Raisin Biscuits
Raisin Biscuits (Rosinenschnecken or "Raisin Snails")
Assignment: pca23
Mission: Food
WIT: I’m not a great cook beyond easy-to-make meals, but I enjoy baking.
Something the United States is not famous for is pastries. The award for best pastries would go to France IMO. But other countries have delicious baked products too. This recipe was translated long ago from German and is a favorite. The raisin buns are easy to make and very tasty. The recipe is here.
The recipe calls for icing, but for photography purposes I found that the raisin buns looked better without icing, at least in the close-up photos I took (I'm sure the food photography experts can tell me how to make icing on an uneven surface look tasty instead of slimy, lol).
Window light, 59 mm, f/8, 1/100, ISO 800 (I was determined not to use the flash for this one). The buns are sitting on a porcelain plate.
Comments and faves
Monica de Moss photography (50 months ago | reply)
They look delicious! Beautiful light and DoF.
The colors are scrumptious. Well done.
PCA
pink.goldfish (molly) (50 months ago | reply)
mmm!
bowtoo (50 months ago | reply)
The shadows are soft and I like the white surface.
You have two objects that are the same so they compete for attention. The arrangement here accentuates this with a leading line that takes you from the foreground to an OOF background. Having only one or three of them might avoid this.
Still, the photograph it is full of rich texture and color. The pastry looks very inviting. I think that if you increased the depth of field to make them both sharp it would be a stronger image.
Parsleycat (50 months ago | reply)
With what bowtoo said, what about propping the front bun up on the back one? That might add some interest.
As for the experts in food photography, I most certainly am not one, but I do know (from sitting in on a couple of sets) that most food photography is of stuff NOT edible!! Like, for frosting I believe they use Elmer's white glue.
I like your raisin buns as is. I love the texture and the contrast. Good job!
Terri :)
nasu1 (50 months ago | reply)
I really like how you kept this shot all about texture. Good choice to bump up the ISO so that you didn't have to use flash. And the porcelain plate allows for a nice shadow without competing a bit with the buns. I like Terri's idea of propping the front bun on the back on.
Farkled (50 months ago | reply)
I like Tim's idea of a 3rd bun on the diagonal even though it would be more OOF. Texture, color, comp, exposure - all great. My problem is that pastry is my personal Waterloo..... Great work!
bechau_qn added this photo to her favorites. (50 months ago)
summerspot (50 months ago | reply)
Thanks so much for your comments.
And thank you, Tim and Terri! I'm not very creative when it comes to food presentation. Your suggestions are great.
Donald Holland (50 months ago | reply)
It is amazing you shot this at f/8 because of the blurred background. I am not crazy about your depth of field because the rear pastry should complement the front one, and I would have liked to see them both in focus. Flash would not have been essential, just a bright light on one side would have created some shadowing and allowed you to use a smaller aperture.
phleather (50 months ago | reply)
Nice simple pleasing image. Looks magazine or cookbook ready. My only suggestion would be to flip the image so that the OOF bun is on the left leading to the bun in focus.
garreyf (50 months ago | reply)
Summerspot,
I think its perfect as is. So far..the best.imho.
I like how you went for depth. Great!
karen eubanks (50 months ago | reply)
The pastry and raisins look amazing. Fabulous job capturing the texture. The lighting and background are great. It looks like something straight from a glossy magazine spread. Awesome!
Pockets1 (50 months ago | reply)
great cakes, nice textures and contrast, they look good enough to eat
i witness photography [deleted] (50 months ago | reply)
I love this one. It is full of texture and detail in that first bun. I love window light so maybe I am just biased...
I think even if you somehow elevated the first one, say on a small object that you couldn't see beneath the bun itself would add a different view. Great job!
evanleavitt (50 months ago | reply)
I really like this shot! The light is really good, looks very professional. The texture is really good and has great detail. I like what you were going for with the DoF, but it is slightly too shallow. I wish the very front of the cake was sharper. That is a small insignificant quibble, its a wonderful shot!
{o-f-f} (38 months ago | reply)
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Sweet refreshment of my soul ♥ ♥ ♥, and we'd love to have this added to the group!