Hi All,

I am new to isolation on white technique. Please critique and what can be improved.

How can I improve the composition as well for Food Photography. I am unable to travel that often to take travel pics so in order to keep contributing to stock I am thinking of food photography.

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I'd worry about the food first.  None of it looks appetizing.

My aim here was to sell it to someone who wants to show how not to cook and present pasta and then probably buy from someone pro (maybe I can put link to your gallery) and show how to present /cook pasta. 😃

Am I successful in showing clearly how un-appetizing pasta is?

Happy new year 😃

its all bad all over
color
lighting
isolation

start from scratch with good quality daylight balanced lights

good luck
its not worth trying to fix these

Quote from: Nikd90 on December 30, 2013, 22:32

My aim here was to sell it to someone who wants to show how not to cook and present pasta ...

I'm not sure if you're joking - in case you're not; I have a large number of cookbooks and have read many food blogs and recipe sites. I don't recall even one time where someone showed you what not to do.

The first three are underexposed and gray pasta never looks good There's a difference between natural looking food and work that isn't well lit or exposed

Take a look at Kelly Cline's awesome food shots - I love her food styling and I almost always feel hungry when looking at her photographs.

http://www.istockphoto.com/search/portfolio/247787#1f021375

Thanks for the link. The photos are really good and my photos dont stand a chance in front of these. Let me give it a try again next year

Use the pen tool to isolate but please read or watch some food photography videos. Get rid of that cold blue dish! I the food photo does make the viewer hungry than the photo fails. 

In addition to the problems with illustrating the food correctly, there is no need to randomly crop the dish like you have.  A simple isolation should show the whole item.  If you were being artsy and had a nice background of table and silver, etc., you could be more creative.  This just looks like you slipped when hitting the shutter.

FOOD is one tough and saturated category. Kinda like CHRISTMAS. Might wanna rethink that if you want any decent ROI.

I'd worry about the food first.  None of it looks appetizing.

Again, that is an arrogant and demeaning answer. You both demean the guys cooking skills and his photography skills. That compares to critisizing  someones model (eg a child) , and thats something you dont do.
There are so many strange dishes out there in the world, and even the strangest might appeal to someone, and in this case the blue plate may sell the picture.

I do not see any isolation problems other than it is difficult to isolate blurred transitions, but I cannot see that they are not well done.

There are other problems, however.
underexposure in some of them, dull colours and focus. = more light on the food and a higher number aperture.
it is important to have the main (often front) part in focus and to not have to try to isolate out of focus parts, like the fork.

I do this kind of photos with 2 softboxes and a sharp light to create shadows.

Quote from: oxman on December 31, 2013, 11:40

FOOD is one tough and saturated category. Kinda like CHRISTMAS. Might wanna rethink that if you want any decent ROI.

I agree. I was starting to experiment with food and there is simply too much excellent food work out there, so I backed off. My humble advice is that unless you have some incredible food shots find another less traveled category.

True. Very, very difficult to get good food shots that overcome the competition nowadays. The world already has more than enough images of all the popular food subjects that it really needs.

I don't totally agree on food shots being too many thus very difficult to sell. Yes, very similar to flowers category where there is a ton images. However, if you shoot good and interesting there is money to be had.

For example, I had 6 EL's in food shots and 5 EL's in flowers last year plus lots of smaller sales.  Therefore, if you truly enjoy shooting food images than go for it. Don't let the fear of lots of images scare you away....

Quote from: JPSDK on December 31, 2013, 19:55

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on December 30, 2013, 22:09

I'd worry about the food first.  None of it looks appetizing.

Again, that is an arrogant and demeaning answer. You both demean the guys cooking skills and his photography skills. That compares to critisizing  someones model (eg a child) , and thats something you dont do.
There are so many strange dishes out there in the world, and even the strangest might appeal to someone, and in this case the blue plate may sell the picture.

I do not see any isolation problems other than it is difficult to isolate blurred transitions, but I cannot see that they are not well done.

There are other problems, however.
underexposure in some of them, dull colours and focus. = more light on the food and a higher number aperture.
it is important to have the main (often front) part in focus and to not have to try to isolate out of focus parts, like the fork.

I do this kind of photos with 2 softboxes and a sharp light to create shadows.

@JPSDK and Goofy: Thanks a lot for the inputs..

Regarding comments from Sean, I don't really care about his arrogance. I really respect him for what he has achieved. I am here to learn and improve.  Any inputs from him would be appreciated but I expect it to be in a more humble way.

I recall reading something about food photography that as an aesthetic standard the viewer would want to eat the food you shot because it looks so darn good.  My guess is this is simply a standard that Sean is referring to, and he is just saying it straight up. I don't see any arrogance in his posts, just honest, direct feedback. Sometimes that's hard to accept. Believe me I've had my share of harsh feedback over the years and one can either use it to get better or be offended.....or both.