Looking for a DU critique of this food photo (it's not one of mine)...
The local TV station filmed a commercial at this restaurant earlier in the week. They posted this photo on Facebook to announce it. I replied in the comments "Bad lighting on that one." They immediately deleted the comment. I have a few other observations but would like to hear what you folks think first. 
= new reply since forum marked as read
vegetarianism, then I'd say they nailed it... 
The careless placement AND that one piece in the lower right corner, hanging out of the bucket, that looks like it has a bite taken out of it. The lighting is the worst, probably due to a hyperactive flash. I am a stickler for natural light. It's how I take all of my food photos.
Between the lighting and the closeup it looks pretty yucky...
The red splotches, for me, were a really disturbing thing to see in that shot, knowing that the person who signed off on this probably said "great shot!" I agree with plating it instead of tossing it in a bucket, even though that's the way customers purchase it.
...and probably posted on DU as well. All with 100% natural, available light.
Excellently done!
They "plate" food differently here. I did some coaching in California but it's more of a necessity here. I'm going to be doing two shoots at two different places...one Italian, the other a restaurant in a bar with burgers / "comfort food."
I already spoke with the Italian place...in the past, they've put cell phone pics of plates swimming in sauce. I told them "I need to be able to see what is under the sauce." I am supposed to be shooting a meatball sandwich, a Philly cheese steak, and a chicken parmigiana entree. They told me they would put "some" sauce on each with a little cup of sauce on the side.
The bar is going to be doing chicken fried steak and maybe one or two other dishes. The gentleman who will be cooking tomorrow does a pretty impressive job of plating...when you go there and get a burger and fries the plate comes out of the kitchen top-notched, very nicely arranged. But you have to exercise the same cautions as Italian food, because a chicken fried steak swimming in gravy doesn;t look like a chicken friend steak at all...it looks like a plate of gravy.
I'll post the results tomorrow.
I don't know which would go better with fried food, but would guess something that at least crunches like fried food 
As a matter of fact, if they insisted on showing the bucket at all, you could use it like a "horn of plenty." Place it on its side, place the plate directly in front of it, arrange the chicken nicely on the plate. That way they'd have their bucket in the shot AND you'd get a feel for the amount of chicken it contains.
a rare delicacy. 
