KOBE's Japanese Steak House

© by Michael Long 2013

© by Michael Long

© by Michael Long 2013

The other nite I got invited to join the family and granddaughter's birthday party at KOBE's.  In Rancho Mirage, CA.  

I took my Nikon to get some family pictures etc. Along with the family pictures I got to take pictures of the chef cooking our dinner. 

The hardest part of this was shooting in available lite.  I did manage to get a few pictures of the chef with a flash,  but I could tell that he wasn't real excited about the flash thing.  So I cranked up the ISO to 1600 dropped the shutter speed to 1/30 and the F-stop was about F8.  I did have to adjust the pictures a little bit in photoshop, but that was just to bring up the exposure some.  And Poof they were done.

Just a different angle

© by Michael Long 2013

© by Michael Long 2013

I was hoping to get a portfolio picture out of this one,  We'll see after I get an enlargement of the pic printed up..  This was shot with a Nikon d3200,  A 55-200 lens with an extension ring.  The reason for the extension ring was to get in a touch closer to the fish and still retain focus.  The light source was diffused window light, on the right and a silver reflector on the left to fill in.  I used a manual setting for the exposure.  with bracketing. 

Here is another pic of the same Salmon but from a different angle.  Every thing stayed the same except the lens...... I went to a 18-55 lens.  Same lighting etc.

FACEBOOK

Today we just pulled all of our photographs off of FACEBOOK.  They have in there info section or wherever it is.  A clause that states in short that they have the right to use any of our photographs of anything that is posted And use it in their OR Third party advertising.  So to make a long story shorter,  they can use your pictures of you or your family anyway they want...... and there is nothing that you can do about it........  So don't look for us on FaceBook.  I will keep a personal page on there but that's it.  I hope that this is helpful in some way.

Here is a link to the article.


  http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/04/privacy-groups-ask-f-t-c-to-block-facebook-policy-changes/


 

A possible menu cover

© by Michael Long 2013

I just got a new camera body to work with.  I got a Nikon d3200 with 24.1 megapixels  which is a bunch of pixels.  Anyway,  This started off as a test shoot on the camera,.  And it came out so well that I may use it in my portfolio,  as a menu cover.  But we'll see about that and how that goes.

This was done without booze,  but with Lemon-aide and fake ice crystals.  or chunks.  The lighting came from the right side through a diffuser.  There is NO reflector on the left.  The floor of counter top was a fake marble or slate tile.  Actually it was Lino peel and stick tile.  And a black card for the background.  The lime twist was the only real thing in the picture,  And probably the hardest to make and get to curl like I wanted.  So there you go.  a Menu cover for a bar.  

ADDING AN ELEMENT TO A PHOTO

 © by Michael Long 2013

© By Michael Long 2013

Comparing the two pictures above,  wind up being totally different with the addition of the cheese in the top photo.  The picture still conforms to the rules of composition.  But the bottom just lacks the snap to make it a great photo.  

Also note that the top picture is with pasta sauce, and the bottom picture was done with chili. And very little photoshop work.  I did  photoshop the contrast and the exposure to give a little more lift to the top picture.  

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.