Putting the Skills to the Test - Food Pt 2

So, I've been quite busy lately and haven't been able to find time to update this blog. But here is the long awaited Food Photography part 2!! Excited right?! Right, this time, we'll be looking at some shots of Vietnamese food. On the day after the food photography presentation, the UNSW Photoclub went out to Cabramatta for some apply-what-you-just-learnt-style food photography. Getting a abit hungry? Keep reading to be dealt the final blow!

Before we get into the photography stuff, let's talk about the day itself, since this is a blog of some sort. SO, there was about 15 of us day, which meant we had to split up into two groups so we can fit into a restaurant. For some reason, we just stood around in Cabra CBD just chatting, which meant we lost alot of time. When we all started getting hungry for talking we went for some food.

In the end, it was a decision between a pho place, or a noodles place. Let me ask you a question, if you see this eerie dark alleyway and people told you theres a shop inside, aren't you curious to check it out? So that's what I did!! This being the noodle shop. So upon walking into the shop, the words "Asian" popped into my head. It was the most cliche Asian place (not saying it's anything bad or unexpected). It was quite small, with about 15 or so small-ish tables. The menus were displayed across the walls, most being in Vietnamese, which I can't read.

Luckily there was two people with us who could somewhat read Vietnamese, so most of us knew what we were getting. Except for me! (seems like I enjoy adventures ;p) There was one item on the menu they had no idea wat it was, so I went for it. So it's called Hu Tieu Nam Vang, someone let me know what it means.

Hu Tieu Nam Vang

It consisted of rice noodles (?, I am such a bad food blogger), and a variety of beef parts. There was normal beeef mince, some parts of the stomach I believe and blood jelly. Normally this will freak out people, but being Asian me, we I eat everything!!!! It was actually quite nice, for a place hidden away. Better than I expected, although I won't be suprised if it's filled with MSG. But nevetherless, I recommend it! The other dishes looked quite nice as well. Most others got an egg noodle soup with duck leg, which is the second photo.



Photography

Now let's go on about photography. There's not much to say that differs from Part 1. The framing was about the same, except this time I was quite close to the object. I used a 35mm f2.4 on my crop sized sensor, which made the food just far enough for me to take a shot. If I used my 50mm, I think it would have been too close. One other thing is to consider you aperture and lighting. The lighting was quiet horrid in the restaurant (in terms for photography). I stopped it down to f2.4 and ISO about 800. This wasn't exactly bright enough as well, so the photos you see have had their exposure bumped up in Lightroom.

Duck Leg Egg Noodle Soup

One thing I learnt out of this is that the lighting really restricts you. I was forced to go to f2.4, which gave me a very shallow depth of field at that working distance. As you see from the pictures above, it's abit too shallow to my liking. I wished more of the food was in focus. I would have increased ISO, but being a non 5D camera, I can't do that so easily. Shutter was already at 1/80 sec which I think can't get much lower before camera shake becomes a problem.

Above framing, I saw some of the photos others took, and there is something I think I should of done, was include some context. Most of the shots have the bowls fill the frame, but maybe a little background would have been nice. Since there was lots of sauces and stuff on the table.


Anyway, that's it for today, it's like 1am as I am typing this post up. Tune in a few days as I will talk about another passion of mine, Timelapses. Or maybe I'll talk about a photoshoot. I'll keep it a suprise =D.


Until next time!