Final Project Evaluation

Final Project Evaluation 

This whole project was based around food photography, though out are whole project we had to focus on different types of foods and photograph them, using different props and techniques. 

For our first task we had to photograph an apple in different locations, i found this task really interesting because we could pretty much do whatever we wanted with this shoot it was good to try new ideas. With this shoot you could really see how lighting can effect your images because we was photographing is loads of different locations and because of the light, i would have to adjust my angle to make it more effective, or use my flash more. Also because i was photographing in a lot of public locations this made me more aware of people and i had to learn to capture my photos without people or cars in which sometimes can take some time. This also gave me a lot of time to experiment with different techniques such as, angles, zooms, reflection and many more. From this task i have leant how to work in different environment and around people, i have also leant how to make lighting more in my advantage and to be more open minded with my ideas.  

Our second shoot was in the studio to introduce us to the studio, the equipment and the health and safety, i really enjoyed working in the studio it was really fun because i had never been in there before it was really interesting and exciting to work with the new equipment. The lighting in the studio was amazing it was so crisp and clear it was lovely to work with and it was great to try out different equipment i haven't worked with before. I also experimented a lot with depth of field in this shoot for the first time, to see what type of effect this would give my photos, i think it is very good to bring the viewers attention to the part of the image you want them to see. I also played around with forced perspective to make my biscuits appear bigger or the same size as my mug.  

We then had to do many independent shoots at home which i found to be a bit dull and a lot less interesting because we didn't have the right type of food. I found that in this food i realised that it is more interesting to take photos of sweets, cookies and pastries because they are sweet and easy to work with, where my dinner that i photographed was harder because of the steam and the texture of the food. I think that the quality of my shoots totally depend on what i am photographing. 

We also had to plan our own shoot i decided to photograph macaroons, because they are fun and colour full which i think are the main attractions of food photography. This was so easy because of the colours and the textures, i think bright things are fantastic to photograph because it always looks amazing because of the light and contrast it brings to your photos, I have also leant that props can play a bit part in your photos they can add so much and make it appear more professional, i also leant that adding cloth or some kind of fabric can make it appear so much ore natural and sit so much better.

Overall i found this project a bit boring i don't personally think that food photography is for me. It was really dull and hard to stay interested in, the only shoots i enjoyed were the studio one and my Macaroon one because they where easier to stay interested in because the studio was new and the the macaroons i liked so i found them easy to photograph. But i have learnt a lot about lighting situations and using props to my advantage to make my work look more appealing. I have also leant how to take photos in public places and avoid people and cars because they can distract the viewer.  

My Posters

These are 3 of the posters that I created on www.canva.com/create/posters/ 

It helps me with layouts and to make it look more realistic, like it was actually for a food place. 

I had to incle my own photographs and make it look presentable. 

I didn't like this one because i don't think it worked well with my Tea house theme. Its too dark and dull and I saw it in my head to be a lot brighter and inviting. I thought this was a better idea because it allowed me to put more on my photographs on my poster. I think that the colour of my font goes well with the colour of my Macaroons and stays within my theme. 

I did like this one but i thought it was very simple and appeared very plan and dull to look at, it didn't really work the colours didn't fit very well and it wasn't eye catching. I thought the design was a little different to my other posters and appeared more playful. I dont think that the blue goes with my theme very well. 

I really liked this one, even know it was simple with only one image, I thought that it was eye catching and definitely made you want to visit. I love the colours of the macaroons and the colour of the font and the macaroons worked well together.  Also because the box is white it helps it to stand out apart from the world follow but it think that it doesn't matter too much because the macaroons invited you in so make you want to read it so it will become clear.  

Poster Research

For this task we had to do some research into different type of food posters to get some ideas on what we would like to do and create for our own. 

I really like this poster because, it is colourful and i think that is a main thing to have in your poster, to make it eye catching and jump out to people. I also like how it is playful and not too serious, its almost cartoon theme, but still very perfeshinal, i would definitely give this place a visit. 

Again this is similar t the first one it is playful and colour full and i think a theme is important, its Mexican and you can easy see that from the design, again it cartoonist which i think makes it welcoming.  

i like this one because it looks like a movie poster which is the intention, i think this is really effective and definily makes you look twice, personally i would not use this i was mine to be more fun and bright, welcoming and almost homey. 

I really don't like this one it is my least favourite it looks cheap and the food looks horrible, it doest look perfeshinal it looks like someone made it in 5 minutes. I also feel like there is too much on the page or it inst organised very well. It also doesn't really say much about its self it is really limited.

I do like this one it is very simple but I think it works really well, simple but effective, the spices look really nice well presented and tidy and even know it is simple, it appears like someone put time and effort into this poster. 

This one really stands out to me, i think it is because of all the lovely bright but smooth colours are really pretty and all the images of sweets, they look cute and appetising even as little cartoons. I love the old styles sweet shop thing at the top of the page, how it gives you the name of the place and says the best in town and again it is really homey and welcoming, it isn't too fancy and isn't too unprofessional. Its lovely.

Sunday Dinner

Sunday Dinner 

For this task we had to take 5 photographs of our meals, we had to try and make the food look as appealing as possible. We could also use props and people to make our images more interesting and to give it variety.  

On this task i tried to play around with the focus and the depth of field by focusing on different parts of the food or the areas to see what effect this would give my photos. In this photograph i tried to focus on on the potato's that is why the front of the plate is out of focus.  

On this one i tried to take it from a different angel, i aimed to keep the fork, knife and stake in focus and leave the background in a blur this is one of the only images that my vegetables are in focus, i found them hard to focus on.

Again i tried to focus on the vegetables and half of the stake.

This is my better one because it is all in focus and presented well in the future i would probably use a different type of vegetable to make it looks nicer and not like my peas have exploded. 

Overall Evaluation 

Theses are my least favourite photographs for the whole project, i think they where out of focus and hard to photograph in an interesting and appetising way.   

I think that is was really hard to pocus on my vegetable and i am not sure why, but in the future i am going to try and work on this and make it work nect time, but apart from that it is not too bad. 

Maybe next time i will try and present it a lot better make it look more presentable. 

Macaroon Shoot

Food For Thought shoot 

I do not like this photograph because you can see the line in the background where the wall and the surface meet, which is very distracting and brings out eyes away from the Macaroons. I could improve on this image by moving the box or blending the background a bit to make it less noticeable. This was taken by a window using window light and a reflector to brighten all sides up.  

This looks more professional, I think that having the box and the fabric really softens it up a lot and makes it appear more natural. I like how can just see the Macaroons peeking over the top. You can still see a little bit at the side of the window sill and because i had to cut the fabric you can see the harsh line and it does not look as effective and natural.   

I tried to focus more on the main point of my images, the Macaroons, you can see the cracks in them but i think this adds texture and makes it more real. I tried to keep the box in so that it broke it up a little bit but again i really think that the fabric helps to make it feel more natural. 

I tried to focus in more because I think that Macaroons are really interesting looking and grab your attention, you can see how I have focused on the front 3 and left the back one out of focus, again this is me experimenting with focus and depth of field.  

In this image, i put some more fabric on the wall at the back to make it appear more smooth and less harsh, and again to make your eyes stick to the Macaroons and not get distracted by anything else. I tilted the box foreword so that you could see more inside and to tried with different angels, I also tried to move the Macaroons about a bit so they was not in the same position.

One of the reasons I like this image is because the Macaroons look like the shade is getting lighter, I did this because when arranging them in this order it made sense to place them like this to make it appear more effective and eye catching. I also think that is layout and effect is a lot more professional and again I used depth of field to keep the Macaroons in focus and the fabric in front out of focus, so your eyes look past it straight to the macaroons.  

I put pretty much all my Macaroons in the box this time so it was full, i really like how this image turned out, I am not sure because it more in or less but It just looks nicer and like it has more space it doesn't feel cramped. Again i like that you can see the box it helps to brake it up more. 

This is very similar to the image above but i tried to get the whole box in, so it added a bit of scale to my image again I was mainly focusing on the Macaroons and the box so everything else in front is out of focus. 

I like this one because it is different to my other images the layout is different, I chose two different colours so that the image had contrast and jumped out, it would not be as effective if they where both the same colour, and again I used the same fabric cloth to make it more natural, smooth and professional. 

Overall Evaluation

I have had to brighten all off these photographs up, my aperture was fully open but i think i needed to make my shutter speed longer to let more light in or use my flash, for some reason i totally forgot about my flash. 

I thought it would be really good to take photos of Macaroons because I love food photography that is really colourful and eye catching. I used a white lacy fabric to place them on so that they had a white simple background so your eyes are focused on the main part of my image which is the Macaroons.

Food For Thought

Food For Thought

Food photography isn’t impartially my favourite photography subject, it is definitely interesting to see what different set ups such as, studio window light and just using different areas such as kitchens and different areas.

In this shoot I would like portray a still life shot in a studio, or window light if the studio is unavailable, I think that the studio gives of very bright and clear light, it helps you to bring out the colour and show the texture in the food definitely if you have light coming from all sides.

For this shoot, I would really like to take photographs of Macroons, this is the image that inspired me to do this shoot. I would really like to do this shoot in the studio, I love the bright light and the effective it gives your photos, it makes them so clear you can see everything, texture, colour and how yummy they look. I have never ate these before but have always wanted to try them so this is an excuse for me to try them as well.

If the studio is unviable it always a good idea to have a plan two, so I think that window light will be just as good, I know a lot of photographers use window light instead of studio light, natural light is very effective for these typed of shoots.

For props I think a nice elegant box set up would be really pretty, with a pastel colour tissue paper so that is doesn’t take the colour away from the Macroons. I think also a bright white plate would be good again because of the colours of the Macroons but the white might disappear in the studio because it is already very bright. I also think a dark vintage tin or box would be lovely because the Macroons would still stand out and it would add that little bit of a change of scenery to my photos make it more original . I think the arrangement of the Macroons is important, so I would be trying to experiment as much as possible. 

Some examples;

I plan to take these photos thought the day time at mid-day so that it is very bright just encase the studio is unavailable, I will be taking these photos on the Thursday 1^st October when I am back at college so that I will have access the equipment and studios available.

Equipment I may need for my shoot will be a camera obviously, tripod maybe to get a steady shot, lights and maybe a reflector if I have to use window light because the studio is unavailable. If I was to use window light I would need a large window with a lot of space, the Kitchen in college would be grate replacement instead of the studio.

If I can’t bake my Macroons, to a decent standard I am going to have to buy some, to make them it will cost about £5 not much because I will already have a lot of the ingredients because my mum bakes a lot of random stuff all the time. If I was to buy these it will cost me about £5 to £10, they are very overpriced I’m not sure why, so if I buy them I hope they taste as nice as they look.

I will probably have to buy the packaging that I want to present my Macroons in as well, to they look nice and really lovely arranged maybe some tissue paper, it will be about £2 for the box and roughly the same for the paper.

I hope that I can make them myself and they will look amazing and it saves me some money. 

Healthy and Safety 

• I will have to be careful of the wires and stuff to make sure I do not trip whiles I am taking photos. 
• Make sure that no one bring drinks near the equipment just in case they spill it and it can course problems. 
• Make sure that no one is messing with the equipment.
• Make sure that everyone knows, where the fire exit is. 
• Make sure that all the equipment is away and tidy so that no one trips or falls. 

Task 2

Food photography 4 Final images

This was the first photograph that I took it was of my drink of Coke I thought it would looks because of the piece of lime in it added contrast and helped it to look more interesting and not just a simple pint of Coke. 

I tried to keep the background out of focus so that you could focus on the main part of the image. I love how the lights in the background have gone to little lights I love this suttle light effect,  I would like to experiment more with this effect.  

I could have got more of the restaront in this image if I was to re-shoot this so you got more off the ceanary. 

This was the food I ordered I loved the contrast Betweem the food and then bright white plates and I love the colours of the food, I think this is what make food photography jump out because the colours can be very effective. I tried to just focus mainly on the rice and leave the main in the background, I was trying to experiment with depth of field. I tried to make it appear natural as well and nice looking to it didn't appear posed. Again if I was going to re-shoot I would take a wider shot because this photograph does feel a little cramped and squished at the sides of the image.

I love this photo it is the best that I took but it was sight out of focus which I couldn't tell on the day it appeared fine. So I had to try my best to sharpen this image because I thought it was a really good and interesting because the scene was different to my others it wasn't just my food it was the waiter as well which made it feel more classy and perfessional.  I also like how you get a bit more of the background in this photo so you can see the sort off place we was eating at and how it was set which can add a lot to an image.  If I was to re-shoot this I would make sure that the images was in focus because I know this would have made it loads better but apart from that I really like it.

Again this was one of my more natural ones trying not to just focus on the food and make it feel more relax, so you could get a feel of what it was like. I also though it would be good because people always photograph nice set out food before it has been touched but I thought I Would try something different so it's not perfect because nothing is. 

Task 2 Crumbs

Crumbs 

In this image i tried to experiment with with scale and manipulation to make my cookies appear more larger, i think this is super effective, I really like this photograph and would consider this for one of my final piece.  

Again this is me trying to experiment with different Materials, i thought this would be a good idea to add texture to my photos and to make them more interesting.  

I wanted to get a close up of the cookies and I thought it would be good to try and do something different instead of just leaving them to sit on the side and take some photos. 

Again this is just me trying to include everything in my shoot and trying to make it appear more interesting by balancing the cookies. 

For this image I tried to make it appear like they where rolling out. i lefts some of the crumbs in to make it appear more natural but i have cleaned it up a bit so there wasn't just random crumbs everywhere. 

In this image I tried to experiment with depth of field, by leaving the cookies in focus because they are the main point of my image and the packaging in the background still there but not in focus. 

Overall evaluation of all my images
I had to edit most of these images, just to brighten them up and add more contrast. I had to edit most of my photographs to get rid of the crumbs and stuff, i did keep some in to make it appear more natural.
I personally prefer the the studio images because they are so bright and clear, but my last image is from window light and it looks very similar to studio work, so i can see why food photographer may use window light because it is just as effective.
In a lot of my photos i but a white netted sheet down in the studio to make it appear more natural, it also adds a little more texture depth into my photographs,
My prop that I brought in was a pug mug, its the only thing i really had to being at my house. I was thinking about doing interdependent shoot and using one of my Nans old cookie Tin, Its really old and had all these really nice designs on.
I also tried to experiment with different layouts and set ups to see if this changed the feeling and the message that it put across.