Soulfood

<p>I had lunch in a new vegan Sushi Bar and restaurant in Zurich and made some closeups for the owner and cook of this delicious pure vegan food and some raw specialities as well.<br>

My setup was the Pentax K-5, the Pentax-FA 50mm macro F2.8, the Osram Studio 440 hammerhead flash in manual mode from the left and a small silver cardboard on the right for some fill. I will reshoot the sushi and the takeaway sales boxes soon and use a white umbrella with the Osram for softer light and a Pentax AF500FTZ in slave mode from behind to shine trough the food, sounds like an interesting project and at the end, I will eat all of it :-) Enjoy! </p><div></div>

<p>-2-</p><div></div>

<p>-3-</p><div></div>

<p>the small sushi plate, 7 pieces with fresh wasabi and ginger.</p><div></div>

<p>a spicy cucumber salad</p><div></div>

<p>indian pumpkin lentil Dahl with rice and sesame </p><div></div>

<p>raw cake made of almonds, hemp seeds, cacao, coconut, raisins and spices. No artificial sugar added, only dates for sweetening.</p><div></div>

<p>Markus,<br>

Nicely played. Really enjoy the differentiation among the white objects in the last two shots especially.<br>

But the real test is this: my stomach started growling two seconds after viewing your shots. We have a dusting of snow and that lentil dahl looks very very inviting. We make that at home and you just inspired lunch.</p>

<p>ME </p>

<p>conscious power and soulfood</p><div></div>

<p>Michael, I'm so happy, at least one Pentaxian is online, would you like to start the POWT for some virtual dahl before cooking?</p><div></div>

<p>Like a cake shot, thanks for showing!</p>

<p>Good pictures but not very natural light. It seems like a restaurant menu. Sorry.</p>

<p>No problem Michel, I like honest critique. What would you have done differently with one flash only and no tripod at hand, I wanted to show the colorful details and could not choose the background? Since I can and will reshoot the scene, I'm thankful for any advice, I have no experience with food photography so far. I will try to place to Sushi on a dark grey stone plate as well if any is available for more contrast. Would you add more ambient light? It was my menu btw :-)</p>

<p>Now I'm hungry for Chinese food or maybe some Thai</p>

<p>Looks pretty good but I agree when you reshoot, do something better with the light. Add a second flash or bounce or whatever you need to do to tame those hard shadows.<br>

But my stomach did just growl a little...</p>

<p>Matt I agree. Since I travel with the public transport system here an not by car I have to keep my setup to a minimum (1 bag) but I will try to show some surrounding with the food as well the next time. The umbrella from light behind the food and above and very close and the second flash from behind with a small DIY cardboard reflector (maybe a golden one?) to the right should work well, I copied that recommendation from the ligthing forum here on pnet, thanks to the author.I have some time to experiment at home since this is an unpaid free assignment. I would need a tripod as well , maybe I compromise with the monopod and a chair there. Thanks for your comment and looking and.... cooking now?</p>

<p>The light can be as source of creativity ,may be second composition of items what must permit other angle(all shots on 30 deg. top) ...<br>

Other may very important aspect is plate very contrast to table surface and all ways present-some horizontal edge with small turn on corner just to show point can be very experimental </p>

<blockquote>

<p>Looks pretty good but I agree when you reshoot, do something better with the light. Add a second flash or bounce or whatever you need to do to tame those hard shadows.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Yes, I agree. the lighting doesn't seem right. The photos don't "pop." </p>

<p>I read/heard somewhere that the fast food chains coat their burgers and fries in oil or something like that to make the food look "juicier"... makes sense for burgers, wondering if you can do something similar to the rice and sushi.. (photos needs some "sizzle" to them).. probably some online resources that will give you some additional ideas along these lines... may help (reflect light better)</p>

<p>Also, sushi isn't "soul food", at least not where I come from ;) I was expecting to see some fried food and potatoes ;)</p>

<p>Thanks David. I will try to photograph the food as it is first but with a second light source and shwo the results again, maybe in the lighting forum. Soulfood refers to the vegan and organic part here, no animals had to suffer or die for our pleasure.</p>

<p>I'll agree with others that most of these don't do that much for me, I think the only one I <em>like</em> is <em>"conscious power and soul food"</em> -- even if the lighting isn't that much different than the others, the composition and the use of depth-of-field is (for me) the most successful with this one.</p>

 

<p>Andrew, I can assure you that it tasted much better than I could show it here (in the wrong light),<br>

now I have even more excuses to try again and eat it all alone after the shooting :-)<br>

At least the forum seems a tiny bit more alive now.....</p>

<p>Doggone it Markus, I'm stuck in a hospital recovery room next to my oldest, (small hospital, this is where the "intensive care" is) and the cafeteria doesn't open for another 1.5hrs, I'm STARVING since my last meal was over 11 hrs ago, and they do not have anything near this appealing!!<br />Food was in the title, I so should have known better....<br /><br />Well, apparently, we all agree on the light.<br />I actually didn't mind the light as much as I was afraid I would. The only thing that distracted me was the harsh shadows which the umbrella will take care of.<br />I still struggle with food composition, especially if you have an eye towards putting it on the menu. Certainly shooting from above, but not directly. I like the plate turning idea and show some of the table surface.<br />I don't even mind the white plates - i think it makes the food pop out - but the table & surrounding need to be contrasty to that. <br /><br />Anyway - happy eating!! </p>

<p>taking the gear inconsideration, du hast sehr gut gemacht !</p>