Task 3 - Sunday Dinner

In this task, our aim was to photograph our 'Sunday Dinner' of our choice. The meal had to be the main subject of our photos however, we could also use props if we wanted to. We had to make the food look as appealing as possible and present it nicely as if the images were intended for use of a restaurant advertisement or pages of a magazine or book.

In my culture, I don't have a 'Sunday Dinner' so when I got this task, I felt like it was quite challenging that I might be different. Our main meal would be rice and curry so I thought I would use that as my meal to bring some different cultural and traditions twist into it. Here are my images:

The images came out well and I tried my best to make it looking presentable. The curry dish I've used is a chicken korai which is a dry curry so it's not really full on saucy. I've moulded the rice together in a circle, added some fresh coriander on top just to make it look decent. I've used different lighting to see which works the best. I've also included a knife and fork in some of my images as props. I may consider re-shooting just so I can use another meal.

Birds Eye View

Here is a birds eye view of my meal. I've decided to use a knife and fork as my prop here and aligned it next to the plate. I think the lighting isn't the best here but that's because there's not much light source in my kitchen. You can see there is natural lighting coming from the right side and it gets darker to the left. I think this just gives the plate some depth. The plate is fully focused and the colour are fairly vibrant. 

Close up

This is a close up shot of the meal. I've set the focus on the chicken and partly the rice with the background all blurred. The lighting on here isn't too bad, you can see it's directly hitting the rice on the left side. The focus is very sharp and it makes the chicken stand out. The colours of the chicken is very vibrant and I think this contrasts with the rice. 

Vertical Version

This is a similar image in a vertical format. I've taken it in a slighter higher angle because I think it suited it better because we can see the full plate. The rice here is nicely exposed, and it seems to look presented well. The lighting is directly coming on to the plate, shining upon the plate and brightening the chicken. I like the shadow that is near the right side because it gives it some realism features. It's occurred because the light source is only on one side. The focus on the plate is sharp and I think it's quite bold.

Different Lighting

This image is similar to the previous image, but the lighting is completely different. It just shows how the lighting can change the whole look. This was taken when there was sun directly coming through the window. This made the background darker and all the attention to the plate. Under the chicken curry, you can see a shadow which tells you the direction of the sun was just straight across. I like this image in the way the background is illuminated however, it gives the image this warmer tone which I find amusing. 

French Toast

This was a random breakfast I thought I would just include. It's basically french toast or eggy bread in other words. I just like how they've been stacked up on tissue and you can see each layer. The top bread has this nice shine on it which makes it look appetising. The focus is sharp and therefore you can see the texture of the bread and makes it appealing.

Overall, the shoot went okay and I did produce quite a range of images. If I could change anything, I would hope to get better lighting but it was tricky photographing in my kitchen and dining room. The things that went well was using some of the techniques I've covered, getting focused images and taking multiple shots.

Additional Images

For this re-shoot, I've decided to use pizza as my meal. I think this is more of the ordinary and I wanted to include pizza somewhere in this project because I really like pizza. So one day, I ordered pizza and thought why not just do my work based on it. Here are my contact prints:

I believe the shoot went well and I've taken multiple images. The main motive on these images was to use the box as a main prop because I just see it as a convention when it comes to pizza. The lighting used in the images were artificial, room lights which is different to the shoots I've done so far. The reason is because I took these sets of pictures at night. Here are a selection of my images non edited:

Slice of pizza

This is a single slice of pizza that's placed on the box, I thought I'd capture the pizza slice alone where the focus is strong and the box and background is blurred. The focus has worked really well and it's very sharp on the slice. I like how there's a bit of chicken tikka that's in focus in the centre of the shot. I taken this from a neutral position so it's very direct with the slice.

Top View

This is the same pizza but taken from a birds eye angle. I like this image because of the little details like the oil on the box, it shows how the complete pizza was positioned. The focus here is sharp and the colours of the chicken tikka is very vibrant. I've also cropped the image with the same ratio so the box completes the frame.

Close up 

Here's a close up shot of what I call a half and half pizza. I was intending to capture the toppings and the cheese in a closer perspective. The focus is strong nearer to the middle and the foreground and background is blurred. It's very selective with the focus which I think makes an image stand out because it's very shallow. I like how the chicken tikka is very dominant and because it's red so it stands out and compliment the green peppers on the other half.  

Trio

I like the lighting in this image, and how nicely bright the pizza looks under that artificial lighting. I've used the foreground pizza to be the main focus and use depth of field to blur out the other two pizzas. I chose this vertical format because I liked how it looks compared to the horizontal look which I've taken in my contacts. I think the foreground pizza looks appealing because there's lots of cheese, peppers and mince meat that is dominantly popping out. 

Close up 2 

This is another close up image. Would have been better if the lighting was a tiny bit brighter because it's very colourful and the details on that slice is very sharp. It's been positioned this way where the slice is sitting on top horizontally and then I've just been testing the focus on different slices of pizza. 

Pizza Box

Here's the last image of the shoot. I captured this image of the pizza box and the pizza from quite a distance to capture the full box. I like the position it's been captured at because the text is visible and the angle also shows the pizza inside the box. The colours of the pizza is the best thing in the image. It's like a box full of colour. The background is blurred so the focus is on the box and the pizza. I like the little details like having the lid sit up, just works nicely. The lighting in this image is also great because the box and pizza is sitting under a light so there's no darkness.

Overall, this shoot went good. I got multiple shots again and thought about the techniques of each picture. As I've already mentioned, the only thing that I would adjust is the lighting so it's just a tad brighter. As I've picked up from my research, bright and vibrant pictures makes good food pictures. On the other hand, I really like the warmth tone these images have. This natural warm golden tone works with the pizza images because it brings out this fresh vibe like it's warm and it's been cooked till it's nice and golden. When I go over my contact prints, I just feel like the lighting is well suited to my subject because it's very homely.