Oishiii Japanese Restaurant
Oishiii Japanese restaurant came to us with a fantastic project. They wanted pictures of their 4 main dishes. Besides pictures they also wanted a short company video that showed the beauty of both their food and their venue. Oishiii is set on the famous Stoke Newington Church Street in London. With it’s modern interior and exceptionally high quality food, it standards out. I was very honoured that Oishiii decided to use our service for their company.
The challenge I have with food photography is that I want to make it look both appetising and elegant at the same time. All this while trying to keep the theme set by the client. The company has four signature dishes that they wanted to present to new customers. Two of which were sushi dishes. Most clients want their dishes to pop of the paper or the screen. I can normally achieve this by using contrast between the background and the plate of food. However sushi had it’s own challenges and contrast alone wouldn’t be enough. The food is raw fish, it doesn’t have the same oil and sheen that a normal cooked dish would. The challenge I had was to make a raw dish look beautiful and in essence cooked.
I think photography light is king. Oishiii has 2 large windows in its dinning area. I decided to use natural light as my main light source and to use a few smaller lights as filler lights. I found the best way to present the sushi was by shoot it at an angle.
(Images above: Sushi dish 1, Sushi dish 2)
The third dish was a dark black box with red inlays. It has sections that separate the different parts of the dish. The bento-box looks quite stunning as it is. The issue was showing scale in the dish. When I photographed the box like the sushi the dish looked small, instead I photographed it from above. I cropped in quite close, this emphasises the size of the dish.
(Image above: Bento box)
My favourite dish was the Chicken Katsu Curry. The smell was amazing, thin slices of chicken together with a mild curry. The dish appeared to dark when placed on the brown table. I changed this around by adding a lighter bamboo background.
(Image above: Chicken Katsu Curry)
This was a great project. We look forward to working again with Oishiii.
Yalcin.
YumYum Thai Restaurant
We were commissioned by YumYum Thai Restaurant to take pictures of their signature cocktails. YumYum is set on Stoke Newington High Street. The restaurant has a beautiful interior that hold in excess of 200 dinners. Besides the restaurant they have a very well designed bar area. The bar consists of intricate details and very well balanced lighting. They have a wide variety of imported liquors and spirits. However their cocktails are really something to shout about.Before I take on a job I always like to see how a product looks where it will be presented. This helps me to decide on the style I think the shoot should have. While sat there watching Niche, one the bar men spinning bottles and juggling between drinks, I saw an ice cube fall into a drink. The spill jumped up and looked like a wave. I ran back to our studio and started experiment with a glass and some apple juice.
(Image above: Test image)
I presented our test shot to YumYum. They were very impressed with the test shot, which is always nice. The shoot was a lot of fun, our studio was stuffed full of spirits, shakers and fruit.
I spent a few hours on the day of the shoot with the guys from YumYum. We went through the cocktails and the various colours that we wanted to achieve. I prepared the same lighting I had done for the test shot, but wait it didn’t work. The first cocktail looked like orange juice. Even with the lighting setup it looked uninspired and boring. I tried 2 different lighting setups and 2 different angles. Only one of them brought out the depth in the glass and the drink.
(Images above: Lighting test - Boring image)
Even after getting the colours right the cocktail still looked pretty bland. We added a purple flower to the top and a dark liquid to the bottom of the glass. I think this adds extra depth to the image.
(Images above: Image with purple flower)
The position of the flower wasn’t quite right, so we changed it around and added the splash in post. We went down a similar workflow for the rest of the images in the shoot. The final shots are below. Oh and the client loved them, which we are very happy about.
(Images above: Final Cocktail Images)
Yalcin.
Gulcay & Erhan’s Wedding
I really enjoyed taking the pictures for Gulcay and Erhan’s wedding, they are a great couple. The day started with myself waiting for Gulcay to arrive at her house. Yes she was late, nothing new there. Most brides are late on their wedding day and in some culutres that is seen as being good luck. She arrived with a big smile on her face. Her first words to me were “I’m really sorry, you better do a good job!” I think we have achieved that. Her pictures really do describe her day. It is great doing wedding photography in London for the sheer character that our city holds. These are a few of the images from their day.
They chose a vintage Rolls Royce car. This worked great with their small intimate wedding. The detailing in the car brought out her beautiful dress.
Erhan was breathing quite heavily when I first walked into Stoke Newington Town Hall. He was a little panicked, however when he saw Gulcay walking down the aisle his face shifted into a full on smile.
As kids the couple had attended the same schools. They wanted to take a tour past these schools. 5 minutes into our journey their car broke down while doing a U-turn. I think everyone sighed ”oh no” at the same time. It was a good thing that the videographer was following us in his car. After about 10 minutes of playing around with the batteries in the cars and apologising to on coming cars, we were off.
I asked them if they were willing to follow my lead. After two quite scared nods, I made the two of them run around like love sick teenagers. It was a lot of fun. The images really show the connection that they have for one another.
Their wedding was held in “The Grand Palace” in Wood Green. The venue was decorated really well. In some venues the couple disappear into the table, however theirs was just right. After some hesitation and instructions to the brides mades, they entered.
Again I was very impressed with the halls food and service. Not only did it look nice it also tasted great.
After a lot of dancing, laughing and eating it was over. A great way to end a great wedding. I wish the couple the best of luck.
Yalcin.
Your London Wedding Magazine
We have a great new ad in “Your London Wedding Magazine”. The magazine has lots of great tips for brides to be. There is a good range of suppliers and venues in the London area. For many years we have been working in the shadows creating great work. We think its the right time now to push the company forward. Our client base probably includes every nationality that lives in and around London. That is by far the best part of our job, seeing and meeting great new people. We get to see how different cultures conduct their weddings. Last week in Aiesha & Philip’s wedding we got to see an amazing wedding where a beautiful West-Indian bride met her prince charming, a tall English man. The smell and colour of the food could of easily made anyone hungry. The music had the kind of soul that makes a persons legs wobble. Congratulations you lucky couple.
Up and running
After many months of client requests, we have put up our blog. It will contain our newest work aswell as photography tips and tricks requested by you.
We will be writing camera reviews and we want to know which cameras you want us to compare. Let the good times roll!
