Angles

Learning goal

You will be able to choose from what height and at what tilt to point the camera at a plate by looking at whether the dish's information sits on its top face or its side face. You will see what a dish shot from above, from forty-five degrees and from table level shows and what it hides, and use the three angles not as a rule but as a question. You will calculate how a round plate turns into an ellipse that flattens as the angle gets smaller, and read how much of the dish this flattening shows. You will take into account that at side angles the background enters the frame, while in an overhead view the table's surface is the backdrop; you will choose the focal length according to the angle. On a table shot from above, you will think about where hands of different skin tones should be placed relative to the light source.

The question

The restaurant owner holds their phone over the table and shoots the leaning patties from above, and when they look at the screen their face falls: yesterday's height is gone, the patties have turned into three brown circles side by side, the lettuce under them doesn't show. The lentil soup and the meze plate shot with the same phone, on the other hand, look orderly from above, like a picture; round bowls, colorful mezes, a spoon between them. The next day the cook brings out a big bowl of rice pudding and a three-layered baklava tray; the owner doesn't know which to shoot from where. Overhead or 45 degrees?

Context

You remember from the day you shot the home table reading the pizza and the meze plate like a map, holding the camera perpendicular to the ground (Lesson 16.7). In composition you also tested how the same scene says something else when seen from knee height, from eye level and from on top of a chair (Lesson 14.6). In the lens section you compared how, in something shot from close up with a wide angle, the front part grows and the back shrinks (Lesson 12.4).

In the first food lesson you met the overhead shot and the half angle at a table. This lesson turns that choice into a systematic decision for every plate on a menu: so that you can say why you shoot a bowl, a tray or a glass from a different angle, and always show the same kind of dish from the same angle on the menu.

Simple explanation

Which face of the dish tells its story?

The informative face is the face of a dish that carries its information, that is, the colors, the arrangement or the layers that introduce it. The informative face of a soup, a pizza, a meze plate or a breakfast table is its top: what it is and what is arranged where is read from above. The informative face of a burger, a layered cake, a slice of baklava or a glass of ayran, on the other hand, is its side: the layers, the height and the foam show from the side.

The angle is chosen so that it looks at the informative face. An overhead view shows the top face completely but erases the height entirely; that is why leaning patties turn into flat circles. Table level shows the side face fully but hides the top face; the inside of the soup doesn't show at this angle. Forty-five degrees stands between the two: it gives part of the top face and part of the side together, which is why it is a good start for many plates that have both a top and a side.

Choosing the angle isn't a table to memorize but a question asked again at every plate: when telling a customer about this dish, what do I most need to show? Once you shoot a dish from the angle you chose, shooting all similar dishes on the menu from the same angle gives the page order.

Why does the plate flatten?

The plate ellipse is a round plate or bowl appearing as an ellipse that flattens as the angle gets smaller. The flattening is calculated with the sine of the camera's angle to the table: from above, at ninety degrees, the plate is a full circle; at forty-five degrees the ellipse's short axis is about seventy percent of its long axis; at thirty degrees it is half, and at fifteen degrees close to a quarter.

This number says how much of the inside of the plate shows. At forty-five degrees the soup's surface still reads as a wide strip; at fifteen degrees, on the other hand, it shrinks to a thin line and the side of the bowl comes forward. The layered cross-section of a baklava tray shows best between fifteen degrees and table level. A rice pudding's browned top, meanwhile, is understood between forty-five and the overhead view.

What else changes when the angle changes?

A table-level angle is the camera being close to the table's surface, looking at the dish from the side and almost horizontally. At this angle the wall, the window or the kitchen behind the dish also enters the frame; that is why the backdrop is thought about together with the angle. In an overhead view, on the other hand, the backdrop is only the table's surface: a marble, a wood or a linen cloth. At forty-five degrees the backdrop is split between the table's back edge and the space beyond it, and if it isn't kept plain it distracts attention.

The focal length talks with the angle too. At side angles, looking at the dish from close up with a wide angle enlarges the patty in front and shrinks the one behind, and makes a burger look as if leaning forward. Shooting from a little farther away, with a focal length between eighty-five and a hundred millimeters on full frame, brings the proportions closer to what the eye sees. In an overhead view, though, a wider angle is needed to fit a large table, but you have to watch out for the bowls at the edges stretching.

On a table shot from above, hands enter the frame too. When the same light lights a light hand and a dark hand together, the light hand burns first beside a white plate, while the dark hand stays in shadow. Placing the light skin a little farther from the light and the dark skin a little closer to it keeps both in their own tone in the same frame with a single exposure.

Visual evidence

Your friend writes the four dishes the cook brought out on a piece of paper and notes the informative face of each: lentil soup top, meze plate top, rice pudding top and a little side, baklava side.

They shoot the meze and the soup from above; the bowls are full circles, the colors like a pattern. They shoot the rice pudding from forty-five degrees: the bowl is a seventy-percent ellipse, its browned top a wide strip, and the dark line on the side of the bowl shows too. They shoot the baklava from fifteen degrees, with eighty-five millimeters and from a little farther away: the tray's top is a thin line, but the layered sheets of the cut slice and the pistachio green between them are the subject of the whole frame. The kitchen counter behind looks messy; they stand a chalkboard up behind.

From above again, two hands reach in from either side of the meze plate: the hands of the olive-brown-skinned cook and of the very light-skinned assistant. In the first frame the assistant's fingers have burned beside the white plate, while the cook's hand is in shadow. Your friend moves the assistant to the far side of the light and the cook to the near side; in the new frame both hands are in their own tone, one freckled and pink, the other warm brown.

Common mistakes

Summary

The shape of the dish decides the angle: dishes whose information sits on top are understood from above, those whose layers sit at the side from table level or a low angle, and those carrying both from forty-five degrees. The plate ellipse says how much the angle shows, and the backdrop and focal length are chosen together with the angle. On a table seen from above, hands of different skin tones stay in their own tone in the same exposure when placed according to the light.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will shoot three different dishes from three angles and find their informative faces.

1. Choose a dish with a flat top, a layered dish and a glass of a drink; write down the informative face of each beforehand.
2. Shoot each from above, from forty-five degrees and from table level; look at how the plate's ellipse flattens and which angle shows the informative face best.
3. In a frame from above, shoot two people's hands, with the consent of both, reaching for the same plate; if the skin tones differ, swap their places according to the light and compare.

Check yourself

• Does the angle you chose show the informative face you wrote down beforehand?
• At the side angles, is the background plain?
• In the frame from above, are both hands in their own tone in a single exposure?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. Which is the informative face of a burger?

• A) Its side, which shows its layers
• B) The top bun
• C) Its bottom face
• D) The plate's rim

2. How flat is the ellipse of a round plate shot from forty-five degrees?

• A) It is a full circle
• B) Its short axis is about seventy percent of its long axis
• C) It is a thin line
• D) Its short axis is a quarter of its long axis

3. What is given extra attention when shooting from table level?

• A) The table's surface
• B) The plate's ellipse
• C) The background entering the frame
• D) The white balance

4. On a table seen from above, how are a light hand and a dark hand protected in a single exposure?

• A) Both are put in the place closest to the light
• B) The light is given from above
• C) The aperture is stopped down
• D) The light hand is put a little farther from the light, the dark hand a little closer to it

Answers

1. A — The burger's bun, patty and greens sit on top of each other and are read from the side.
2. B — The sine of forty-five degrees is about 0.71; the short axis shortens by this ratio.
3. C — In a horizontal view, the wall or kitchen behind the dish also enters the frame.
4. D — The difference in distance from the light brings the brightness of the two skin tones closer together.

Summary card

• First find the informative face: top or side?
• Overhead shows the top, table level the side, forty-five degrees both.
• Plate ellipse: the flattening is the sine of the angle; 45° ≈ seventy percent.
• The backdrop and focal length are chosen together with the angle.
• On a table from above, the light hand farther from the light, the dark hand closer.

Bridge to the next lesson

The restaurant owner wants to have the whole menu reshot: twenty-two dishes, a single afternoon, and on top of that the kitchen is preparing orders at those hours too. Your friend thinks of the light tent, the table stand and the boards; in the kitchen there is neither room nor time. How do you work fast in the kitchen? The next lesson takes up reading a restaurant's own light and working fast with a small portable set without disrupting the flow of service.