I suddenly had an urge to do another instructional editing article- primarily some skills learned from my portraiture workshop which had nothing to do with food (!!) but mostly all about editing for a fashion magazine.
Using Photoshop, I wanted to highlight the vine of grapes in the middle of the photograph. This was shot around noon time on a shadowy part of a vineyard and thus the original shot came out flat.
After adding a simple white gradient, I turned down the opacity. A simpler way is to insert a white box over the photo and then lessen opacity. After I got to my ideal opacity, I used the eraser tool with an 82% opacity. In order to rectify the harsh borders created by the eraser, I then used the healing brush tool to soften the borders. I wasn't too satisfied with how the grapes resulted into so I pumped up the contrast levels. And boom! The grapes now stand out of the picture.
BTW, you can use the same technique on fashion shoots focusing on the model's eyes. Good luck!
Using Photoshop, I wanted to highlight the vine of grapes in the middle of the photograph. This was shot around noon time on a shadowy part of a vineyard and thus the original shot came out flat.
After adding a simple white gradient, I turned down the opacity. A simpler way is to insert a white box over the photo and then lessen opacity. After I got to my ideal opacity, I used the eraser tool with an 82% opacity. In order to rectify the harsh borders created by the eraser, I then used the healing brush tool to soften the borders. I wasn't too satisfied with how the grapes resulted into so I pumped up the contrast levels. And boom! The grapes now stand out of the picture.
BTW, you can use the same technique on fashion shoots focusing on the model's eyes. Good luck!
In every country I traveled in Europe, there seems to be a pattern of having dried chilies (big or small, green, yellow or red) hanging in markets everywhere.
Happy Valentines Day! Instead of flowers, which eventually wilt and die, why not give your loved ones (like me!) some Pierre Herme macaroons straight from France.
February 13- DeLise headed over to the other side of the city at Potrero Hill's La Victoria Bakery for One Love- a charity event organized by SFoodie (of SF Weekly) in which all proceeds went to the SF City Clinic to celebrate giving love. Armed with cupcakes, sea salt fudge brownies and miso rice crispies, DeLise joined other local bakeries namely Baker and Banker, Tell Tale Preserve Co., Goody Goodie, Pinkie's Bakerie, Mission Minis and Sweet Adeline Bakeshop among others.
On the montage (from top to bottom left to right) are the ff:
- One Love bake sale poster
- Lemon square bars
- Choco mallows
- Hazelnut financier
- Custard from Cooking with Remy
- Pomme di Amour
- Devil's chocolate cupcake from DeLise
- Chef Eloise of DeLise
On the montage (from top to bottom left to right) are the ff:
- One Love bake sale poster
- Lemon square bars
- Choco mallows
- Hazelnut financier
- Custard from Cooking with Remy
- Pomme di Amour
- Devil's chocolate cupcake from DeLise
- Chef Eloise of DeLise
Forget about the pork or chicken style adobo. Adobong pusit is the best! Taken in Bantayan Island, Cebu.
Made a trip to Lake Tahoe when there was no slush of snow but still chilly otherwise. We were tired from hiking up to see the crater and ended up having grub food before taking the cable ride back to the city centre. On my plate is tequila marinated mahi-mahi taco with french fries. The best part of the meal (unfortunately not in the pic) is the different dipping sauces for the fries- came in smoked bbq, chili verde besides from the catsup and mustard...
Lunch grub - mahi-mahi tacos with fries |
I usually tell myself to shoot my best shot as much as possible rather than do massive editing later on. But there are situations where you just can't get a good shot with the limited resources you are working with- bad light, indoors, guerilla/on-the-go, etc.
I've learned to love photoshop, my mac of course, and the wonders of that combination- the colors on a mac screen are gazillions better than on a PC. For this instructional purpose though, I used the iPhoto features since to make editing quicker and take less memory giving me similar results to photoshop.
From the original photo, I wanted to de-emphasize the guy holding the chopstick. In order to focus on the laksa noodle, I faded and then boosted the color and adjusted the levels resulting in Step 2. For the final image, I cropped the noisy areas and now have a focused shot solely for the noodles. All these were achieved in only 10 clicks- 4 to fade, 4 to boost, 1 to change levels and 1 to crop!!
If you were wondering what my settings are, here you go...
I've learned to love photoshop, my mac of course, and the wonders of that combination- the colors on a mac screen are gazillions better than on a PC. For this instructional purpose though, I used the iPhoto features since to make editing quicker and take less memory giving me similar results to photoshop.
From the original photo, I wanted to de-emphasize the guy holding the chopstick. In order to focus on the laksa noodle, I faded and then boosted the color and adjusted the levels resulting in Step 2. For the final image, I cropped the noisy areas and now have a focused shot solely for the noodles. All these were achieved in only 10 clicks- 4 to fade, 4 to boost, 1 to change levels and 1 to crop!!
If you were wondering what my settings are, here you go...
Shooting bottled drinks is one of the hardest form to master in the art of food photography. A single speck of unnecessary reflection can becomes too obvious in an non-tented shoot. That's why a professional setup is needed to cover unwanted light. Here's an example of a shoot gone awry since it was shot in natural light, open setting- too much noise reflected on the glass bottle!
Empty spaces also sets a dramatic scene, especially for unusual looking food- in this case, I've used lato or seaweed in Cebuano, which is used as an appetizer in Filipino restaurants, usually cooked in vinegar with chopped red onions.
This is why I LOVE Singapore. I just eat and eat and eat and eat.
Makan Sutra is located at Clark Quay where are the locals go out at night. It is an outdoor hawker center with stalls serving the best of the best in Singapore. Good for pigging out with a group of people. Here are just a few pics of what we ate. The other 70% of the food didn't even get a chance to be photographed since everybody wanted a piece of it asap.
Makan Sutra is located at Clark Quay where are the locals go out at night. It is an outdoor hawker center with stalls serving the best of the best in Singapore. Good for pigging out with a group of people. Here are just a few pics of what we ate. The other 70% of the food didn't even get a chance to be photographed since everybody wanted a piece of it asap.
sugarcane juice |
chicken satay |
seafood fried rice and beef |
sauteed spinach |
What a way to celebrate the Chinese New Year with another feature of my photo on none other than the tablehopper, THE top food blogger in the Bay Area. I've met Marcia, the author, at one event and she is one jolly person!