The Ieat - Canon Food Photography Workshop

Isn't it amazing to see so many DSLRs snapping away in a restaurant? I wonder what the restaurant manager would have done if our group had arrived unannounced?

Last Saturday, 30 kakis gathered at Shin Kushiya restaurant at Vivo City for the very first ieat - Canon food photography workshop to "EAT" and "SHOOT". The session started with resident professional, Jino giving a presentation on the technical aspects of photography followed by my presentation on food photography.

After getting some tips to work on, we unleashed our hungry photographers onto the unassuming food. If this had been a war movie, it would look like a scene where hundreds of canons (pardon the pun) are being fired upon a flock of sheep! Anyway, our photographers all exhibited the marks of a true food photographer, patiently snapping away at the food rather than succumbing to the temptation to eat it first.

After the session, our photographers submitted their best photos for the competition. So without further ado, may I present the winners of the photo competition!

Taste in food is subjective, so is taste in photography. So let me just state that the judge's decision is final and blah blah blah.......and so on and so forth and so fifth.

1st Prize - Jimmy Lee


This is the runaway favourite. Very nicely composed picture. The backlighting highlights the translucency of the shallots and the shadows give the picture a very dramatic feel. The steam rising from the miso soup is very difficult to capture and Jimmy managed to catch the moment beautifully. Perhaps the only thing is to pay more attention to the arrangement of the crockery in the background.

2nd Prize - Wahcow


I like the bokeh (the blurred bits) of this photo. Wahcow managed to get the rim of the bowl plus the rice on the chopsticks in focus and the background is a very pleasing arrangement of bowls which tells you the story of what is happening. This picture would have scored higher if the rice grains on the chopsticks were a little more accentuated. The top is just slightly overexposed. Would also be nice to see a little shimmer on top of the rice.

3rd Prize - Michael Luthi


The thing that is most pleasing about this picture is the balance of colours between the yellow cheese cake and the blue plate, accentuated by the green mint leaf. There is also the nice inclusion of elements such as the texture of the lemon slice and the fork. The contrast between the yellow surface of the cheese cake and the shadows on the sides accentuates the corners of the slice. Would be nice to see a bit more of the red on the top right corner.

OK, so those are the winners. Next let me post some of the consolation prize winners. Sorry guys, you don't actually get a real prize. But since you won the "Consolation" prize, here is the "Consolation": "There, there, its a good effort. You'll do better next time!"


Photo by: Kerk Sheen

Nicely composed. I like placement of the grilled pork skewer over the rice which gives the picture a point of focus. However, there are 2 things that can be improved. The chopsticks are overexposed so we can't see the texture of the wood grain. The pork looks dry, probably because it was left for too long before the picture was taken! So sometimes have to be quick to shoot!


Photo by Terrence Yap

I was attracted to the colour balance of this picture. There is the blue on the right top corner, the green on the left, bit of golden yellow from the tungsten light reflecting off the plate and the translucent grey jelly in the middle contrasted on the black plate. The problem is that the cream has melted so it looks unappetizing.


Photo by Denison Tan

I like the highlight on the legs of the crab which tells you straight away that you are looking at a crab and the way the legs draw the eyes diagonally across the picture. However I think the photo was not cropped properly so it is not so well balanced.


Photo by Wilson Tan

This photo demonstrates quite nicely how backlighting can show translucency of food, in this case, the salmon flesh. It would be nice to also capture the shimmer of the surface of the flesh. One way to do this is to have the salmon arranged in such a way that it has one surface horizontal to catch the shimmer and the other vertical to catch the translucency.


Photo by Brandon Yeo

The diagonal placement of the skewers lends a dynamic edge to the photo and the red coloured prawn heads with the charred legs immediately gives you that feeling of crunching the crispy legs in your mouth. I think it is slightly overexposed and may look more balanced if it not cropped so closely. Also it would be better if the legs and head of the first prawn was all in focus.

Now, I was pretty busy that day to really pay attention to all the food. But the one item that really stood out were the Kushiyaki. They specially import "White" charcoal from Japan to grill the skewers which results in a nice smoky flavour that is crisp on the outside and juicy on the inside. The pork Kushiyaki was something I can eat quite a few of. 4.25/5

Conclusion

I thought it was an enjoyable session overall and I also learnt a lot from it. It's always nice to meet with like minded people!

Have a look at the pics and let us know which are your favourites and why!

Thanks to Shin Kushiya for helping to organize the event.

Shin Kushiya
#02-120
Vivo City
11.30am to 11pm daily

This session was made possible by the nice people at Canon.








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