Improve this shot?

[d2creative]

I'm looking for ways this shot of peppermint patties could be improved.
I did what I could with what I know which isn't a whole lot.

Lighting:
One softbox camera left and one black flag camera right close to the subject to add shadow.

Food Prep:
Nothing, really. Just some glycerin/water mix on the leaf.

Post:
Just some contrast, a little sharpening, and a little color correction in the leaf. Nothing major.

So what kind of things could I do to improve? I couldn't figure out what to do to the chocolate to make it look better. The chaulkiness I didn't mind because it almost gave it a cool frost look which kind of fits the subject but I'm sure it could look tons better. And I didn't know what to do with the lighting. I like dramatically lit food so I stuck with one light. Thoughts?

[brad]

Disclaimer: I know NOTHING about food photography.

#1: Use a knife to break the patty... get a clean break so it looks like it *snapped* in half.. you're advertising clean, cool, fresh, sharp.

#2: Get the chocolate damp.. maybe with just water, maybe with the same glycerin.. you want it to shine.

#3: Consistent background.. my eyes are being drawn to the white corner in the bottom right.

Whites look fantastic.. and the leaf is perfect..

[d2creative]

Thanks Brad.

In regards to #2, I was thinking the same thing during set up. I wanted a nice shine to the chocolate (or at least thought it was worth a try) and I tried a couple different things. First I tried water and glycerin. The problem with that it pooled and just made the chocolate look like it got wet. Why would chocolate be wet? haha. So then I tried Vaseline. I've used it on fruit before but the chocolate had too much texture. So not only could i not evenly coat the chocolate, the chocolate was starting to melt and smudge with any pressure. What i didn't try was some sort of gloss spray. Don't know if that would have worked or not.

[brad]

That's an idea.. maybe a hair spray?

I'd spray it first, cut it second.

[Gordon]

Maybe stick the chocolate in the freezer, then you'll get some condensation on it to make it look wet/damp ?

Also, try a polariser, let you control the reflections on the water on the leaf and saturate the green a bit more - you don't want to kill all the reflections, but you'll be able to control it then.

Even or in theme background, bring whatever that dark texture is all the way through to the corner, or not.

[picasso]

Maybe coat it in vegtable oil for a shine? You can get a frost if you turn an air can upside down and spray it on the cookie.


Paul

[KeithAlanK]

Try PAM cooking spray on the chocolate. It might bead up, too, though.
I do know that if you add a tiny drop of dish soap to water it won't bead up because the surface-tension is destroyed, so you can mist it on and it will hold a coating for a few seconds or more. Might be something you could try.

The blurry area top-center keeps holding my attention, but overall the photo looks great.

[AndrewCCM]

Cool shot. I like the idea.. I really have nothing more to add from the above suggestions.
Thanks for sharing.

[johnastovall]

Get all the patty in focus. I find the out of focus area which is at the bottom of the break very distracting. Other than that, nice work...

[Hogleg 44]

I'd say less leaf and more patty. Since the Patty is the subject.
The leaf is the first thing my eyes were drawn to when the image appeared, and if I didn't know it was a peppermint patty, it would have taken a moment to figure it out.

[d2creative]

Thanks, guys!

Headed back into the stew-dee-oh now....

[fran reisner]

I agree with much of what's stated. Entire patty in focus, more patty-less leaf, like the idea of putting it in the freezer to see if you can get more "shine", you might also try a less soft light source so you get more specularity on the patty... but then you have to condend with the leaf which is drawing too much attention already. Maybe a fresh but dry mint leaf... I don't think it needs to look all wet. Just show it's natural texture. Is that even a mint leaf???

[d2creative]

Originally Posted by fran reisner

Is that even a mind leaf???

Shhhhhhhhhh!

Of course it is! What else would it be?

[Gordon]

Looks more like some random green fern ;) Aren't mint leaves solid along the edges and kinda oval shaped ? :)

[xseption]

One idea may be to try to get the patty in front of the leaf ... setting the leaf in the front implies the leaf is more important ... also the green is much brighter than the chocolate so the green is gonna be dominant ... laying the cut patty somehow over the leaf will mute the dominance of the green