Food Posting Rant.

I came across this rant at C|NET this morning and thought it might be food for discussion here.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31322_3-57323 ... ontentBody

I wrote her back and tipped her off to LHB.

So what's your thoughts on posting dinner or some such on here, twitter or Facebook?

I keep looking for those vegetarian dish pictures from Robin, just wish he would put detailed recipes with them.

Richard

Yes, dear, be sure and mention how you Twitter our meals. "Wait, I need a picture!" I really don't mind, but we do get somefunny looks from servers and other patrons.

Yes, dear, be sure and mention how you Twitter our meals. "Wait, I need a picture!" I really don't mind, but we do get somefunny looks from servers and other patrons.

Not all of them. I didn't shoot any pictures last night at Maido. I did post a comment to twitter and on Facebook to a friend looking for food, but she wanted liquid food.

You need to shoot pictures of those looks.

Richard

Although I will occasionally post food photos on line, I think for the most part I fall into the following group:

"No, because pictures of other people's food always make the food look gross."

I truly don't believe that the food is gross, but simply most people, myself included, have no concept of how to take a photo or try to do so with a crappy camera (guilty again)...more often than not the effort falls far short and evokes a meh.

I am incredibly guilty of doing this. I've never received criticism for doing so but maybe my friends don't want to say anything!

I think we have a sort of unspoken understanding. I don't complain about them posting all the mundane details of their lives and they don't complain about my food porn!

I have a friend on the facebook who always posts a picture of what he is about to eat (often something he has prepared), and while he always says it was delicious and it probably was, the pictures look like piles of dog food on a plate usually. The lighting is always bad and the colors get washed out. The result is the opposite of what he is going for.

I used to take a lot of pictures. Paid 400 dollars for 1.2GB digital camera in 1999. Then everyone and their brother got a digital camera for Christmas in 2003, and I soon realized everyone was more interested in "capturing" social events than actually socializing.

I feel the same way about food photos. If I'm not eating with you, I don't care. If I am eating with you, I know what you are eating.

I also grew up walking in snow to school, up hill in both directions.

To add to my previous post - I posted while channeling my inner Steve P.

I have a friend (in another state) that post pictures of every meal she makes. While I'm sure she's a decent cook, it does not look appetizing. Maybe it's the lighting. I cant think of the guy on here with the yummy food blog, but HIS pictures make me salivate.

Lighting (and equipment) is a big part of it. That camera phone camera in a dark restaurant (or kitchen) is only going to do so much.

Skype's a good example of this. It takes an incredible amount of light to properly illuminate a person to look good on Skype. Think it's pretty similar with food and the standard camera phone.

The top food photographers cost into the 5 figures for a day's shoot, which usually involves 4-5 assistants, up to 100 lights (shooting ice cream before it melts is a real challenge!), and at least one food stylist. Back in the day, when we did Thanksgiving turkey shoots for advertising we would cook 40-60 turkeys, scheduled to come out of the oven several at a time at 15 minute intervals so the shots would have "real" juices running and steam coming out, and so the bird would be perfect with no skin tears or other normal problems.

For all practical purposes, it is impossible to replicate a $14,000++ shoot with a cell-phone camera aimed at just delivered food at a restaurant.

If you want to do it as a hobby, to remember what you ate, great, but PLEASE don't send it around (except for Steve P, whose rib shots get me salivating regardless).

http://a1.urbns.pn/w/s/aU/OrmvfgyspMYnIx-640m.jpg

This was taken with a digital point and click. While not professional quality, do you feel that this is appetizing or representative of a good dish? I guess I'm trying to gauge whether or not I should post pictures of dishes that I've eaten on sites like Urbanspoon, Yelp, etc.

http://a1.urbns.pn/w/s/aU/OrmvfgyspMYnIx-640m.jpg

This was taken with a digital point and click. While not professional quality, do you feel that this is appetizing or representative of a good dish? I guess I'm trying to gauge whether or not I should post pictures of dishes that I've eaten on sites like Urbanspoon, Yelp, etc.

Looks good to me. While not impossible to get a good food photo with a simple camera, I still maintain that most of us lack the talent to pull it off and the results are bleh.

A good photo of a beer is far more likely to trigger a Pavlov's dog response in me than an image of some plate-o-grub!

If any of you ever looking at eGullet you will probably agree with me that some of those people do a pretty good job of taking pictures of everyday foods they cook. Not sure what tricks they use but many of them do a very good job.