A local coffee shop is looking for a photographer for products for their new site as well as a team portrait. I don't really care all that much for product work but really want to do the portrait stuff but they are going with just one photographer for everything. So since there is a plethora of photographers to choose from they are asking for any of us interested to go by the shop and take one photo of a bag of their coffee and a photo of a bottle of syrup. This is what I came away with, I can't reshoot but would like your thoughts on composition and my editing. Thanks all.
Hmm I can see where you have your work cut out for you, I am assuming the client wants a product/environmental look. And I actually do know something about this kind of work as I had a gourmet mustard business and would do the art direction on my shots for different jars of mustard, which were later made up into posters.
Anyway...for the first shot, I like the leading lines. but for product shots, you should always include the entire product, in this case the entire bottle. Even if there wasn't anything interesting on the neck of the bottle, it still looks chopped off.
I like the idea behind the bag of coffee, esp with the shallow dof but it looks a little cluttery to my eye with the stack of books behind it and the coffee mug in front. Again, always a good idea to get a clean, if compositionally boring, shot of the product in its entirety.
So basically I would have tried to do the product front and centre, on their own, and let everything else form a pleasantly oof bg. Hope this helps.
i can relate to your dilemma. it's tough when you are pushed into something without any choice (other than not to do it).
maybe try to look at it as photographing objects as if they were your models. light them, shoot them, and process them the same way as you would a portrait client (keep in mind, these inanimate models also will take direction, won't talk back, and won't bitch about the results...).
maybe try to look at it as photographing objects as if they were your models. light them, shoot them, and process them the same way as you would a portrait client (keep in mind, these inanimate models also will take direction, won't talk back, and won't bitch about the results...).
this is probably the best advice i've heard so far about trying to get into food photography as well... thanks skip! :)
Thanks all. I think I will tweak what I have a bit per the comments and leave it at that. Maybe I will talk to the owner latter as well to see about having me do the portrait work as I feel I can really offer them something different with that.
Hmm I can see where you have your work cut out for you, I am assuming the client wants a product/environmental look. And I actually do know something about this kind of work as I had a gourmet mustard business and would do the art direction on my shots for different jars of mustard, which were later made up into posters.
Anyway...for the first shot, I like the leading lines. but for product shots, you should always include the entire product, in this case the entire bottle. Even if there wasn't anything interesting on the neck of the bottle, it still looks chopped off.
I like the idea behind the bag of coffee, esp with the shallow dof but it looks a little cluttery to my eye with the stack of books behind it and the coffee mug in front. Again, always a good idea to get a clean, if compositionally boring, shot of the product in its entirety.
So basically I would have tried to do the product front and centre, on their own, and let everything else form a pleasantly oof bg. Hope this helps.
Gourmet mustard? Did you actually make it from raw ingredients?
Yep. Mustard seed and/or mustard powder, vinegar, spices etc. This was a million years ago (late 1990s in NW BC) so I never had a website for it,and so far as I can tell neither did the woman I sold it to :-/ But it did well enough as a business and I still have the original product shots for the posters.
Mustard is remarkably easy to make. I usually make 2 or 3 small batches of different sorts each year. My dad likes horseradish mustard and complains that nothing in the store is hot enough for him, so I last year made a batch of special extra hot horseradish mustard for him. He loved it.
LOl it isn't difficult! Be ready to do everything yourself though, and I do mean everything. Making the mustard's the easy part. I also designed the packaging, did all the ads and brochures and cards, chose the jars and lids, wrote up the labels (in both official languages) got heat-seal bands, went to trade shows and farmers markets etc etc...averaged 120hrs a week doing it, those were 2 1/2 very busy years.
LOl it isn't difficult! Be ready to do everything yourself though, and I do mean everything. Making the mustard's the easy part. I also designed the packaging, did all the ads and brochures and cards, chose the jars and lids, wrote up the labels (in both official languages) got heat-seal bands, went to trade shows and farmers markets etc etc...averaged 120hrs a week doing it, those were 2 1/2 very busy years.
Wow what a thread hijack...:-)
LOL.
So - did you ever use black mustard seed with ice cold water? I understand that would probably be about as pungent as I could get?
