Have we all seen the show Toddlers and Tiaras?
*pauses*
If not, you’re missing out on one of the finer parts of life, like fireworks on the 4th of July and jumping into a pile of leaves in Fall. More importantly, you’re missing out on this simile:
Food photography is like Toddlers and Tiaras. You spend so much time building up something you love, dressing it with all the bells and whistles, giving it a touch of digitalized make-up and send it off to the judges. When you’re photo wins grand supreme(or just gets posted along with all the other grand supremes on food sites like Foodgawker and Tastespotting), you’re elated for it. But when it doesn’t, it’s crushing. Like a pageant mother wearing way too much sparkly make-up, you feel like you were rejected right along with the photo.
So what’s a pageant mother—I mean, food blogger—to do? Take the words of the judges and use them to make your next performance stronger. Most food sites will give constructive criticism which can be broken down to fix minute(or big) mistakes.
Composition:
Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars, rejected by Tastespotting
This is perhaps the most annoyingly subjective criteria on which food sites judge food photos. What it boils down to is whether they like the picture or not: Are there extra things in the background that are distracting? Do the elements make sense? Does the food look presentable? What’s good composition to one person might seem poor to another.
Raspberry Tofu Mousse, rejected by Tastespotting
There’s absolutely no way to fix composition after the photo’s been taken unless you want to try and submit another day and hope they change their mind. Generally good composition should have the food be the star of the photo without other distracting elements. Tastespotting is even stricter about this insisting no hands or teeth marks. The bottom line is that it’s subjective and rather than catering to critics you should take and submit a photo that you enjoy and hope that the food sites enjoy them, too.
Harsh Lighting/Overexposure:
Gluten-Free Pancakes, rejected by Foodgawker
Just like it sounds, harsh lighting refers to the amount and intensity of brightness in a photograph. Too bright a photo can distract from the colors and contrast. Luckily, this is easy to fix by adjusting the brightness, contrast, shadows and highlights of a picture.
Low Lighting/Underexposure:
High-Protein Mock Thai, rejected by Foodgawker and Tastespotting
Low lighting can equally ruin a photo like harsh lighting in not letting all of the content be seen. Again, this one is easy to fix by adjusting brightness, contrast, shadows and highlights. It’s also important to make sure there isn’t too much black or dark brown present in the photo to begin with since this can easily overwhelm the food.
White Balance:
Gluten-Free Whoopie Pies, rejected by Foodgawker and Tastespotting
The white balance of a photo affects the colors and tones by designating the contrast between colors and “true white”. Most cameras automatically adjust the white balance but it can be specified for different lights. Unfortunately the white balance of a photo cannot be fixed on a computer unless you shoot and edit RAW files.
Dull/Unsharp:
Tofu Ricotta, rejected by Foodgawker and Tastespotting
Dull/Unsharp images are usually a result from the camera focusing on the wrong part of the picture. It could also happen if a photos quality is drastically reduced. While most photo editing programs have a “sharpen” option, the result is usually poor and grainy. The best practice for sharp photos is making sure the camera is focused.
Does It Really Matter?
Peanut Butter Magic Shell, rejected by Foodgawker and Tastespotting
I attended a food blogging conference 2 weeks ago called Techmunch where one of the panels talked about improving food photography. Inevitably the conversation moved towards Foodgawker and Tastespotting and general grievances about being rejected. Brian gave a helpful reminder that, no matter what the critic thinks, no rejection defines you or your photos. You can still totally love a photo or photo set that gets rejected; one person’s opinion doesn’t make them good or not, so worry less what the critics have to say and take photos to please yourself.
Love this post! I’ve submitted only 8 photos total to foodgawker and tastespotting and got a few accepted, but found that my passion started feeling like work and the rejections made me feel kinda crappy. Then I found myself taking 40-50 photos of the same dish with different backgrounds, placemats, props, etc. and I started hating my fun hobby. Now I just go with what I know. I stopped submitting or caring what 2 websites think about my mad skills, ha! BTW, your blog and photography inspire me to keep pushing myself. Thanks for that!
I think what matters is that you and your blog readers respond well to the photos – not the big ‘food porn’ sites out there. Great post!
Absolutely loved this post b/c you totally hit the nail on the head with the simile in the beginning. I’ve gotten a handful of pics accepted (mostly FG, TS seems to not like me as much ;)) but with every rejection (and there have been MANY more of those) I feel crushed. Especially when it’s a photo that I was positive was great. You’re right, their acceptance doesn’t define you.
This was such a great post Evan! I really love your photos, even if those judges may not have cared for them. I think you do a really good job!
I haven’t had a single photo accepted by either of these sites. There’s a new one you should check out that I was going to write a post on soon. It’s called Punchfork, and they will let you add your site no matter what your photos look like. Also, you don’t have to submit anything, they detect the recipe in your post and pull it automatically. There aren’t too many people on it right now, but I have a feeling it’s going to explode.
I submitted my blog to Punchfork over a week ago, and never heard anything. But maybe it was a glitch and I need to resubmit…
It was 2 weeks after submitting to Punchfork that I finally appeared on the site. They are crazy backlogged, but you should show up on it soon.
Thanks for letting me know!
Thanks for the tip! I submitted today.
This is fantastic. While it would be nice to have photos accepted by these websites I enjoy cooking and don’t have a ton of time to work on composition and all the other things they require to be above and beyond.
As long as food looks good (and your’s does) I enjoy reading about it on blogs.
Great post! I think a lot of bloggers tend to judge their “photography worth” on whether their photos get accepted. But, as you’ve found out, you can have great photos that end up being rejected. Those sites are so subjective, so it really all comes down to how YOU feel about it. If you like it, that’s all that matters (unless you like poor quality photos, then I can’t help you, haha).
I do remember being devastated when my photos were being denied (and at the rate of 3 to 1 to those being accepted) but I’ve since learned not to let it bug me or get to me. I agree with Brian, you and many other food photographers though in that you can’t let rejection define you or your photos. I also think despite their tendency to share some gorgeous photos both Tastespotting and Foodgawker, and even tasteologie and dishfolio, are not the best judges for food photography. Their selections, especially as they and food blogs get more popular, are getting less and less consistent. I personally choose to compare–and improve/expand–my photography by looking at great food photography from some great established and growing food photographers in magazines and food blogs. Great post.
very informative! thanks for this post! and i htink all of your photos are awesome…foodgawker and tastespotting need to chilllllll out. i feel like im’ missing out on great recipes because they won’t accept a picture! ahah!
That’s another thing I don’t like about their sites. The recipe doesn’t have to be good. It doesn’t even have to be a recipe. I’ve seen photos of store-bought brownies being reviewed. Pretty photos but not much else.
As I looked at (almost) all of these pictures, I kept thinking to myself “they rejected that? with that criticism?” I especially love the shot of the mock-thai, and the tofu ricotta looks tack-sharp to my eye! Maybe I’m going blind or something…but they look great to me.
that said, you hit the nail on the head. just as long as you keep enjoying it, what’s it matter?
In all honesty, I think your pictures are really good from a composition standpoint, but they are a little bit on the warm side from a color balance perspective. If you could get the color balance a little more neutral – I am sure more of your pictures would be accepted. I’ve been taking pictures for about 13 years now, and it just takes time to learn & get the hang of it! If you also work on adjusting the f stops, you can have sharper images up close with a better blurred background.
Thank you for the feedback. I definitely lean towards warm tones when I’m editing photos and that I need to work on. Knowing the mechanics of a camera would help a lot, too. I’m sure there are great tutorials online for that; taking it to heart is the hard part.
Like any other person I’m happy when my pictures get accepted on Tastespotting (I’ve never tried Foodgawker), and I used to be disappointed when they weren’t but I’ve come to realize that even if you follow their guidelines the yes/no final answer is totally subjective and shouldn’t affect how you feel about your photos.
Evan this is a fantastic post.
About 2-3 mos ago when you started submitting, I left you a comment sort of pertaining to this all, i.e. the ever-elusive “composition” and how it’s just a catch all they use…implying there is nothing wrong w/ the lighting or tech aspects of the shot; they just dont like the food or the shot. Frustrating b/c it’s not specific, at all.
I think you would do well to spend the money and get lightroom 3. It will change your life and if you get it and apply a couple funtions to most of these photos, they would get in. The pancakes especially. And the pad thai, mousse, and whoopie pies are also very fix-able with lightroom. A couple gentle easy tweaks that will take 60 secs.
I could write a bible on this stuff. Oh wait, I have. This week being at Food & Light and all the photography talk on my blog all week!
And ive read all of it! Love to learn, especially for free. I’ll look into Lightroom. Might be able to get something good with a student discount once the school year picks up.
I’ve given up on Tastespotting and Foodgawker (after about seven rejections); I just don’t have the photography skills, and it’s impossible to find good lighting in my apartment. (Yes, yes, “lightbox”, yes, yes… :P)
Maybe one day, when I’ve finally gotten around to buying a new camera, I’ll try again.
I am shocked that the pancake picture was rejected – I LOVE it!
Thank you!
Favorite T&T quote: “She’s tired. I’m going to feed her more pixie sticks”.
I don’t get how all of these photos were “rejected” when now I have a massive craving for all of the above! They look good to me 🙂
This is such a good review! It hurts to learn from others mistakes, but in this case, that’s the point! Rejection schmejection.
bravo evan! i gave up on submitting to tastespotting/foodgawker because (a) i didn’t have time and (b) i like my photos the way i like my photos. as long as you are happy with them, that IS all that matters!!!
Interesting post! For whatever it’s worth, I think your rejected photos are great 🙂 They are making me want to try some of the recipes and I’m not even drawn to gluten-free or tofu recipes. Those chocolate peanut butter bars look awesome…
I don’t have the patience to carefully photograph the food I make, so I give you lots of credit (maybe I’m just lazy).
You are awesome Evan! What a great metaphor and I love that you shared the ‘judge’s’ criticism. We’re always learning. 🙂 Great post!
Brian was absolutely right when he made that statement. We get so frustrated when our images are rejected for what looks like poor reasons, especially when we love the image. I think the most important thing to remember is that the selection is subjective and based on that particular persons perspective. That doesn’t necessarily mean its good.
Thanks for bringing this to light, nicely done!
Cheers
Dennis
I simply do not enter my photos in contests or such things. I’m posting for my Sisters and Brothers in Chocolate, for us, not for some judge or magazine or whatever. I think my readers appreciate the honesty of our site and that includes sometimes less than perfect photos.
I’m leaving this to you guys the pros. I just don’t have the energy to pour into photography and food blogging (and a job, blah blah blah), but I at least have a few tips to take away, in addition to the last time you talked about this.
Getting rejected for “composition” is THE most irritating thing in the world, for the exact reasons you described. Often times, I don’t find a difference between the photo I submitted and others on the site….so, it must be quite subjective. Sadness!
ha, love this post 🙂
hope u submit to http://www.findingvegan.com – we love your vegan eats and photos!! 🙂
Thanks for this post-I’ve recently started thinking about looking into the aforementioned sites. Now that I’ve seen your great (rejected) photos, I’m not sure I’ll ever get accepted, but I do feel more educated!
well said!!! We have gotten quite a few photos rejected but we still love them no matter what. we try to take their criticism to make us learn and do better next time, but can be hard. but we really enjoy our photos even those sites do not 😉
I couldn’t imagine your photos being rejected. I love them! I pinned and tumbled your cake yesterday right after looking at it.
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My acceptance ratio at Foodgawker has been about 1:6, and by that I mean 1 pic of one recipe is accepted to 6 rejected recipe pictures. And I do submit more than one picture for each recipe. At Tastespotting, the ratio is around 1:3 where 3 is of course the ones that don’t get through. I was amazed that one or two pics that I thought will not be accepted, were accepted and the ones that I thought had to get through were plain rejected. Anyway, like you said, one should enjoy making those recipes. Extra traffic doesn’t hurt but once you have a steady list of followers, the traffic keeps coming. My blog is just about a month old. But I am sure it will continue to grow with or without FG and TS 🙂