Gyoza Shoot.
For this shoot, I planned to take overhead images of a bowl of food however I wanted to show a culture of food, different to mine so I could link it to my project of 'The World Around Us' because I wanted to portray food from 'Around the World' so I decided to make Yaki gyozas from Japan. I found it difficult to make the gyozas look appealing due to the natural beige colour of the gyozas, so I used a black background for both compositions of my shoot, and I added green spring onions to allow for more colour in the image. I didn't have a good black bowl to use, instead I just shot the photo straight after cooking and I took the overhead image over the pan that I originally cooked them in – because it was black. I presented the gyozas in a circular shape like a rose before taking my overhead image, and for my other image I presented the gyozas on a thin piece of slate in a line so I could shoot an image of an individual gyoza to present more detail. I shot both different compositions in a wooden section of my kitchen, directly under the light from my kitchen. I took the photos using a Canon EOS 4000d DSLR camera, changing the settings dependant on the angle.
Original Image.
For this shoot, I hand rolled, shaped, filled and cooked each individual gyoza. I did this to portray a different culture and tradition to my own and tradition. I did this whilst maintaining the composition that was inspired by Loftus in his seafood dish shoot. I laid each gyoza out in a circular rose shape before cooking, and scattered some spring onions and sesame seeds afterwards - to allow for more texture and colour. I took a majority of the images from an overhead angle over the frying pan because I wanted to include the circular shape of the pan, just like the bowl of laughter says pasta. The circular shape and composition is simple yet elegant due to the simplicity. This composition also creates symmetry, which is naturally pleasing to the eye. This circular composition also replicates the origin of this food, and it’s culture, because the symmetrical circle recreates the circular Japanese flag which links this shoot to my “World Around Us” theme - which was my original aim.
Developments.
For this shoot, I decreased the majority of the light and tried to artificially diffuse it across the dish the best that I could. I cropped the frame of the image inwards and centred the pan in the middle of the frame (better than it was in the raw version) because I wanted the background to to look the same in each side of the pan - to allow for even more symmetry. I also increased the vignette which created ‘spotlight’ effect on the Gyozas which focused the natural eye to the circular shapes. I increased the texture and sharpness to reveal the sesame seeds. Finally, I increased the vibrancy and the saturation to make the colours of the spring onions more prominent, to add more variety to the natural beige colours of the Gyozas.
Original Image.
After doing a composition inspired by Loftus image, I took my own spin on a composition using the Gyozas. I took a piece of slate and laid a handful of Gyozas out, individually in a straight line from the front to the back of the slate. My intention was to focus on the individual shape and form of a Gyoza, yet still keeping the other Gyozas in the frame, but blurred out. Using a shallow depth of field, I focused on the individual Gyoza at the front of the line. I then scattered even more spring onions for some more green colour. These colours stood out against the black background which allowed for more texture and clarity.
Developments.
For this development I focused on the shadows and black colour of the Gyozas. I decreased the shadows and increased the blacks to allow for more shadows. The shadows created form within the Gyoza and revealed the crimped edges of the Gyoza and allowed the spring onions to be more vibrant. This form allowed the natural eye to focus on the individual Gyoza instead of all of them as a whole, also whilst revealing the textures. These textures and form help the viewer imagine what the Gyoza will feel like in their mouth – which is beneficial for advertisement.