this was probably one of my best food shots. why? first of all, i took it with a point and shoot camera... it's also basically a quick snap shot. i also thought the picture was sharp and the lighting was perfect. the presentation was done by a cook at an expensive restaurant, crustacean. so basically, i thought it was awesome. flickr comments tend to do that sometimes. make you feel more skilled than you really are. i understand that of course. i know that flickr comments are no substitute for real photo critque. the comments are mostly "manufactured" comments, mostly made in groups where they are required to post a comment. i'm sure that some of them are geniune comments so that's cool. so despite all that, it still is nice to get positive feedback on pics that you are generally proud of.
but sometimes you just get your pic totally skewered, totally dismembered... and believe it or not, i actually liked it. well... once i got over the hurt feelings of getting such a bad review on a pic. once i calmed down and re-read the criticisms.. i did begin to understand that the person had a point. basically this is what she wrote
"I like the salad, but I don't like the photo. It seems you didn't really take the time to compose the setting or the photo. For example, in the upper right corner another dish is crowding the light, and the piece of vegetable on the lower left is running away from its mates - in professional food photography every little detail really matters.
Also, it's disconcerting that the shrimp on the right is being crushed by the cutlery. The light is pretty dull (too even) and the shrimp looks cold and unappetising. You should never have the utensils crowding the plate like that, and some effort at garnish should be made.
As you can probably tell, I take my food photography very seriously. :)"
ouch. but the truth can hurt sometimes. i've checked her pics and she's a pretty damn good photographer so i feel that her opinions are quite valid concerning my photo. i have zero experience in taking "professional" pics. especially when i took this one. even looking at it now... i still think it's really really good... except maybe for the other dish on the top right corner and the shrimp under the cutlery. i disagree on the issue that the cutlery is crowding the plate however... i feel it belongs there and that it's part of the presentation. as far as how the food was presented... i had no real control over that... that's how the waiter brought it... and this was at a pretty expensive restaurant... shouldn't they know something about food presentation? this might be one of those "eye of the beholder" type situations. i wasn't really going to try and re-arrange this pic when this was a shared dish amongst six other people who were pretty hungry and i don't think were going to wait for me to re-arrange it to make it more photogenic.
so again, i still think this is a pretty good shot, not as good as before. i liked her criticism because it brought me back down to earth after all those ego feeding compliments. in order to improve as a photographer, i think these types of comments get me thinking more about the shots i'm taking. i'm not going to totally dismiss all the positive comments though... i really appreciate the fact that some people just like what they see and express it with a few words. i just hope that there are more photographers out there who can take the time and provide constructive educational comments...
