Slammers

These images are from our pictorial for Slammers for their rebranding marketing. They have cornered the market on sliders or mini-burgers. In photography the smaller the items, the harder it becomes to shoot them properly. These burgers took some time to prepare and shoot because when you go smaller, flaws become magnified when captured by the camera. Another problem you will encounter is the limited depth of field because your camera is closer to the subject.  You shoot on F18 or higher but suffer diffraction  which means softer images or you pull back the camera but you get a smaller image on the frame. Or you can get really technical and bracket  a series of focus points on a rail system, then combine the sharpest parts on post. I opted for focus bracketing hence i got images with all parts, front to back, in sharp focus. Yes, photography, specially today, is not just art, it's technology driven too. Thanks to Luisa Jimenez for the wonderful food styling on this project. Always work with a food stylist when you can.

Chicken Charlie

This is the second time we're shooting for Chicken Charlie. Shot on location in their restaurant. It was a tight squeeze for our set-up but we manage to get the lighting to work. Here are some  of the shots, dropped out on white background but using the natural shadows from the original shots.

New food shots for menu

Most of the stuff i shoot is for restaurants, usually on location, in one small corner of their restaurant. Sometimes we need to shoot for an entire menu that may consist of 50-100 items. For this kind of shoots where they only have a budget for a day or two-day shoot, time is of the essence. You shoot one dish after another on a white background with minimal or no propping and you tweak the lights best you can pronto. For some you have a little luxury of time, and you get to play around with props and backgrounds--whatever  are available or you were able to bring to the shoot. So you get to be more creative with the lighting too. Maybe add a mottled shadow effect on the back of the table. I enjoy both scenarios of food photography. It doesn't matter where or how we'll be shooting, i enjoy the challenge each food shoot brings and i feel lucky to make a living out of my passion. Here are some sample images from my recent restaurant shoots.