EnTech: Shooting Challenge: Grilled Goodness

Shooting Challenge: Grilled Goodness

Flames. Burgers. Maybe some veggies, too. Memorial Day weekend is coming up, and as we grill away our three-day weekend, let’s take some photos of it.

The Challenge

Photograph food on the grill, or off the grill. But it should be grilled food. Make sense?

The Method

We had a grill challenge a while back, which highlighted how shooting food on the grill is a bit tricky. The issue is that the flames can be brighter than the food itself, and so this tutorial in that it has some practical advice to overcome that.
But for those of you who are more proud of the finished productâ€"that’s OK too! Beautiful, picnic plates of food are fine. But keep in mind, photographing that under noon lighting won’t look very good. Find some diffusion (that’s fancy talk for partial shade), and your image will come out better.

The Example

Our lead shot is from Jayme Peterson, who entered this challenge two years ago. Note how gorgeous non-meat items can be on the grill? That’s because the grill is a natural black backdrop, so colors pop. Just food for thought.

The Rules - READ THESE

0. No watermarks. They’re so ugly.
1. Submissions need to be your own.
2. Photos must be taken since this contest was announced.
3. Explain, briefly, the equipment, settings, technique and story behind shot.
4. Email submissions to contests@gizmodo.com, not me.
5. Include 970px wide image (200KB or less) AND a native resolution sized shot in email.
6. One submission per person.
7. Use the proper SUBJECT line in your email (more info on that below)
8. You agree to the Standard Contest Rules - though we DO accept non-US resident submissions.
9. If the image contains any material or elements that are not owned by you and/or which are subject to the rights of third parties, and/or if any persons appear in the image, you are responsible for obtaining, prior to submission of the photograph, any and all releases and consents necessary to permit the exhibition and use of the image in the manner set forth in these rules without additional compensation. If any person appearing in any image is under the age of majority in their state/province/territory of residence the signature of a parent or legal guardian is required on each release.
Send your best photo by TUESDAY, May 26th at 10AM Eastern to contests@gizmodo.com with “Grill” in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs, and use a FirstnameLastnameGrill.jpg (970px wide) and FirstnameLastnameGrillWallpaper.jpg (2560px wide) naming conventions. Include a story of the shot in a few sentences. And don’t skip this story part because it’s often the most enjoyable part for us all beyond the shot itself!