Author Topic: Taking Quality Pizza Photos (Read 19638 times)

enchant · « **Reply #20 on:** October 09, 2006, 09:02:23 PM »

I think my arteries clamped shut just looking at that!

pizzanapoletana · « **Reply #21 on:** October 10, 2006, 08:47:19 AM »

Varasano,

did you try eliminating the flash and using the macro function (if available)?

Ciao

varasano · « **Reply #22 on:** October 10, 2006, 12:09:29 PM »

I did eliminate the flash and play with the macro. I've really got one of those Sony camera's that's great for a night on the town - big screen, cool looking - but not up to this challenge. I've got a photographer friend who is going to help me. I'm clueless.

Jeff

varasano · « **Reply #23 on:** October 12, 2006, 06:05:50 PM »

My Friend took these for me. We did a little set-up with some wine. Not my best pies, but the photos were better than I take.

varasano · « **Reply #24 on:** October 12, 2006, 06:06:18 PM »

Onion, emmenthaler

pizzanapoletana · « **Reply #25 on:** October 12, 2006, 06:34:15 PM »

Great pic

I like the look of the second pizza

Ciao

mmarston · « **Reply #26 on:** October 13, 2006, 10:23:41 AM »

A great deal of work went into making these photographs. The lighting, styling and composition are near or at professional quality. The page of pizza pics are nowhere near as good.

Just as having a frying pan does not make one a chef, having a camera does not make one a photographer. Photography is both an art and a craft and like cooking, it requires good ingredients, skill and equipment. Professional food photography often involves a food stylist who can cost more than the photographer.

Photography is all about light and using a built in flash as your primary light source is as crude as it gets.

Here’s a good intro to photography site.

http://library.thinkquest.org/25473/ph_frame_frameset.shtml

Fio · « **Reply #27 on:** October 13, 2006, 10:43:45 AM »

Quote from: varasano on October 12, 2006, 06:05:50 PM

My Friend took these for me. We did a little set-up with some wine. Not my best pies, but the photos were better than I take.

Pizza Porn!

enchant · « **Reply #28 on:** October 14, 2006, 09:04:24 PM »

Hmmm... Definitely could have used a little more flash.

Scagnetti · « **Reply #29 on:** October 17, 2006, 12:17:41 PM »

Quote from: enchant on October 14, 2006, 09:04:24 PM

Hmmm... Definitely could have used a little more flash.

As an aside, your pizza looks very similar to the round pie produced by the great Dom DiMarco of DiFara's in Brooklyn. The cheese on his round pies always have a very rusty look compared to the cheese whiteness of most pies. Your pie has that rusty look.

vitus · « **Reply #30 on:** October 18, 2006, 06:06:21 AM »

Quote from: enchant on October 14, 2006, 09:04:24 PM

Hmmm... Definitely could have used a little more flash.

I like the look of your pizza! It just needs a bit more light.

I dont think that it is only because of how we amateurs take our pictures. I'll bet that 99% of all professional photographers use some kind of digital retouching/photoshopping afterwards (of course this can't fix a really bad shot).
I cranked up the light on your image and I think that your pizza already looks a lot better this way:

November · « **Reply #31 on:** October 18, 2006, 06:25:32 AM »

Here's your pizza with an RGB channel curve adjustment. This technique allows for brightness correction while maintaining the same saturation levels.

enchant · « **Reply #32 on:** October 18, 2006, 06:58:47 AM »

I actually DID punch up the RGB curves substantially before posting it - probably from 128 to about 155 or so. But it was starting to lose detail. (I should have kept the originals, but I tossed them.) I'll give the same shot another try this weekend.

vitus · « **Reply #33 on:** October 18, 2006, 07:23:08 AM »

Quote from: November on October 18, 2006, 06:25:32 AM

Here's your pizza with an RGB channel curve adjustment. This technique allows for brightness correction while maintaining the same saturation levels.

That looks quite nice.

Quote from: enchant on October 18, 2006, 06:58:47 AM

I actually DID punch up the RGB curves substantially before posting it - probably from 128 to about 155 or so.

Ok, it must have been very dark then!

Quote from: enchant on October 18, 2006, 06:58:47 AM

But it was starting to lose detail.

Yeah, that's the problem with editing. You can't create new detail, but you lose some on each edit.
I guess that's why sharpness/focus is so important. A blurry picture can never be made to look nice and sharp. Color on the other hand can be tweaked a lot, I think.

Looking forward to seeing more nice pizza photos!

canadianbacon · « **Reply #34 on:** October 18, 2006, 10:43:56 AM »

I checked them out, and they are great, but also professional, so don't feel so badly.

You can see that the guy also makes pizza, and the photos in that gallery ( on the same website )
are not nearly as good, so at least we know the photographer is human like us

see here: ( some are good, some are like we would take )
http://www.asc.upenn.edu/usr/cassidy/projects/cooking/pizza/index.html

oh, and let's not forget the person shooting those images, was most probabally using a digital SLR,
which of course renders 1000x better photos than any p&s digital camera,
and probabally shooting in RAW format, so you can edit any part of an image with
total ease ( lighting ) in photoshop.

and your pizzas are just a joy to look at Jeff, so keep on snapping away

Quote from: varasano on August 18, 2006, 02:10:13 PM

I came across this link. Is it me or do these photos look like a hundred times better than any of ours?

http://www.asc.upenn.edu/usr/cassidy/projects/cooking/

Lately I've been lamenting how terrible my photos look. They just don't do the food justice.

Jeff

enchant · « **Reply #35 on:** October 18, 2006, 10:48:48 AM »

Actually, I think the cook is a man, but he likes to include his wife/girlfriend in his photos.

canadianbacon · « **Reply #36 on:** October 18, 2006, 10:52:26 AM »

I only realized that after posting, oops,

, and went back edited my post... oops.

I was looking at the pizza images, saw the woman, and thought it was her page,
then the name Kyle clicked in.... oops, a man indeed.

Quote from: enchant on October 18, 2006, 10:48:48 AM

Actually, I think the cook is a man, but he likes to include his wife/girlfriend in his photos.

November · « **Reply #37 on:** October 18, 2006, 01:56:43 PM »

Quote from: enchant on October 18, 2006, 06:58:47 AM

I actually DID punch up the RGB curves substantially before posting it - probably from 128 to about 155 or so. But it was starting to lose detail. (I should have kept the originals, but I tossed them.) I'll give the same shot another try this weekend.

If you changed the RGB channel from 128 to 155, you would hardly have noticed a difference since this is a nonlinear scale that goes to 255. If your only input is 128, it's impossible to loose detail until your output is around 192. I just changed 109 to about 182. It just takes a few seconds.

varasano · « **Reply #38 on:** October 18, 2006, 06:55:35 PM »

I posted 2 new photos here.

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,3965.msg33094.html#msg33094

The daytime shoots are obviously much better. These were taken outdoors right before dusk. You can see the long shadows. Obviously, though, these don't compare to my friend, the amatuer photographer. The most interesting thing about these photos to me was how high the crust looks. Often my photos make the crust look flat, even if they aren't in real life. If you compare the new ones to these you can see the improvement:

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,3499.msg31375.html#msg31375

November · « **Reply #39 on:** October 18, 2006, 08:10:12 PM »

Jeff,

Have you tried taking photographs using a polarized lens or filter? The best light is indeed outside, but it should also be filtered so that glare and intensified highlights are subdued. You want a high contrast shot, but not at the expense of detail. With a polarized filter you can throw all kinds of light on the subject and the image will still remain soft and rich in color. If your camera doesn't accept a lens attachment, you can just pick up a large filter like this (and hold it or tape it to your camera):

http://www.amazon.com/TIFFEN-58CP-Circular-Polarizer-Filter/dp/B00007LA0T

It will make a big difference in the color and contrast of your shots. Also, if you're having issues with blurriness or dimensional fade, make sure you are using a tripod (or at least position the camera on a stable, inanimate object) and definitely use a manual focus.

- red.november