Why? Simply because i bought aprons that are like flower-designed. Can't believe i DIY-ed my chef hat haha! ( you can see in the vid below )So yeah WHOOSH.
Here is our video.
Experience of challenge
It was TOUGH. I mean like, how can anyone perform well with people staring, videotaping, taking pictures of YOUUU and a chef standing beside you while cooking? NOBODY! ( except youtube chefs and professional chefs..) HAHA. Yes it was pretty pressurising!
However it was so fun and enjoyable, i keep jumping around whenever i messed up as usual. I also learnt a lot about photography from Maureen aka Miss Tamchiak who was our judge. I can't believe that the picture my team took turns out so pretty and professional omg! Really an eye opener.
I love this competition as through this, i get to learn a lot, both during and after. Why after? That's because I decided to explore many different softwares, researching on how to produce better quality photos ( yes you can see all the photos below, they are all nicely edited unlike my previous posts ). It's through this challenge that i realised that photos are SUPER important.
I get to learn about teamwork too. I'm thankful for having my team mates beside me, supporting me through the 3 bad long days of editing the video till like 2am. I even spent my birthday editing it! Hence sacrificing the quality of this post now due to the lack of time but i'll try my best to make it interesting for you to read!
Styling and Presentation in general
Since we made two pancakes, place the nicer one on top! Styling and presenting your food is super important. I know everyone will say " don't judge a book by it's cover" .Well in this case, " don't judge a food by how it looks", but then again yummy and good looking food will catch the eye of people.
sloppy presentation+ super yummy : shocked
okok presentation + super yummy : awesome
nicely decorated + super yummy : FANTASTIC
but do take note that you should not over garnish your food until customers don't know which is the main food!
For pale, plain coloured foods, choose brightly coloured garnishes (carrots, broccoli etc)
For brightly intensed coloured food, keep the garnishes simple!
Photography
If you are really interested in doing food photography professionally, I highly recommend you investing in a good DSLR or at least a semi DSLR( like Olympus Pen). It makes a lot of difference in your photos.
With DSLR, you can control the aperture which i feel is the key in taking good photos.
With that being said, that doesn't mean that photos of food don't require any editing.
Here is my best shot
notice the colour, and then the touch ups!
here is a quick video on how i did it! wanted to write and show pics on how. But then...
a word speaks a word,
a picture speaks a thousand words
so a video should speak a trillion words right? HAHA
Photoshop+ Lightroom
My tips for photography is:
Always make sure all the ingredients can be clearly seen.
Do not put too many props near the food as it will distract people from the main focus of the image.
Edit your food. Doesn't mean that it's not your face then you don't photoshop ok. ( oops hehe)
Take at a 45 degree angle to "bring the object to life", so that the object will not look so flat.
Take as many shots as possible at different angles and different arrangements so that you can have a wide variety of choices to choose your best shot from.
Try to have natural lighting, like putting your object near a window ( avoid harsh sunlight though )
Be wary of your surrounding objects. Even if you are using a DSLR and blur your background, if there's like a dustbin or a bag behind, it will be visible!
need to take a few more shots of the master piece muahahaha.
Starstruck moment
Group pic with our judge known as Miss Tamchiak! (we were all standing at our profile angle position *wink* )
taking zilian shots is a must. Maureen is so pretty in real life! She is so bubbly, funny and sweet too!
we spent super long taking pictures of our final piece. Celine was the photographer so she took until she literally hand cramp when she was taking it from a bird's eye view! But it was all worth it (:
with the pretty ladies!
Enjoyed my time there that day! Thank you for reading <3
