Digital food photography. recommendations?

[GGE]

Hi,

We have a contract to do a small cookbook and need to do 20 food shots, some of which may be printed at 7x9 inches in the book. Because of budget, we can only spend around $1000-1500 for camera and lights. Minimum 4 megapixels. Looking at Canon G2 and the upcoming G3.

Any other recommendations?

Thanks.

GGE

 

[Bernal Peralta]

Why don't you rent a digital camera and lights to do the shoot?

--
Bernal P.

 

[GGE]

If this shoot goes well, we have several other books lined up. We write the books and can take the shots as the recipes are being tested, leaving the "studio kitchen" set up for long periods. We can shoot all 150 recipes in the book this way and just keep the 20 shots that look the best. Most food photography is done over one or two days with a staff. The cooks and stylists doing specific recipes all at once. Twenty recipes can cost $5,000-10,000, which is outside our publisher's budget for a single book.

We have done 1 megapixel digital shots for the web that look great (according to professional editors) but we need at least 4 megapixels for larger printed photos.

GGE

Why don't you rent a digital camera and lights to do the shoot?

--
Bernal P.

 

[Alan Schietzsch]

The camera's a non-issue; any manually controllable 5mp camera will do.

Lighting is what makes a professional quality photo. A minimal 3 head kit with softboxes and stands exceeds your stated budget, so you might consider:

• renting lighting equipment (if you know how to use it) or
• hiring someone who does; then you don't have to worry about it.

In the long term a lease makes the best sense, but it'll still take a year or so to learn to light food, so you're best to hire someone to do it in the short term and teach you in the longer term.

ARS Technical Images
Edmonton, Canada

 

[Henrik Tived]

Hi,

Just wondering if you have ever taken food photos before? If not, then you are in for a surprise.

Good light and a hell of a lot of patience!!

good luck - would love to do it

Henrik
--

D60 w/grip 16-35L,28-70L,70-200L IS, 300L f/4 and 100f/2.5Macro, 1.4xII 2x550EX, ST-E2 - remote timer
Manfrotto 055pro legs - 468RC ballhead
too much to carry!! but a lot of fun to use

 

[Chris Clark]

Hi,

We have a contract to do a small cookbook and need to do 20 food
shots, some of which may be printed at 7x9 inches in the book.
Because of budget, we can only spend around $1000-1500 for camera
and lights. Minimum 4 megapixels. Looking at Canon G2 and the
upcoming G3.

Any other recommendations?

Thanks.

GGE

-Good food photography is highly specialised. If you don't have any gear yet, it might be beyond you. Sorry to be so negative-
Chris Clark

 

[LarryK]

Hi,

We have a contract to do a small cookbook and need to do 20 food
shots, some of which may be printed at 7x9 inches in the book.
Because of budget, we can only spend around $1000-1500 for camera
and lights. Minimum 4 megapixels. Looking at Canon G2 and the
upcoming G3.

Any other recommendations?

I don't want to be negative either, but my experience is that food photographers are typically some of the most skilled professionals out there, and if they're not, it shows.

I use a CP5K with several small nikon flashes for digital and I've knocked out a few pretty good food shots for use on labels and packaging, but I still have a 4x5 and a Speedotron setup for serious stuff. A good flash in a small softbox makes a world of difference on digital tabletop shots. The CP5K gives you a lot of control for studio shots, I'm sure the Canon has its merits in this regard.

For lights you might look at the ProFoto Acute 2es if they still have them on sale, you get a lot for around a grand, I know that's stretching your budget, but I do agree you're going to need at least two and most likely three heads, if you're really tight for dough you can build serviceable softboxes out of foamcore board (somebody I know still uses one I built many many years ago).

Good Luck
Larry

 

[HaloFX]

I have had excellent success shooting food for a couple local restaurants with a 4mp Fuji 4900Z. Biggest output has been 8x10. I am getting ready to move to an S2.

The best results came when I setup in a kitchen, which had excellent overhead Flouresent lighting, and the stainless steel fixtures helped to bounce the light around for a uniform fill. It took a while to nail the manual white balance, but after that I just used a tripod and the 2 second timer. With only some minor Photoshop tweaks we came out with some great images. It really helped that the head cheif took his work serious and produced some amazing plates of food. I had to do very little adjusting of the dishes.

I am more of a pro designer then pro photographer, but that background has given me the composition skills and a superior understanding of color and photoshop manipulation. So I have also been able to save some mediocre shots and turn them to very appealing images.

Best advice I could give is, get a camera that has full auto control, be very familiar and comfortable with the camera. Then take your time, concentrate on composition. This is very important with detailed dishes, like Chinese food. Also, don't let them prepare the next dish until you are done with the previous dish. Food can lose its shine and lustour quickly if it is left setting for very long.

 

[Henrik Franke]

I normaly do shots of clothing and models, but I do take assignment in other fields too. Some time ago I got a job doing posters for a local restaurant. I used two strobes and 4 big white reflector shields to bounts light. I basicly build a giant white box around the dish, and the result was great.

But food is hard to make look right. You have to be sure about the white- and grey ballance. It often makes food look old or sick if the WB is not right. And printing it makes it even harder to make the food apeal.

For camera go for a model, that can control external strobes in some form. It has be able to fire manual, stops, shutter and focallength control. A G1 would do.

Get some great strobes with a big softbox. Elincrome or Broncolor would work.

To me your budget is much to small compared to your ambitions,- but this will be a chalenge. I would love to do this job......

Good luck

 

[mark lutz]

I am doing a food shoot on Thursday I will post some pics from the shoot.

I normaly do shots of clothing and models, but I do take assignment
in other fields too. Some time ago I got a job doing posters for a
local restaurant. I used two strobes and 4 big white reflector
shields to bounts light. I basicly build a giant white box around
the dish, and the result was great.

But food is hard to make look right. You have to be sure about the
white- and grey ballance. It often makes food look old or sick if
the WB is not right. And printing it makes it even harder to make
the food apeal.

For camera go for a model, that can control external strobes in
some form. It has be able to fire manual, stops, shutter and
focallength control. A G1 would do.

Get some great strobes with a big softbox. Elincrome or Broncolor
would work.

To me your budget is much to small compared to your ambitions,- but
this will be a chalenge. I would love to do this job......

Good luck

--
Mark Lutz
http://www.visionsphotography.us

 

[Chris Clark]

I have had excellent success shooting food for a couple local
restaurants with a 4mp Fuji 4900Z. Biggest output has been 8x10. I
am getting ready to move to an S2.

The best results came when I setup in a kitchen, which had
excellent overhead Flouresent lighting, and the stainless steel
fixtures helped to bounce the light around for a uniform fill. It
took a while to nail the manual white balance, but after that I
just used a tripod and the 2 second timer. With only some minor
Photoshop tweaks we came out with some great images. It really
helped that the head cheif took his work serious and produced some
amazing plates of food. I had to do very little adjusting of the
dishes.

I am more of a pro designer then pro photographer, but that
background has given me the composition skills and a superior
understanding of color and photoshop manipulation. So I have also
been able to save some mediocre shots and turn them to very
appealing images.

Best advice I could give is, get a camera that has full auto
control, be very familiar and comfortable with the camera. Then
take your time, concentrate on composition. This is very important
with detailed dishes, like Chinese food. Also, don't let them
prepare the next dish until you are done with the previous dish.
Food can lose its shine and lustour quickly if it is left setting
for very long.

--And there I think you have hit the nail on the head. It takes a serious professional 'food person' to make food photography a success, combined with a first rate photographer. that is why it is so specialised.
Chris Clark

 

[GGE]

Thanks to all who responded with real suggestions to my original post. As for the people who responded in the negative (you wimpy amateurs was the gist from a few), we have worked with a "serious" food photographer in the past and found the final results were no better than what we could do ourselves. Yes, he had better equipment and higher res photos, but some of the food looked more artificial than real. We're not doing a coffee-table book. This is a low-budget affair.

We're serious cooks who have one book published and have sold two others (as yet unwritten) to major publishers. This was our second project, which we took during one of those lean and in-between times last year (can you say stock market crash?). The advance was low but the book is now complete and we can make a little extra by designing the book and doing the photos ourselves.

We did a lot of the original photography and food styling for our initial online sites (foodwine.com, launched in 1994 and now merged with globalgourmet.com), both on the web and on two proprietary AOL sites we created. We used 35mm and early 1 megapixel digital. Professional cookbook publishers, editors and agents have looked at our photos and thought they were done by pros.

We can do the food and we can do the photography. We have a kitchen we custom designed ourselves that has been used for professional food shoots. It has multiple track lighting as well as other lights. We have some older photo lights on stands.

I originally asked about equipment - what's the lowest megapixel digital camera we could use to produce 7x9 inch photos? I've been told 4 megapixel is the lowest we could go, though someone earlier in this thread recommended 5 megapixels. We're trying to keep our budget for camera and extras on this project to no more than $1500. We're grateful for all recommendations.

Thanks.

GGE

--And there I think you have hit the nail on the head. It takes a
serious professional 'food person' to make food photography a
success, combined with a first rate photographer. that is why it is
so specialised.

I have had excellent success shooting food for a couple local
restaurants with a 4mp Fuji 4900Z. Biggest output has been 8x10. I
am getting ready to move to an S2.

The best results came when I setup in a kitchen, which had
excellent overhead Flouresent lighting, and the stainless steel
fixtures helped to bounce the light around for a uniform fill. It
took a while to nail the manual white balance, but after that I
just used a tripod and the 2 second timer. With only some minor
Photoshop tweaks we came out with some great images. It really
helped that the head cheif took his work serious and produced some
amazing plates of food. I had to do very little adjusting of the
dishes.

I am more of a pro designer then pro photographer, but that
background has given me the composition skills and a superior
understanding of color and photoshop manipulation. So I have also
been able to save some mediocre shots and turn them to very
appealing images.

Best advice I could give is, get a camera that has full auto
control, be very familiar and comfortable with the camera. Then
take your time, concentrate on composition. This is very important
with detailed dishes, like Chinese food. Also, don't let them
prepare the next dish until you are done with the previous dish.
Food can lose its shine and lustour quickly if it is left setting
for very long.

 

[Henrik Franke]

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=003TbG

 

[Chris Clark]

We're serious cooks who have one book published and have sold two
others (as yet unwritten) to major publishers. This was our second
project, which we took during one of those lean and in-between
times last year (can you say stock market crash?). The advance was
low but the book is now complete and we can make a little extra by
designing the book and doing the photos ourselves.

We did a lot of the original photography and food styling for our
initial online sites (foodwine.com, launched in 1994 and now merged
with globalgourmet.com), both on the web and on two proprietary AOL
sites we created. We used 35mm and early 1 megapixel digital.
Professional cookbook publishers, editors and agents have looked at
our photos and thought they were done by pros.

We can do the food and we can do the photography. We have a kitchen
we custom designed ourselves that has been used for professional
food shoots. It has multiple track lighting as well as other
lights. We have some older photo lights on stands.

I originally asked about equipment - what's the lowest megapixel
digital camera we could use to produce 7x9 inch photos? I've been
told 4 megapixel is the lowest we could go, though someone earlier
in this thread recommended 5 megapixels. We're trying to keep our
budget for camera and extras on this project to no more than $1500.
We're grateful for all recommendations.

Thanks.

GGE

From your original posting it sounded like you were just starting out. From your later posting I wouldn't have thought you needed the advice

--And there I think you have hit the nail on the head. It takes a
serious professional 'food person' to make food photography a
success, combined with a first rate photographer. that is why it is
so specialised.

I have had excellent success shooting food for a couple local
restaurants with a 4mp Fuji 4900Z. Biggest output has been 8x10. I
am getting ready to move to an S2.

The best results came when I setup in a kitchen, which had
excellent overhead Flouresent lighting, and the stainless steel
fixtures helped to bounce the light around for a uniform fill. It
took a while to nail the manual white balance, but after that I
just used a tripod and the 2 second timer. With only some minor
Photoshop tweaks we came out with some great images. It really
helped that the head cheif took his work serious and produced some
amazing plates of food. I had to do very little adjusting of the
dishes.

I am more of a pro designer then pro photographer, but that
background has given me the composition skills and a superior
understanding of color and photoshop manipulation. So I have also
been able to save some mediocre shots and turn them to very
appealing images.

Best advice I could give is, get a camera that has full auto
control, be very familiar and comfortable with the camera. Then
take your time, concentrate on composition. This is very important
with detailed dishes, like Chinese food. Also, don't let them
prepare the next dish until you are done with the previous dish.
Food can lose its shine and lustour quickly if it is left setting
for very long.

--
Chris Clark

 

[Vance]

I might recommend you look at the Olympus E10 or E20.

Very good camera's for in studio type work.

This is just a picture I took when I first got my E10. Not commercial quality, but just playing around one lousy day. SV photoflood used with some light from lamp in back, and natural light coming in from window behind and to the right.



Resized for the web of course.

Best of luck!

--
Vance.

http://users.ev1.net/~txcowboy
http://pub57.ezboard.com/bthedigitaldinguscommunity