Food and drink

Whether staged or natural, this has the feel of a home baking session, where the delicious looking products are ready to be tasted. The limited colour palette suits the subject, with the little pops of red from the raspberries bringing a touch of colour. With the composition and framing, I may have been tempted to crop a little off the bottom of the shot, or shift some of the brownies into the frame to fill a little more of the cooling rack.. Very appetising and asking to be tasted.

A simple shot of a simple subject, but simple is often the best way. The focal point for the shot is just right, as there is nothing in the immediate foreground which is distractingly out of focus. The side lighting picks out the individual peas wonderfully, and you have managed to show some lovely textures which gives a very realistic feel to the shot. Very well styled, with the scattered peas nicely filling much of the negative space to avoid too many blank areas. Nice natural colouring too.

A close runner up, an image which stood out from the start. An interesting and unusual subject choice, which has worked really well as a result of your staging of the octopus and the lighting. I do not envy you grappling with this slippery creature and trying to arrange the parts in a pleasing way. You say in your description that you struggled to control the highlights, but you obviously persevered, as the lighting balance is super. There are just enough glistening highlights present to describe to the viewer the textures of this creature, and we can imaging exactly how it would feel to touch. A wise choice of background, and great control of of colour and tone throughout the image. A worthy runner up.

The stand-out thing for me with this shot is the naturalness of the colours, which look very true to life. When faced with a stack of virtually identical objects such as fruit, it can be difficult to work out a pleasing composition, but I think you have succeeded here, with three fruits as the main focus, and the remainder filling the frame. Nicely focused and exposure looks to be spot on.

This is a well executed image of a simple pot of raspberry jam. Your composition has worked well, with the jar off centre, and the berries running on a diagonal through the frame, which add some dynamics to a static scene. The limited colour palette of the grey wood and the beautiful red fruit has worked well too, as there is nothing to distract from this rather delicious looking jam. Nice bright lighting, picking out the textures of the raspberries, with highlights on the jar well controlled.

It can be very difficult to get lighting and exposure correct to capture such a delicate pastel shot, but you have managed it perfectly. There are no harsh distracting shadows, but there is sufficient variation in tones to pick out the details and textures in the dainty sugarwork and icing. Colours look very true too life, and the different pastel shades complement each other wonderfully. You have shown these teatime treats at their tempting best.

You have been successful in creating a shot where the food looks very inviting. There is no camera data attached to this image so I cannot be sure what aperture was used, but due to the very shallow depth of field, I imagine the aperture was on a very wide setting. For this image, I would have been inclined to either decrease the aperture slightly to get a little more of the subject in sharp focus, or slightly adjust the focus point a fraction further forward to get the vital ooze of the yolk in sharp focus. Still a tempting looking image however.

Whether a natural home baking scene, or a staged shot using shop-bought cookies, this image still works, as it gives the impression of the kitchen worktop on baking day. Composition works well, with elements placed at an angle to each other and within the frame. It is often difficult to know where to crop an image, but you have it spot on here, with just the right amount of the spoon, cloth, glass bowls etc appearing in the frame. If I were to be critical, I may have selected a different processing finish, as the overall hues (as seen in the flour) seem a little over-greyed and "grungy", but that is just personal taste.

For me, one of the key elements of successful food photography is the ability to make the food look not only edible, but delicious too. This image has achieved that, and is technically accomplished and shows a good understanding of the subject. The plate and surroundings are spot on, as the colours contrast wonderfully to showcase the food on the plate. Great lighting, focusing and white balance all add up to make this a delicious and tempting plate of food, inviting the viewer to tuck in. If I were looking to improve further on this fabulous image, I may have been tempted to burst one of the egg yolks and take a second shot, as this could have added some movement to the shot as the yolk oozed onto the toast. Congratulations.

This is technically accomplished image which has a great mood, assisted by the muted tones of soft browns and greys. The styling looks very natural with the elements leading across the frame on a pleasing diagonal. Perfectly focused, with appropriate choice of aperture which leads us from sharp focus in the front of the shot, to softly out of focus further back. Lighting appears to be natural, showing off the subject well with lighting fall off into the background. The little puff of steam rising from the kettle has not been overdone, and give us just a hint of movement in an otherwise static shot.

There were a few "environmental" shots entered into the contest, but this one stood out, as the focus of the image is clearly on the food, rather than the cook. There is good lighting which has picked out the smoke, which all adds to the atmosphere of the scene, and leads the viewer to imagine the sizzle as the food is being cooked. You have captured the action at just the right moment, with the brush still in place having spread the spicy-looking sauce, but it is not obliterating the food.

There were quite a number of "splash" photographs entered into this contest, but this one stood out for an award as the food element was more the focus of the image, rather than the splash. Technically accomplished, achieved no doubt through a good deal of trial and error and many failed attempts. This image though is spot on, accurate colouring, with clear, sharp focus on the fruit.

This image has been carefully constructed and is well focused and exposed. What just kept it out of the awards was the positioning of the sieve in the set up, as the angle tends to give the impression the whole image is falling to the right. If you had lifted the handle of the sieve and propped it up on something (out of shot) we could then have looked directly down onto the fully round rim of the sieve, in the same way as we do with the cakes. Another possibility would be to crop off most of the sieve to the position of its support handle, which would maybe give more balance to the composition. Otherwise a great image of some very tempting little cakes.

This is a simple, but effective image. It may have been your intention to show the slices of sausage with what appears to be a peppercorn, but for me the little blemish on the two slices is a distraction and draws the eye away from enjoying the rest of the image. I would have been inclined to discard the last and next slice, to show more uniform slices of the tasty looking sausage. I do like your angle of view and your depth of field, which is spot on for this scene, as we have the near parts of the food sharply focused, and just enough fall off in focus into the background to render the bread and sausage blur, but not unrecognisable.

This is a well captured, stylish plate of food in which you have nicely shown the vibrant colours of the shellfish. What just kept this image out of the awards is the base of the three glasses we can see along the top of the frame, which distract rather from the food. When taking any photograph, it is always worth checking around the edges of the frame for such distractions, then see if they can be slightly moved, or the camera angle adjusted so they are out of the frame. Otherwise a great image, capturing the colours and textures of this fine food.

This is a bright, appealing image and narrowly missed a placing. What just edged it out of the placing was the slight over-exposure on the yellow flower petals, which has resulted in some "burnt out" patches of pure white. Another small issue is the slightly incongruous pairing of tulips and fruit on a chopping board - maybe a similar effect in terms of bright colour contrasts could have been achieved by swapping the tulips for some lemons and limes, which would have brought some overall harmony in terms of subject matter. Still a bold and pleasing image.

There is a lot to like with this image. The composition and framing is strong, with the board and chopsticks at appropriate angles, with the bowl of food being the clear focus of the shot. I would suggest making a couple of minor adjustments in processing to remove the slightly distracting elements on the top right and bottom left corners. Darkening those areas ought to hide them from the viewers eye, and give full attention to the bowl of food which you have captured so well.

This is a bold image, well constructed and composed. The glass is in sharp focus, and you have been successful in avoiding too many reflections on the glass, which can sometimes be distracting. Sadly what lets the image down for me is the large signature watermark showing boldly across the brightest part of the image, which unfortunately mars the strong graphic of the shot, and pulls too much attention away from the well taken subject.

You have chosen a good subject here, as bread can often make for great food photography with lots of interesting shapes and textures. What seems to have happened here though is that your camera's colour balance has been tricked by the colouring of the bread and the board, and it has compensated by adding too much blue to the shot. This has resulted in the bread taking on a rather unappetising blue tinge. It would be interesting if you could put this image into processing software and click the white balance picker on the cloth, and restore that to white. That should generally warm up the colouring of the image, and return the bread to the lovely colour it probably was when you photographed it. There is however clear focus on the bread, and your choice of aperture works well to direct the viewers attention to the bread.

Your set up here has great potential to show some rather tasty looking food. Unfortunately the image is let down by a lack of any part I can see which is in focus. The camera shooting data is not attached to the image so I do not know what settings were used, but I wonder if you were perhaps a little too close to the subject for the minimal focus distance of your camera/lens, or maybe a slight camera shake if shooting at a slower shutter speed. It is a shame, because there are some great elements to the shot - the colouring of the food looks natural, and whilst the lighting may be a little bright from the left, you have captured some lovely highlights on the food which help it to look rather appetising.

This image has a lot of potential, but just let down a little by the unbalanced composition which gives half the frame to out of focus sweeeties. To give better balance to the composition, I would suggest cropping off some of the right hand side, maybe just clipping into the right side of the central yellow sweet, which would in effect pull the very tasty looking doughnut more into the centre of the frame. Good selection of aperture and point of focus, with bright, but natural colours.