Ed Rooney Posted July 5, 2014 Share Posted July 5, 2014 I'm wondering what people think about keywording cooked food in restaurants. Do you all put the name of the restaurant and its location in your keywords? I do only if the food shown is one of a restaurant's signature dishes. If the dish is ordinary, I don't tie it to the restaurant or the location. The fish dish below is tied to Etta's in Seattle, the other pic is keyworded only as quesadilla, Mexican, food, cuisine, etc. This was taken at Lupe's here in NYC . . . but I don't say that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ventura Posted July 5, 2014 Share Posted July 5, 2014 Nice shots Ed, I do the same thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted July 5, 2014 Author Share Posted July 5, 2014 Thanks, Michael. I think of you as a travel pro so I'm glad you agree. I have a friend who's one of the very top life-style shooters in America. She is able to exercise a lot of control on her food shoots. You and I and many others at Alamy have to think like travelers on the run and have to shoot down and dirty much of the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ventura Posted July 5, 2014 Share Posted July 5, 2014 Thanks Ed. Food is an important part of travel and I am always looking for local dishes that says where you are. They sell about as well as anything else that says travel. I rarely light my shots and use window light as much as possible. Food shots can also sell for its ingredients, so be sure to keyword all the major items in the dish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted July 5, 2014 Share Posted July 5, 2014 I'm too greedy to do much food photography (those quesadillas look muy rico). Things usually disappear before I have a chance to photograph them. However, when I do manage to exercise a little self-restraint, I generally don't mention the restaurant's name and location in the results unless it makes sense to do so -- e.g. well-known dish, popular restaurant, etc. BTW, foodies, how much depth of field does Alamy expect with food images? Any pitfalls to avoid when using selective focus? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ventura Posted July 5, 2014 Share Posted July 5, 2014 John, selective focus has not been a problem for me with QC. One of my best selling food shots, the conch fritters, has very selective focus. Believe me, it takes a lot of restraint not to dig right in right away, but I can knock out some shots pretty fast!! Shot on a rainy day by a window in Nassau, Bahamas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted July 5, 2014 Share Posted July 5, 2014 Thanks, Michael. By the looks of it, selective focus in not a problem as long as there is an identifiable center of focus. I sometimes shoot from above -- i.e. looking down-- to avoid shallow DOF issues. It can be a boring perspective, though, as in this shot of Mazatlan garlic shrimp: http://c8.alamy.com/comp/8/%7B6E9907BE-DD91-4B84-AFEC-44CC7B87FA10%7D/C9865G.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted July 5, 2014 Share Posted July 5, 2014 Ed, this is a bit off-topic, but how do you find the Sony 30mm macro lens for food photography? The price is right (currently $230 here), and it gets some pretty good reviews with the NEX-3/5/6 (not so good with the NEX-7). As you know, I'm a man on a budget these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ventura Posted July 5, 2014 Share Posted July 5, 2014 John, if I can, I try to shoot the dish from overhead as well as from a low angle. And yes, I think as long as there is an obvious sharp point in the photo, you will be okay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted July 5, 2014 Share Posted July 5, 2014 John, if I can, I try to shoot the dish from overhead as well as from a low angle. And yes, I think as long as there is an obvious sharp point in the photo, you will be okay. Thanks. In the example above, I also wanted to show the name of the well-known restaurant, which is written on the plate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted July 6, 2014 Author Share Posted July 6, 2014 Ed, this is a bit off-topic, but how do you find the Sony 30mm macro lens for food photography? The price is right (currently $230 here), and it gets some pretty good reviews with the NEX-3/5/6 (not so good with the NEX-7). As you know, I'm a man on a budget these days. You may recall the blues guitar closeup I shot with that 30mm Sony. It's a good sharp lens and would work well for food . . . if you allow that there's some falloff in sharpness at the outer edges, like with the 16mm. As long as you know that going in you can easily work around it. I bought the Sony Zeiss 24mm soon after I got the 30mm, and since the 24 (36mm view) is sharper and focuses to 6.5", I used that for most of my food shots with my NEX cameras. I do recommend the Sony 30 macro to you--the price is so much better. And guys, if we want to use that shallow DoF style of shooting food that was so popular in mags back in the '90s, I would trust Alamy QC to be hip enough to see where we are going. They know what they're doing. This snap was done with the Sony 30mm, I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted July 6, 2014 Share Posted July 6, 2014 Thanks, Ed. I'm going to have a closer look (no pun intended) at the 30mm macro. You've done some nice work with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linda Posted July 6, 2014 Share Posted July 6, 2014 I'm wondering what people think about keywording cooked food in restaurants. Do you all put the name of the restaurant and its location in your keywords? I do only if the food shown is one of a restaurant's signature dishes. If the dish is ordinary, I don't tie it to the restaurant or the location. The fish dish below is tied to Etta's in Seattle, the other pic is keyworded only as quesadilla, Mexican, food, cuisine, etc. This was taken at Lupe's here in NYC . . . but I don't say that. Thanks Ed. Those look delish.Now I'm starving but it's 1am! LOL! L Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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