Photo of the Week

Photo Of The Week: Pizzaiola At Porta Restaurant, Asbury Park, NJ

Posted by spoonandshutter on June 12, 2012
Posted in: Photo of the Week. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a Comment

From Shutter: This week’s photo of the week is of Freddi Vilardi, Pizziaiola of Porta Restaurant in Asbury Park, NJ.

I recently was doing a story for The Record, of Bergen County, NJ, As regular readers of this blog know, among her many hats, Spoon is the food editor there.  Most of my work with The Record is for a column she and I do on new cookbooks and a recipe.  However this assignment was on new dining spots along the Jersey shore.

This photo is an out take from the shoot at Porta, a funky, hipster (in all the good ways) restaurant that specializes in amazing Neapolitan pizzas.  It’s more Portland, Maine, than typical Jersey and I fell in love with the place as soon as I walked in. After shooting the food, I decided I needed to shoot a series of photographs of Freddi Vilardi.  As I looked around for locations in this cavernous eatery, full of great quirky decor, I saw the large American Flag.  I immediately thought of one of my idols, Gordon Parks and his famous photo of the African American janitor from 1942 titled, “Janitor in front of the flag”.

I would never compare myself to brilliant Gordon Parks, but I find inspiration and aspiration from his work.  So, instead of a broom, I had Freddi with a pizza peel with the flag in the background.

Unlike many of my photos I feature as “Photo of the Week” that have lots of technical and lighting details and information to share, this one was pretty straightforward.  It was simply my trusty Nikon D700, 28-70 f/2.8 lens and the ability to shoot at ISO 1200 with an auto white balance.  I could have set up lighting but, I wanted to emulate my inspiration from Gordon Parks and went with available light.  Although my camera holds up well at higher ISO’s I did not want to risk any noise, especially in the shadow detail.  So at f/2.8 and 1/20th of a second I shot away.

Freddi was kind and patient, despite having to get to a meeting and get ready for evening service.  I wanted to be both respectful of her time, and drawing inspiration from Mr. Parks, I acted as if I was shooting file and fired off only 6 frames.

The resulting image above is my favorite from the small series.  The image is pretty much straight out of the camera with the addition of a few post production tweaks in both Photoshop and Lightroom. After importing the images from my memory card into Lightroom, I adjusted my color balance to add some warmth, opened up the shadows a bit.  I then exported the images and opened them in Photoshop where I adjusted the curves, retouched any small issues, and this is the end result.

On June 17th the story about new restaurants along “The Jersey Shore” (please ignore any inference to the god forsaken show with the same name), will be in The Record Travel section.

Photo Of The Week: Fiddleheads at The Farmer’s Table

Posted by spoonandshutter on May 23, 2012
Posted in: Photo of the Week. Tagged: , , , , , . 2 comments

From Shutter: Unlike some of my recent “Photo of the week” this one is not full of technical and lighting information.  This photo is more about the food and composition.  With great window light in the restaurant, I would have been crazy not to use it.

In celebration of spring I wanted to share this photograph I took for The Farmer’s Table restaurant on Commercial Street in the heart of the Old Port in Portland, Maine.

Inside this unassuming restaurant Jeff Landry, chef / owner specializes in seasonal locally sourced American cuisine in a casual and relaxed environment. In addition to his excellent food, I have enjoyed having what started as a client relationship turn into a friendship.

In a tribute to the season we created the above photograph of fiddleheads and ramps.  The first sign of edible springtime.

Shooting Data

Camera: Nikon D700

Lens: Nikon 24mm-70mm f/2.8

Focal Length: 70mm

Exposure: f/9@1/15th second

ISO: 250

Lighting: window light camera left.  Silver reflector camera right.

Bacon: Photo of the Week

Posted by spoonandshutter on April 9, 2012
Posted in: Photo of the Week. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

This week’s photo of the week is from a  shoot I recently did with Chef Mark Ladner of Del Posto in NYC.  As with all my shoots with him, this was done in the restaurant.  I have been shooting with Mark for a couple of years now, and it is always a fun time full of good food, good conversation, good laughs, and ultimately good photographs.

During my last shoot with him we were photographing a variety of food items, but he wanted to isolate them to show them off on their own.  There were going to be a range of items from pasta, to sauces, to proteins and vegetables.  So we had to come up with an idea that could be consistent from item to item, and due to time restraints, allowed us to work quickly.  Together, we came up with the idea to shoot the food items so they looked like they were floating.

Now that you know the concept, here is how I did it.

Because I was shooting on location and had to transport everything I needed, I wanted to keep the shoot equipment as simple as possible.  However, as simple as this shot looks, it does require a fair amount of gear to make it work.  As I have mentioned in other posts, when I shoot tethered it is into Lightroom 2 via Camera Control Pro 2.  Although a bit outdated, it works until I upgrade my version of Lightroom.  If anyone wants to send me a copy, or Adobe, if you are reading this, if you want to send me a copy, I will greatly appreciate it.  Back to how I did the shot.

The first thing I did was to place a 36″ square piece of plexi (I used plexi as it is safer to transport) between two tables.  Anything would work for this part.  Since the tables were there I used them.  I then placed diffusion material on the plexi and a smaller piece of glass on top of that.  In hindsight, I would have used a piece of frosted Plexiglass and not had to worry about diffusion material.

Next I placed a white surface on the ground to reflect the light. In this situation I simply used a white tablecloth from the restaurant and taped it down.  Of course you could use white seamless, foam core, a bed sheet, or any other white surface large enough.

I placed two profoto heads on c-stand arms and with umbrellas I bounced the light off of the white surface.  The heads and umbrellas were under the glass and off to the side.  I had those powered about 2 stops brighter than the main light on the bacon.  To light the bacon I used a Nikon SB 900 with a softbox above and slightly camera left triggered with a pocket wizard.  Because shutter speed is not important in a shot like this I arbitrarily chose 1/160 of a second.  To be certain that I achieved the right balance of light I was looking for I placed a silver reflector close to the bacon on camera right and to give some extra highlights I used a small mirror (one of my favorite tools – and retrieved on bulky trash night from someone’s garbage) near the reflector.

Once this double smoked bacon was done being cooked, I placed it on the top piece of glass, took a few test shots to check the styling, and then shot the final image. My camera was mounted on a side arm onto my tripod and placed directly over the bacon. To avoid any flare from the lights below, and to avoid losing contrast, I placed black paper around the bacon leaving enough room to allow enough white to show through and give the illusion of floating.

After the image was captured, I made some adjustments in Lightroom to complete the vision I had for the shot.  The adjustments included, blacks, lights, darks, and color temperature.

Shooting Data

Camera: Nikon D700

Lens: Nikon 24 – 70 f/2.8 set at 65 mm

ISO: 500

Exposure: f/11 @ 1/160 second – remember in this application, shutter speed is irrelevant.  It just needs to be fast enough so the ambient light does not have any effect.

Final camera height: approximately 3 feet above bacon

White Balance : 5600K and a -8 green

D’Artagnan Gourmet Foods: Photo of the Week

Posted by spoonandshutter on March 20, 2012
Posted in: Photo of the Week. Tagged: , , , , , , . 2 comments

A sampling of the products available from D'Artagnan.

From Shutter:  This week’s photo of the week is from a shoot I recently did with D’Artagnan  Gourmet Foods.  For those (few) that are not aware of D’Artagnan, they are one of the leading importers and suppliers of “gourmet” food products.  Often known thought of as the “all things duck” company, their product line, as shown above, is much more diverse.  Although they continue to sell premier quality foie gras and duck breast, the products line has expanded and includes, charcuterie, beef, lamb, pork, game meats, all types of fowl, wild mushrooms and truffles, quail eggs, and on and on and on.

During the process of shooting a series of images to update the website for D’Artagnan I was asked to create an “Identity” shot.  An image that would convey the breadth of product that is sold without having to include every last item.  I decided, and they agreed, that instead of trying to shoot the items in a kitchen, or some other restaurant or home setting, we would shoot from above using a somewhat distressed wood rustic background as the foundation for the shot.

Once we agreed on the basic concept and on the background surface, next came the challenge of how we would style the shot and how would I pull off the shot.  Photographically my concerns were keeping the natural light feel we had been using for the product photographs.  I also wanted to be sure to get overhead without any camera angle, control glare and reflection as best as possible, and keep the image sharp with no distortion side to side.  I was also limited to space as we were shooting in the area of my studio (a.k.a. my home) that is full of great available light, but is only 12 feet wide and 8 feet high.  Having various shooting areas in my home always works out great.  As readers of our blog know, Susan (Spoon) and I are avid cooks so our kitchen is designed for serious cooks with high output 6 burner stove, lots of counter space, and just about every cooking utensil we ever need.  Including 2 outdoor grills,  One gas, one charcoal smoker.

Back to how the shot was done: First we found an area with the most even daylight and put an old door that I like to use on the floor.  Next we gathered all sorts of cutting boards, slates, bowls, napkins, and other props from the prop room and kitchen.  Then the food started to come out.  Massive amounts of food.  First we roughly blocked out the location of each food item while it was still wrapped so none of the meat would start to change colors from oxygenation.   After that was done, Lily Hodge from D’Artagnan took the lead in arranging and styling the food.  After about 2 hours from the start of the process the shot was now ready.

From a photography standpoint this is how I handled the challenge.  I mounted my camera onto my  Gitzo tripod with a Manfrotto arm mounted so the camera could be placed directly over the food. Two quick pieces of added advice.  If you do use an arm, be sure to also use a sandbag so your tripod does not tip over.  I actually tie a rope to the end of the arm down to a sandbag on the ground.  Secondly secure you camera to the arm in some fashion, just in case it should come free from the tripod head.  I was shooting tethered into Lightroom 2 ( I know I need to upgrade) via Camera Control Pro 2.  Once my camera was placed roughly in position, I used live view to position my camera properly for the shot.  Once the camera was positioned and the framing set I turned off live view so I did not drain my battery. However I continued to use the remote capacity. I could now control everything from the comfort of a desk.  After some trial and error with diffusion panels to cut down on glare we finally got a shot that worked and will need minimal retouching.  The above photograph is the image out of the camera.  The only thing done to the photo before posting was quick color correction and cropping  in Lightroom.

Shooting Data

Camera: Nikon D700

Lens: Nikon 24 – 70 f/2.8 set at 30 mm

ISO: 500

Exposure: f/13 @ 1/2 second

Final camera height: approximately 7 feet

White Balance : 4300K and a +3 magenta

Garlic Knots: Photo of the Week

Posted by spoonandshutter on February 1, 2012
Posted in: Photo of the Week. Tagged: , , . Leave a Comment

From Shutter: This week’s photo of the week is from a recent photo shoot for a client. Normally I shoot high end food for this client but this past week we also shot some fun simple comfort foods. One of them was a common item in any NY / NJ pizza shop – garlic knots. Made of pizza dough, they are baked and then tossed with olive oil and butter mixed with garlic and and parsley. I have to say, this version was as good as they look.