Jill Keller is a food photographer that deals with different kinds of cuisines. My favorite design on her website was the dumplings. For one she sets a wonderful serene ambiance, the lighting is dim, it’s natural lighting. The position she sets the dish and the sauces is very well put and there is a sharp contract to the object of importance, which in this case is the dumplings. I like this photo because the color scheme is constant with the brown, grey, black, etc. It’s perfect lighting because, many people like myself love to eat in on a cloudy, gloom day. This photo gives me a comforting feeling and makes me want to eat, I mean looking at those dumplings who wouldn’t? The overall composure of the photograph is beautiful and exquisite as she has focused into the dumplings with the chopsticks having a small amount of light gleaming through them and the background being blurred. Another tint of beauty that she added to touch with the overall traditional theme is the tablecloth and the wood. Polished wood always goes well with food photography as we had seen in previous examples with Quentin Bacon. The tablecloth of course added a more home like emotion, overall this photo gives me the feeling of an authentic asian household, beautiful, clean, and healthy.

Marcel Christ’s photograph of the red drink in a glass cup, we only see one third of the cup in a third-quarter view. Including visible ingredients such as a lemon on the left bottom, basil on the right bottom, ice, and a straw on the right. On either side there is a light pink, it makes the drink more appetizing. The success for this photograph is that you don’t really need the whole drink to know what’s in it. The frame is filled and the composition of each ingredient placed is cut off but doesn’t necessarily need to be shown whole because just a bit is cut off. As well as the lighting of this photograph, I think a three point lighting. I am sure that there is a main light and a filter light that makes the drink pop out more.

Looking through marcel Christ’s work. I am very impressed because he has some cool liquid pictures. As a photographer, I don’t like to take pictures of objects or liquid pictures because is not my thing, but Marcel just blew minds with his incredible work. All of his work is based on liquid and he made it so fun. For example, one that really caught my mind and got me thinking about the whole process was this one.

I wonder how he did it. How many tries he had to catch this action. What was his shutter speed?  I really like how it standing out with the black background. I think with a white background would be okay but with a black background it makes the tabasco bottle stand out with it red color. I also like how the lighting is hitting the side of the bottle. After all is a really good shot. That shutter speed must had been crazy and also the timing.

Wow! Marcel Christ has amazing pictures on liquid, it was hard for me to pick my favorite. In my opinion, I feel that liquid can be easy to look boring but Marcel Christ brings life out of liquid.

My favorite picture from Marcel Christ is this one, there are so many things working in this image.

The first thing that I noticed about the image is the vivid colors of the drink. I love how much the colors in the drink brings life to the photo. In the image, there are so many details showing from the tip of the glass. Something else that I love that he did with the photo is the image. This was the best angle to use because I feel that an overhead shoot wouldn’t have had the same results. this angle brings more height of the drink and is the true definition of a “Product as star” advertisement.

What I also like about the picture is the great number of details he brought out. If this was just a plain flat drink, the photo wouldnt be as appealing. The nice from being on top to being inside of the drink makes you want it even more, to the viewer the drink looks really refreshing. What makes this picture so perfect is how he was able to capture every little detail. I feel that it’s very important to get small details because drinks already have a small amount of depth to it.

This photo by Marcel Christ is a non-commissioned work using the COCO Chanel perfume but with a corner of it exploding from the side. To me the thing that makes this a successful photo is because of the impressive use of the extremely fast shutter speed to capture the very second the bottle explodes at the perfect position. Also composition wise I think that this is a strong photo. The subject is bold in terms of its placement, color, contrast, and movement with the explosion. The bottle is a deep yellow color that stands out with the background nicely and is centered in the middle of the background. This photo also uses rule of thirds by having the explosion in the corner of the bottle which attracts the eye to that corner first which shows hierarchy. Overall all aspects of this photo are very strong and it is a well composed photo.

In this photo that Scrivani took a close up of a pie, the lighting here is displayed from what appears to be natural window light. As if the pie is sitting by a kitchen window or something similar to cool down, which is fitting. The five points based on the handout are used here effectively. The first point is subject placement being whether the photo is centered or not, here Scrivani decided to fill the frame with the pie so the photo is being centered. The second point referrers to the rule of thirds which would divide the frame vertically or horizontally. Here, Scrivani applies the rule of thirds to a degree. In this photo the imaginary rule of thirds lines intersect at different edges of the pie where the circular parts show. So the rule of thirds is not obvious but it can be shown there. The third point being perspective which in this photo is an upward perspective or in other words it is flat because we are just seeing the top portion and no depth of the pie; which leads to point four of the photo being in an overhead view. Point five which is tonal variation between the subject and the background; there is a decent contrast in tonality between the pie and the background. While a majority of the pie is a light golden brown color and the background is a magenta like color; the pie filling is also very similar to the magenta like color shown in the background. However even tho it is similar it does not kill the photo or overpower it and there is still a nice contrast and tonal variation within the photo.

Through looking at the works of Marcel Christ I noticed that he specifically works with liquid and motion. He uses liquid to his advantage to set the mood and the message of the advertised object. My favorite of his photographs was of this flower. I am a down to earth nature person I love the smell and the color nature provides us, flowers within itself are natures grace and beauty and the way he displays it here is a new perspective for me. I see a different image here, a different symbolism. Beauty comes and goes, or that something so beautiful can break in an instant. I understand that this is for Dior but the photos to this project he made is so powerful and stunning it really just grasped my attention. In his photos there is always attention to detail whether its these petals or the liquid behind the message for example his Hennessy Photo. He makes the liquid look so good, so light and beautiful, it makes me want to drink it because of how pleasing it looks even though the after effect of drinking that is not all too pleasant and everyone knows it ( for us 21+ folk haha ).

The same goes to this example, the attention to detail. I am so mesmerized about these shots he took with flowers. The beauty of a flower is momentary, it can be taken away so easily, from a simple breeze to a chaotic natural disaster. I think we can all relate to a simple flower. Overall I like the consistency in his designs and how he approaches them. He used a key light, a simple light to capture this image from the looks of it. He uses it from up top judging by the shadows within the photo. Truly a remarkable piece of art.

In the photograph what I find appealing about is the dish is off center, following the rule of thirds horizontally. It is angled at a three quarter view, it allows us to view each ingredient and mostly see the rice. If it were overhead we would only see the shrimp and greens, Moreover, the dish has vibrant colors and the natural lighting coming from the top makes it appetizing. The wooden surface makes it modern and the detail of the green herb on the bottom left of the photograph makes it more vibrant. That the dish be presented neatly.

After last week class, I view food photography so much different now. Andrew Scrivani has great pictures. When I went on his website, his website looked very yummy. All of the food pictures were nicely lit and looked so colorful.

My favorite picture on his page was this picture. It reminded me of the pictures I took of the tomatoes in class. This is an example of taking pictures of a lot of the same thing.There’s several clams all over the picture. The clams are placed all over,  giving  the  image  great  proportion.  Most  food  photography  is  either  shot overhead  or  at  45  degrees  to  the  food. Andrew  Scrivani shot it overhead,  and  it  works  perfectly  considering  it’s several  clams.  Another  thing  I love  it  how soft  the  lighting  is.  It  feels  never  natural  and  brings  out  the  details  in  the  shells.