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photographingFOOD

IntrODuctIOntO FOOD

phOtOgraphy

lessons 1-9

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It isn’t fair, but the truth is that the better the picture, the eas-ier it is for food to get noticed. There isn’t smellovision or tastea-gram, so the only way to judge food online is through what you see. This means that a premium is placed on great food photog-raphy.

It doesn’t matter whether you are a blogger, journalist, an am-ateur or professional photographer, anyone can create great pic-tures of food!

Here are nine lessons that will help you get started with food photography. The lessons are divided up into three categories:

Lessons 1-3 are geared towards understanding how food pho-tography differs from other types of photography. Lessons 4-6 will help you with the technical aspects related to shooting food.

Lessons 7-9 are geared towards styling your food photography.

I hope these lessons help you as you begin exploring the world of food photography!

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One of the most challenging concepts to grasp when shooting food is that it doesn’t smile back. Yes, I realize that may sound obvious, but think about it. When taking pictures of a person the expression con-veyed through the facial features tells us a story about how they are feeling.

Food just sits there. To convey an emotion and tell a story, you have to style your food and create a set that will deliver this intended message. Sets can be incredibly elaborate and complex or minimalistic and simple. It all de-pends on your message.

On the next page is an image of fried oysters. Do you have an im-mediate image in mind when you think of fried oysters? For me, I think about how my mom would cook oysters. She would cover them in breading and then fry until they turned a crisp golden brown. She would then remove the oysters from the pot of oil and let them drain on brown paper bags. The shot on the next page depicts this memory of what I think of when I hear the words fried oysters.

Aretheircertianfoodsthetevokespecificmemoriesforyou?

How would you style and prop those dishes?

As you look at the oysters on the next page, notice how there is a monochromatic color scheme. Everything is a shade of brown. Having shades of one main color in an image will help emphasize the shape and texture of your subject.

When shooting food, always think about the story you are telling.

Lesson 1: Food Doesn’t Smile Back At You.

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If you have never worked with food photography, you will quickly learn that not all foods have the same “shelf life” in front of the camera. Some foods can quickly start to look tired and dead soon after they are placed on set. So what does “dead food” mean? Yes, the food is already cooked, but over time food will lose its “liveliness ” in front of the camera and starttofallflat.Astimepassesiceindrinkswillmelt,meltedcheesewill start to seize up, vegetables will wilt, ice cream will melt, sauces will spread, and the dish will turn from delicious and appetizing looking to a dish that isn’t appealing. Every food will be a little different, but keep in mind how quickly your food will start to “die” in front of the camera when working.

Lesson 2: Know Your Food’s Shelf Life On Set

The shot on the left is a composite of 3 seper-ate shots. Caramel sauce spreads really quickly, so a composite was needed to achieve the perfect pour look. Knowing how the car-amel would react on cam-era allowed for me to setup a composite shot and still achieve the image I want-ed.

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Has a model ever told you which side is their good side? Like hu-man models, a dish will have a good side. Some dishes will look best when photographed from a head-on camera angle. Others will look bet-ter when shot from an overhead angle. If those don’t work, try some-here in between. This is called a 3/4 angle. These angles may be a little different than other types of photography, but I have found that every food will look great from one or more angle. If your shot isn’t quite look-ing the way that you would like, try shooting from a different angle.

Lesson 3: Use Different Camera Angles For Different Foods

3/4 Angle

Overhead Angle

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photographingFOOD

IntrODuctIOntO FOOD

phOtOgraphy

lessons 4-6

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If you are shooting food, the good news is that you most likely al-ready own the lighting gear that you need! Food looks best with soft even lighting coming from one direction. The easiest way to achieve this is to shoot next to a window. If you are shooting with natural light next to a window, be sure to turn off any other lights in the room. If you are shooting with an artificial light source, try using a lighting modifier that will create a large soft light. This could be a large softbox, umbrel-la, or even a large white bed sheet! Soft light from one direction will give a beautiful look to your food.

Lesson 4: Stick With A Natural One Light Look

On the left is an image shot with one light source. There wasn’t a great daylight option on this shoot, so I used a flash with a soft box. This created a beautiful soft light for the shot.

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If you already own a tripod, it is something that you should have for every food shoot. If you don’t own one, I suggest it be the first thing you purchase to improve your food photography. Using a tripod or other camera support system will improve your photography in two ways. First, a tripod will help stabilize your camera and prevent any mo-tion blur caused by shaky hands when hand holding your camera. Second, when you have the shot almost all the way there, a tripod will allow you to make minor changes in prop and subject placement and keep the framing. This will allow you to create the perfectly com-posed shot every time.

LeSSON 5: USe A TripOd

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Food is an excellent example of tabletop photography. When shoot-ing food, you are going to need a solid surface to place your plates, props, and lighting modifiers on. It should come as no surprise that a table is a great thing to shoot on! Any stable table will work. It could be a kitchen table, dining room table, or any other table that you have in your house. If you are short on space, a folding table works great!

Need a table on the go? Try using two saw horses and placing wooden boards across.

Lesson 6: Find A Sturdy Table

Shooting in a small space?

This is a shot from my old studio apart-ment where I would use a small coffee table as a shooting table. You don’t have to have a ton of space. As long as it is a flat and stable surface it will work really well!

Here I am using Lesson 4 and shooting next to a window.

photographingfood

IntroductIonto food

photography

lessons 7-9

When food is brought to a set and placed in front of the camera, there will generally have to be a little bit of styling involved. This means that the food will be moved, poked, and positioned so it looks perfect! This is also the time when last minute garnishes and sauces are placed on the plate. When styling your dish, style it from the camera angle you will be shooting from. If you are going to shoot overhead, look at your dish from an overhead angle while placing garnishes and adjusting your dish. If you are shooting at a head on camera angle, make your adjustments from this viewpoint. Styling from the camera angle that you intend to use will ensure elements of the image are exactly where they need to be.

Lesson 7: styLe From your shooting AngLe

Food is full of bright and vibrant colors! Embrace this color when you are shooting. Black and white look great with portrait photogra-phy, but doesn’t work as well when food is the subject. Embrace color harmony and use it to create color schemes that will complement your food and start to make your viewer’s mouth water. Color combinations that I have found to work well together are orange and blue, purple and yellow, or red and green. Give these a try and see how the food pops off the background.

Lesson 8: embrAce Food’s coLor

When preparing a dish for the camera, the process isn’t quite the same as preparing the food for your plate. When you are pouring a glass of a refreshing beverage, you probably didn’t pour the beverage through a funnel into the glass. Using a funnel allows you to prevent any splashing on the sides of the glass and helps you control exactly how much liquid goes into the glass. Other tools that will help in your food styling are cotton swabs to clean the rims of bowls, toothpicks to build and hold a sandwich together, or turkey basters to remove or add beverages, soups, or other liquids. Aboveisashotshowingaturkeybasterbeingusedtofillaglassof sangria. This baster keeps the fruit in place and won’t leave splash marks inside the glass.

Lesson 9: use styLing tooLs