Knowing the color wheel

© by Michael Long 2013

 This first picture was shot using the color wheel.  The yellow omelet against the blue plate.  The two colors are a cross from each other on the color wheel.  Remember art class in school!!!   Anyway, with the color of yellow against blue provides a pleasant picture and your able to find the subject as soon as you look at the photo.   

© by Michael Long 2013

This picture has NO contrast,  the colors blend together and it's hard to find the subject......  So therefore you need contrast in doing your photo's for you menu's, or POP displays.  Other wise the customer will miss your message.  

Chili and Pasta

© by Michael Long 2013

I saw a picture not to long ago,  That was styled very similar to this one.  There are some major differences between this one and the one that I saw.  I'm hoping that this was by accident.  I don't know if other photographer copied mine, or we both got lucky on this and shot similar pictures,  Which has happened.  

Anyway,  To make a long story shorter,  And getting back to the picture at hand,  The light was from the far right,  with a diffuser and NO reflector on the right.  The only photoshop that was done was to clean  up the plate.  And it's just a plain old chili and some dried pasta.    

PhotoShop Burger

© by Michael Long 2013

This is a test of what can be done in Photoshop.  I increased the contrast,  and brightened the tomato.  Got rid of the Drips of Thousand Island dressing on the plate,  And removed the dust specks from the bun.  I also increased the green in the lettuce.  And that's about it.  This is standard practice with me.  This type of thing I do not charge the customer for such minor touch ups.  

Hamburger Testing

© by Michael Long 2013

This morning I did some testing on photographing a hamburger. I started with a dozen buns to find one that looked good to photograph.  I used leafy green lettuce,  Only used the leafy ends making a skirt around the bun base.  Next came the burger, which was only cooked on one side very rare.  I torched the meat to bring up the other side to match.  I I used toothpicks to secure the patty onto the bun. To keep the meat from drying out I used Pam cooking stray to bring it back to life.  I also used make up wedges to give the meat a little height.  Of course as you can see the tomato came next with water spray on the outer side to keep a fresh look.  I thousand Island dressing was applied after the burger was assembled.  The dressing was applied on set with eye droppers.  And that's it.  The lighting was diffused daylight from the right and silver reflector on the left.  And Poof that's what it takes to take a picture of a hamburger...  

ScotchGuard

I was reading somewhere again,  On food styling of course...... about pancakes... And how to make them picture perfect for the camera...... 

So the other day I made up a bunch of pancakes to shoot.....  I used a box mix and my biggest concern at the time was getting them all the same size.  So anyway,  I picked out the best three of the batch and saved them for the pictures.  

The first thing I did when it was time to take my pictures,  Was to spray SCOTCHGUARD on the cakes,  I did all three but Looking at the pictures I really don't think that is really necessary to do, Just the top one or the HERO cake.  By now the cakes are not as fluffy as they should be,  But this was more of a test than anything else.  

So I sat the plate down on the set and aligned the camera for the angle and did my pre-focus.  etc.  Stacked my cakes with the good one on top,  Took some test shots and checked them out,  I adjusted from there,  To get my final composition the way I wanted.  Placed the butter on top.  For the real shot I would use pads of butter,  but this was testing only.  Then poured on the syrup And watched it run right off the cakes onto the plate...... So that was test one.....  got a few good pic's.  But nothing outstanding.  Then I decided to put the syrup in the frig to cool down and run slower.......  So the final shot came out better.....  

So what one needs is scotchguard to protect the cakes from too much syrup and cold syrup so it doesn't run all over the place while your trying to get your pictures.

© by Michael Long 2013

Using make up wedges

Both pictures were taken on a Nikon 3000 camera and a 55-200mm lens.  The trick to this photograph was the use of the make up wedges that were used to give the croissant the height. In turn making the roll look bigger.  That was about the only trick to these pictures other than cropping them.  The top picture was done with out any cropping,  Where as the second picture was cropped to the rule of thirds.  Shifting the center of interest to a more pleasing angle.  Both pictures would sell,  But the bottom one is more correct.  The other trick to the picture was to get the butter to melt.  Which was a simple trick of using a kitchen torch to melt the butter.  Both pictures are © by Michael Long 2013

Hot roll with melted butter

© by Michael Long

Having some time on my hands this morning,  And wanting to photograph a crescent roll.  I went for it.  I picked up a dozen rolls this past weekend at Sam's club and started to work this morning.  I tired the steam thing,  Not much luck with that,  Then I tried a bowl of boiling water behind the roll.  Got some steam,  but nothing that said HOT.  So I put a pad of butter on top and took a flame torch to the butter and slowly melted the butter so it would run down the front.....  And that came out pretty good.  I was happy with it.

I used a Nikor 200mm lens and diffused window light and a small reflector on the side......