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Hey gang, artichokes are in season here in Australia, so I thought I'd do something with them; and something different than the usual still life you probably have seen a million times beforeâ?¦.. like this one

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So the best way I like to cook artichokes is " impanati e fritti ", which means bread crumbed and to deep fried; once you've actually managed to clean and prep the artichokes, the rest is a joke: egg wash ( 1 pinch of salt per egg ), crums, vegetable oil at around 160º, salt, oil absorbing paper� in the mouth you go!

Easy and yummy, you try !

Now about the photo: I had taken this picture a couple of weeks ago during the last food photography & food styling workshop at the Essential Ingredient in La Rozelle

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while I was definitely happy with the lighting, the composition in the foreground and the D.O.F , especially on the bunch of thyme, still I couldn't convince myself that this was a great image, one to add to the Portfolio; so I decided to re do it because this is the best way to improve our food photography and to get Portfolio quality images : pre visualize, plan, execute, observe and question, correct and repeat.

I started breaking down my picture and looking at it from different " perspectives " to identify its weakest points:

1) the colour palette isn't working, the background is looking a bit flat, not interesting

2) compositionally, the pepper grinder is too dominant in the scene, too big; and the thyme is too bushy, too much

3) camera angle wise, I probably went a bit too low for this one ( which is , in part, also the reason why the pepper grinder looks gigantic )

4) the crumbing on the artichokes is looking a bit stale, past its best if you know what I meanâ?¦. ( and it was, since I re-used the same frying oil I had used hours before for a cooking demonstration )

So I approached the shot again, making the necessary amendments :

1) I adopted ( and actually painted myself ) a blue/violet background to better complement the golden tonalities of the crumbed artichokes; and I also selected a red-violet cloth to enhance the green thyme - but I used it on reverse , or else it would have been too much ( not much green ? not much red/violet)

2) to improve the composition I selected a smaller grinder, and I cut down on the thyme

3) I got in even closer and I tilted the camera angle to achieve a more dynamic composition

4) I used new vegetable oil to get a crisp and fresh look on the crumbing ; to emphasise the concept of easy-going , informal type of food, I sprinkled some salt flakes here and there, without much attention to keeping the setting clean and tidy

Altogether I am much more satisfied with this shot;  what do you think guys?

Dario Milano, professional food photographer , Sydney

Posted in Food, Photography, techniques

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