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08/04/2006 08:55:47 PM · #1 |
| I have been hired to do a shoot for a webdesign company to go shoot for a restaurants website. Has anyone ever done this before? Do you have any suggestions for me or any examples of commercial restaurant photography? I'd appreciate the ideas as I have never done this type of photography! |
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08/04/2006 09:05:49 PM · #2 |
Food, menu, or interior, exterior shots?
Message edited by author 2006-08-05 01:06:06. |
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08/04/2006 09:13:53 PM · #3 |
About a year ago, graphicfunk posted this thread, entitled "Making Money with your camera". He has some excellent information in it regarding photographing a restaurant. I think you'll find it interesting.
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08/05/2006 12:47:31 AM · #4 |
Originally posted by faidoi:
Food, menu, or interior, exterior shots? |
all of the above. mostly interior/food. I think the food part would be the most challenging as I haven't photographed food, especially in this kind of environment. |
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08/05/2006 01:03:01 AM · #5 |
I'm shooting food and a restaurant interior at the moment for a website I'm making for a local restaurant. I've done a couple of shoots so far and got a couple to go. I'm doing a fairly extensive site of their services. I reckon the lighting will be your biggest challenge. If you're not using flashes then you'll need long exposures on a tripod. I would also advise using a custom white balance as the indoor lighting often creates a colour cast. A reasonably wide angled lens around 18mm or so will also make your life easier.
As for the food I would suggest using flash/s if possible along with auto white balance because any kind of colour cast will make the food look really weird. Also its very helpful to think about the exact planned use of the images. Extreme close ups can work great (A macro lens is awesome for this) but setup or staged displays can also be useful. Bounce the flash if possible and use reflectors to fill in the shadows. A light tent might be good for food too. I haven't tried that one yet but it seemed like a reasonable idea after my last shoot.
Good luck |
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08/05/2006 05:38:20 AM · #6 |
The other thing to consider is ask or check out the website design company to see what size, color, crop types they use. If they do a stitched panaramic across the top you will need to take the shots. Also keep in mind what the background colors will be. That can give you some ideas about what to shoot. They looking for pictures of people eating? The staff working? The owner? Also use google to find the top restaurant website (even if only by search engine).
Message edited by author 2006-08-05 09:39:50.
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08/05/2006 06:54:42 AM · #7 |
| Avoid pictures of people eating, most people don't look their best when they are shoving food into their mouth... |
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08/05/2006 07:08:30 AM · #8 |
Try shooting in the natural light if at all possible.
 
These were two test shots taken handheld with a new lens. I'd bet with a tripod, a long lens (WA, whatever) and some time you will be able to snipe some great stuff.
Message edited by author 2006-08-05 11:29:09. |
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08/05/2006 07:11:32 AM · #9 |
Originally posted by dwterry:
About a year ago, graphicfunk posted this thread, entitled "Making Money with your camera". He has some excellent information in it regarding photographing a restaurant. I think you'll find it interesting. |
Thanks for the reminder for that thread. |
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08/05/2006 07:46:18 AM · #10 |
I have considerable experience at shooting restaurant interiors; this was a mainstay of my business back in the day. This one was scanned from a print so the quality isn't great, but it is representative:
The main thing to bear in mind is that you do NOT want to be using strobes for this photography unless you have a complete set of professional strobes w/umbrellas, power packs etc, and even then it is best to avoid using them because the lighting you get from strobes completely overpowers the architect/designer's lighting. Instead be prepared to work after hours and do long exposures. Have a couple 500W floods available for fill light and take your time. Usually you will be turning various room lights on/off during the exposure to balance the lighting. The exposure on the shot above was int he 30-minute range, for example, and I had an assistant manning a bank of light switches/rheostats throughout the process. We used what we called a "lighting script", where the assistant had a page of instructions on which switches to turn on/off at exactly which point in the exposure.
If the restaurant you are shooting uses "downlights" for each table, for example, those will only be on for like 1/8 or 1/4 of the exposure time. lest they blow the tabletops right off the histogram.
R.
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08/05/2006 07:50:38 AM · #11 |
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
I have considerable experience at shooting restaurant interiors; this was a mainstay of my business back in the day. This one was scanned from a print so the quality isn't great, but it is representative:
The main thing to bear in mind is that you do NOT want to be using strobes for this photography unless you have a complete set of professional strobes w/umbrellas, power packs etc, and even then it is best to avoid using them because the lighting you get from strobes completely overpowers the architect/designer's lighting. Instead be prepared to work after hours and do long exposures. Have a couple 500W floods available for fill light and take your time. Usually you will be turning various room lights on/off during the exposure to balance the lighting. The exposure on the shot above was int he 30-minute range, for example, and I had an assistant manning a bank of light switches/rheostats throughout the process. We used what we called a "lighting script", where the assistant had a page of instructions on which switches to turn on/off at exactly which point in the exposure.
If the restaurant you are shooting uses "downlights" for each table, for example, those will only be on for like 1/8 or 1/4 of the exposure time. lest they blow the tabletops right off the histogram.
R. |
My question:
With the use of digital photograpy it's "easy" to do this kind of shots. You see what you make, so to say, with a laptop you can see which lights you have to adjust and you can go on immediately.
How did you manage this with film? Calculating, shooting test-shots? |
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08/05/2006 07:56:42 AM · #12 |
Originally posted by biteme:
My question:
With the use of digital photograpy it's "easy" to do this kind of shots. You see what you make, so to say, with a laptop you can see which lights you have to adjust and you can go on immediately.
How did you manage this with film? Calculating, shooting test-shots? |
We shot in large format (4x5 transparencies) and we used a polaroid back (with 55 P/N film) to set up our shots and verify our exposures.
R.
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08/05/2006 07:57:52 AM · #13 |
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
Originally posted by biteme:
My question:
With the use of digital photograpy it's "easy" to do this kind of shots. You see what you make, so to say, with a laptop you can see which lights you have to adjust and you can go on immediately.
How did you manage this with film? Calculating, shooting test-shots? |
We shot in large format (4x5 transparencies) and we used a polaroid back (with 55 P/N film) to set up our shots and verify our exposures.
R. |
oh yeah, that's right! thanks.
(by the way, that's gonna be the next topic @ my study!) |
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