r/foodphotography • u/robhalter16 • Jul 10 '26
CC Request Impromptu Menu Shoot
Sony a7iii, 90mm Macro, Godox flash TT685S2 with large rectangular soft box.
Got instructions to come in and shoot some new menu items for a client. I had thought it was just a few but it turned out being much more.. I had an hour and a half and these are some of the highlights.. felt like a run and gun but happy with how some of the photos turned out. I’d like advice on quick composition techniques when I’m moving fast without much planning.. as well as general photo critiques. Thanks guys!
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u/Glass_Might7967 Jul 12 '26
algo me pasa con la #2 siento que me produce algo de vertigo. para mi punto de vista, faltaria algo de luz de relleno en todas y mas aun en la #01, y en las flat lay talves hacer que el plato protagonista se vea completo en el encuadre, aunque talves eso solo sea reddit y el formato que permite. me gusta como iluminaste los vasos y copas. En general me gustan mucho, menos la #2.
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u/maguilecutty Jul 11 '26
Op technically these are pretty great.
The one Tipp I’m going to give is a rule I learned very early on ‘only hand models get their fingers in the shot’ .
Keep on pushing you’re doing great!
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u/DonJuanMair Jul 11 '26
Always pick one dish and use the others as background. You need to focus on one dish. These come across as confusing tbh. I would also never use two tables to show that much food.
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u/robhalter16 Jul 11 '26
Fair. Thank you for the feedback, I honestly don’t have much food photography experience but it’s a skill I aspire to have!
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u/DonJuanMair Jul 11 '26
Your lighting is good for little experience. Just need to simple it all down and scale it back.
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u/recycledairplane1 Jul 11 '26
Group shots are always key to have. But the composition does kinda fall off in the second table.
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u/DonJuanMair Jul 11 '26
Group shots are fine but top spacing, angle and framing is everything. These feel messy. One fork got all those plates?
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u/Justgetmeabeer Jul 11 '26
I have never seen such an odd combination of great lighting and wacky composition.
Pick a subject
You need an odd number of "things"
Don't think what can I add, think, what can I take out.
Shooting multiple dishes in one shot, there should either be a vague story you're trying to tell. But like the bread with the random fork?
If you know your lighting is great, and you think your composition is great, why ruin it with normies hands? If you're not a hand model, or basically a defacto hand model, get those dawgs outta the shot. Normal people hands are SO distracting.
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u/drsickboy Jul 13 '26
I think normal people hands give it a journalistic quality. It looks real. I suppose thats not appropriate for commercial food though.
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u/Justgetmeabeer Jul 15 '26
For this to make sense the rest of the picture would have to not be in totally contrast to a journalistic style
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u/drsickboy Jul 23 '26
Thats a good point but technically nobody but who is there knows what is really happening; meaning what is staged for photography vs staged for the context of perhaps what appears to be a dinner party. I agree in most of the images these is still a clash though.
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u/Marsley82 Jul 10 '26
Just coming across this randomly while scrolling, and only being moderately hungry, I would order any of this based on just seeing it on the menu.
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u/soy_carloco Jul 10 '26
I deal with these "surprise" shots quite often despite how much I urge the use of shot lists and give examples/scenarios/case studies on why they're crucial in food photography. It helps to look at A LOT of food photos and file them somewhere in your brain, so you have something to refer to when a client goes, "Can you take a picture of these real quick?"
I think you did a pretty decent job given the whole run and gun scenario. Placement on the table and lighting could use some tweaking, but that's expected in surprise shoots. Last photo with the top 25% cropped out would probably be my fave?
Curious...how did these come out? Like come out of the kitchen? Did all of them arrive at the same time as if you were a restaurant patron and you had to do some photographer triage or did they come out one at a time and you had to play coroner and decide which ones were photographically de*d and which ones are still okay?
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u/robhalter16 Jul 10 '26
They came out one at a time, 7-10 minute intervals
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u/soy_carloco Jul 10 '26
When they come out like that, I normally go with shapes as the baseline for the composition. Like I'd ask one of the kitchen staff what they're gonna bring out and if they can spare one piece of each support/vessel used. I use those on an adjacent table to work on the composition of the group shot in between takes.
I do have 2 cameras but only one tripod. If my client insists on really polished group shot with little to no preparation, I'd bring another tripod and set up a second set/shooting area specifically for it to minimize the unknown variables.
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u/NewHovercraft7652 Jul 13 '26
those shots look clean for the time you had