Food Photo Competition 2014 No 4 : Results

Competition Winner : First Prize
$150.00 plus a Leica C worth $700

Judges Comment
A striking spacious composition, beautifully placed focus, soft natural light and wonderful warm colours. But what really makes this a pleasure to look at is the perfect focus. I don’t mean the sharpness of the focus (which is perfect also), but its placement, the depth of field. It is so important to hold the viewer’s eye within a composition and there are a variety of ways to do that. Shapes and form within a composition for example, or a strong anchor point. We often hear of lead lines which can draw in the eye and hold attention whilst making an interesting composition but less so of the importance of depth of field and the strength that good focus can bring to a photograph. Here is a beautiful example of that. Your eye is held by that focus on the most interesting part of the picture, one apple, its stalk and the two leaves. All the rest is there in the blurry background, complimenting that apple and making up the atmosphere. Apart from that fine technical side you have placed your apples and leaves quite beautifully making this so comfortable to admire. Just stunning. Congratulations.

Mark Of Excellence

Judges Comment
This photograph too is highly placed thanks to its beautiful and technical qualities, once again the focus is just perfect. The lighting makes this so appetizing, the squint but airy composition make it exciting, and the sharpness of the coriander leaf is so captivating. Beautiful work, well done.
Photographers Comment
My name is Matthew James Guy an artist of British nationality based in San Diego, California. The subject is an Indian food dish called dal, which is one of my favourite foods. I took the photo using a Canon 5D with a 24-150mm Canon lens. I used white printer paper for background and 2 off camera strobe guns with some white and silver fill. I took this picture for a personal food project I am working on. Thank you for the Mark of Excellence.

Mark Of Excellence

Judges Comment
Gruesome to some Art to others. I was just saying that a great photo needs to grab your attention… This certainly does just that with piggy’s eye placed for all to admire. Once again simple is best, your composition is graphic and easy, a circle and lines to lock us on and to make us look into that dead eye. Powerful stuff. ☺
Photographers Comment
Thanks for the Mark of Excellence! I wasn't sure how to capture this image for the chef? I must have lugged the pigs head in a pot around to 10 different locations trying to find the right spot. I tried studio lighting and it was boring, so I ended up on a wood park table. Thankfully it was a cloudy day and the light just diffused wonderfully around the subject. I used my Sony RX1R on this photo and edited it in LR.
www.jhemphillphotography.com

Mark Of Excellence

Judges Comment
This is a beautiful minimal approach and reminds me of an entry a round or two ago. (It maybe wasn’t yours). The tones are beautiful and isolating the pear is a clever idea but making that into a strong subject is complicated and you have done well. Perhaps a slightly longer depth of field, bringing the focus a little further down the pear would have made this easier to gaze at.
Photographers Comment
First, thank you for the Mark of Excellence - very exciting! My name is Shawna Miller and I am a graphic designer/photographer/artist based in the New Jersey/New York area. This pear is from a series I did of a "dying" pear. This was #4 in a series of 10. This particular shot was created with natural light - captured with a Canon 40D using a 50mm Canon lens - which is how such a shallow depth of field was achieved. Thank you, again!
theshawnamiller.com

Mark Of Excellence

Judges Comment
This is refreshing, I love the crumb. The bite makes this fun, the crumb makes it real.
Photographers Comment
Very happy to receive a mark of excellence! Congrats to the other winners as well. My name is Rob, and I live in South-Western Michigan, USA. I shot this with a Canon 70D and 60mm macro lens. The light source is a single speedlight and softbox. I boosted shadows and did minor sharpening in LR5.

Mark Of Excellence

Judges Comment
Here is a strong image with the shape and form I mentioned earlier. The colours are strong and complimentary and the dish itself looks interesting too. Nice vertical angle to give the soup its sunshine appeal. Well done.
Photographers Comment
Again, Thanks for the Mark of Excellence! This image is part of a series for a restaurant called The Curious Kumquat in Silver City, NM. I used natural light with a white reflector and the dish is place on a 1940's truck hood. The restaurant has collected many old car and truck hoods for me to use in their food photography. I used my Sony RX1R for this image and processed the photo in LR.
www.jhemphillphotography.com

Mark Of Excellence

Judges Comment
Another fun chilli image, thanks, we enjoy your entries and style. Once again this is beautifully taken, I love the steam and your general clarity and contrast. I look forward to the next ☺ and your winner one day.
Photographers Comment
Spaghetti on a glass plate. Cooked in my kitchen. The horns are sharp pepperoni and the eyes are sweets. The steam is original from the hot noodles, no photoshop. 2 flash units left and right. Black background. Camera Canon EOS 5D. Lens 100mm macro.
www.hanswichmann.de

Mark Of Excellence

Judges Comment
Well this was a surprise. How did you get this so sharp absolutely everywhere? Especially clever if we consider the lightning speed of that tongue (if that’s what it’s called). Great work and pretty ingenious too. Come on, please tell us how you did this!
Photographers Comment
Thank you. Reasons for most everything in focus are, I shot at f11, 28mm, and made a pretty decent sized crop....exactly 9MP left from the original 18 of the Canon 7D. Making it square played a roll in the big crop, but I also had it set up with more room on top than I needed for this particular picture because normally he would climb to the top of the handle. Large sheet of photography background paper under and behind the basket. Flash with a diffuser at front middle above. The chameleon tongue is the fastest muscle on the planet, so using a flash set to 1/4 power(1/4000 sec) or faster is a must for sharp tongue shots. After much practice, I am up to nailing about 1 in 4 shots, although, for this one I was a little off my game and I think I went through about 15 worms before I was happy with the results. Everything involved, namely using flashes, it is better to shoot single shot and not burst. Given that and the speed of their tongue, luck does play a factor.
scottcromwell.photography/

Mark Of Excellence

Judges Comment
Crispy sharp, just where it should be, beautifully composed, exposed. This too is the perfect photograph but it’s perhaps a little less exciting than one or two others…
Photographers Comment
Thank you for the 'mark of excellence' award. My name is James Markus and I am a photographer in West Michigan. I shot this with a Nikon D800 and an old Nikkor 35mm f1.4 ais manual focus lens. The image is basically straight out of the camera, with minor tweaks in Photoshop. Lighting is a single Paul C. Buff AlienBee™ B800 Flash Unit with a strip light soft box modifier. Tray is black sassafras wood from Tasmania Australia. The coffee and biscotti were delicious.
www.photomatter.com/

Mark Of Excellence

Judges Comment
The effort you have put into this shows your passion. Your fruit and veg all have very strong colours and hard shapes, the lighting is mottled and dark, so many ingredients for a lovely photo. I feel your composition is somewhat chaotic though, the apples don’t seem to have enough space, neither do the tomatoes. The sharp focus on the apples is beautiful, but is this subject not too close to the edge? My eye wants to settle a little higher up. I would like to say do it again, you’ll get a cracker, but mind those highlights, keep it real. ☺