Today, I photograph some nature on my plate. I haven't been out in a while, getting a bit stir crazy, and one day I looked at my kitchen wall thinking 'why don't I take some food shots, print them, and put them up there'. So, here we go.
Very, very delicious.
Just a quick explanation on why I took this the way I did, and what I think works.
First, the background isn't the best, but since that's how my kitchen wall looks, so be it. The main goal is that it isn't distracting. The second thing is the use of a shallow depth of field. This photo was taken with a 35mm lens at f4, focusing quite close (about 40 cm from the sensor), resulting in the nice blur effect you see. In this photo, all the crayfish don't need to be in focus for you to know what they are. Similarly for the bottle, champagne glasses, and the toast. The shape and colour allows your brain to make the connection, especially if you've ever tasted the combo previously.
Then, the positioning. I was literally salivating when positioning these things (I was hungry, and it looked delicious :)), so I didn't try to get it perfect. I started with the important thing, the crayfish. Then, adding a few suitable pieces of color (lemon, dill), and the plate on the left third (human eyes start looking at a photo from left to right, having the lemon adds contrast that the eye jumps to). The rest of the frame builds the scene; with crayfish, you typically have toast and some sort of white wine or bubbly. So, adding them was a no-brainer. There were other things I though about adding (champagne cork, mayonnaise, crayfish knife), but decided against it; simpler is better. If I would have had access to a seaside restaurant, the scene would have been better. Maybe next time.
To finish it off, I added a dutch tilt (taking the photo at a pronounced angle) because I typically do that when photographing food. I just think it looks better, even though it is a bit of a cliche. And finally, the scene is lighted with a single flash, sat on the right corner of the table, out of shot. The flash is pointed to the white ceiling with maximum spread, so that everything is lit evenly from above, and the shadows under the plates are nice and diffused.
I think I like this idea. Now I just have to figure out other things I love eating to take photos of.