Food: Not as easy as it looks!

This was my first real "go" at food photography. I've experimented with my own baking now and then but this was 8 straight hours of product shots... overall I'd say I'm happy with the results but not entirely thrilled. Perhaps it would pay to hire a pro food stager in the future! ;) Oh well, my parents were gracious enough to hire me anyhow! Haha. I now have a much greater appreciation for all the pictures in my cookbooks which I've flippantly flipped through until now!

This shot (above) took awhile to figure out. We wanted it to be horizontal and found that the only way to achieve this was to use duplicate products for a broader look. I'm wondering if the pie causes the eye to wonder off a little - or if it wets your appetite for the products infront...? Also, I see now that the lighting from the back-left is a bit cold compared to the front lighting. Tricky tricky tricky!

This very simple-looking shot took many many many varieties of setup!

Syrup was one of the easier shots... thankfully:) However, we debated a bit about the reflection in the syrup bottle. Is it too much of a glare? Hmm...

The apple pie turned out best of all the fruit pies b/c it is so thick and chunky. The berry pies were harder to shoot b/c they tended to slide out. I also debated the fork positioning but decided that I like the way the fork frames the pie. In a way it draws your eye up and adds a little extra.

The meat pies (chicken pot pie here) turned out pretty good but I didn't know how much of the left crust to include in the shot. I also found it tough to capture the steam when it was first cut.