)

Del Monte Shoot

Here's what we did today. I'm real happy with the results. Please keep in mind that, as a photographer, you don't get to pick the recipes you shoot. I help compose and even that is done as a team and therefore requires compromise. If I control anything, it's the lighting, and even then, I have to have it okay'd by the client(s). Over all though, not a bad day's shoot.

Natural Food Photography - complete?

I've posted the rest of the article I started on "Natural Food Photography".

I'm sure I didn't find all the typos and and grammatical errors, but once I'm finished typing, I'm just so anxious to get the ting up, that I just decide to live with the fact that you all know I'm semi-illiterate.

Hey, ya get what ya pay for...

:+)

Comments welcome

Heinz Shoot

Here are the shots from today's project.

The first image is the layout that the client showed up with and the shots after it are the elements we shot to create the finished product. We also shot other variations with other types of food that they could drop in as needed. At first we had planed to actually shoot the food in the tongs, but we decided to shoot each shot separately so that the client would have the most flexibility possible positioning and sizing each element. I was very happy with the results of today's shoot. The client was new and the shoot went smoothly and hopefully, the clients will return again and again. I hate searching for new clients... :+)

If you're into figuring out lighting, all the shots were outlined so you can see from the shadows much of my lighting layout.

Well, I'm off to Virginia Beach to visit relatives. Have a great Easter!


Layout

Food Stylist Directory

If you ever need a food stylist, this link will come in handy...

I put it together just to gain a little more SEO ammo for my food photography web site. And it does the job. This page is one of my most active pages, not only on "hits", but "G" money too.

http://www.foodportfolio.com/food_stylists/index.html

You might want to bookmark it, just in case...

:+)

More from that Cheese pour shoot

Here are some follow up images from my last food post. Here's the retouched / composite shot and also a copy of the original layout. I think it's valuable for wanna-be professional photographer to see the whole story from beginning to end. (The middle is a post or two back...)

Church's Chicken Shoot

We worked on an ad today for Church's Chick Puerto Rico.
The letters will be retouched into the drips and the drips will be at the top on the page and the Image on the white background will be the main image, taking up 4/5s of the page.

I was very pleased with the results and more important, so was the client. Everybody from the shoot just left for Permantie's, a local restaurant that everyone visiting Pittsburgh just HAS to have. God knows why... They have the worst food around, but they have really good P.R..

:+)

Food Photography Lighting Seminar #6

What did I do today? I gave my sixth food photography lighting seminar. I've come up with a one or two day seminar where I take one student and teach them everything I possible can about the subject of food photography. We sometimes even get into different aspects of commercial photography and I share all the tricks and techniques that I know.

Today, I had a guy that works for a city magazine in Indiana. So far I've had students from Ohio, Virgina, Wisconsin, and Arizona. And next month I have one scheduled from Tennessee.

The seminar is designed for current professional photographers that want to move into another aspect of the profession, food photography. I assume that the student knows their way around a camera and has a basic understanding of studio lighting.

It's been going really well and I'm pretty sure that everyone has left here feeling as though they gotten their money's worth.

That's what I did today and here's a shot that today's student came up with. Isn't it yummy?

Test shots for the movie gig, that I didn't get...

Well, I ended up not getting that movie gig. Too bed too, I really wanted it, but that's the way the cookie crumbles... I did the test shoot today and I'm really happy with the results. I was right. This adds a whole new dimension to my portfolio. I'd be interested in knowing what you think...

So, I get this call.... :+)

Ring ring...

"Hey, you shoot food, right"? the voice on the phone says...

I say, "Sure, I shoot food".

He says, "You shoot fish food"?

I say, "What do you mean fish food"?

"I mean, fish food", he says...

I say, "You mean fish as food"?

He says, no. Fish food.

I say, you mean food for fish?

He says, "Yes, fish food".

I say... "Sure"!

So here's the result of me specializing in shooting food... all kinds of food...

Hey, it pays the rent and it sure beats working for a living! :+)

Environmental Portraits

I got a couple of nice shots today... I picked up a portrait hob where I need to go to about twenty locations and photograph a bunch of financial types. Usually this means a bunch of boring shots, but I'm trying to get some portfolio pieces from this gig. There is no Art Direction, so if the shoots look like crap, it's all my fault. I've been wanting to do more environmental portraiture, so when this job came along, I jumped on it, even though it's paying a lot less than my normal rate.

Speaking of low-balling... I think I picked up another low-paying job that I really wanted. I'll be shooting some actors for posters that will appear in a movie. the movie has something to do with ultimate fighting and they're working on it here in Pittsburgh.

I had a call a couple of days ago and went to show my book for the job. It looks like the job is mine if I want it. Like I said, it doesn't pay much, but I'm thinking that this will add another dimension to my portfolio. I've actually scheduled a test shoot with a bunch of models so I can work up the lighting. I'm actually trying to create "bad" lighting, like some samples the movie people showed me. I scheduled the test shoot before I got the commitment for the job, thinking that even if the project fell through, the test shoot would teach me something, if not add to my portfolio. And besides, I had the time...

Here are two portraits for the financial people.



It was the client's idea to shoot with the city in the background, but rather than just line them up, I wanted to do something a little different. This probably won't make it int the portfolio, but it ain't that bad either...



Now this shot, I really like... To do this project profitably, I've had to strip down my kit so that I can get in and out quickly, without an assistant. I hate working without an assistant, but I've been trying to be a little more "photo-J" in my approach to shooting people. My kit consists of three hand-held Nikon flashes, a flex fill, three stands, a couple of umbrellas, a medium Chimera box, my camera stuff, and a tripod. Everything fits in a Pelican 1600 case and a small duffel bag for the stands, umbrella and tripod. If you're interested in seeing the lighting setup, check out one of my first posts on this blog.

The shot above was done with just one flash through the medium box off to my left. I turned off the overhead lighting but left on the "spots" on the wall. I also left the window shade open on the right side of the frame for a little fill. You can see that the light to the right goes a little blue in color. I don't mind that at all. I think it makes things look "natural". This in another example of that 85mm 1.4 lens. Man, I do like that there lens... :+)

TTFN