Part I
Introducing Food Styling and Photography
In this part . . .
If you want to discover how to shoot delicious food images, youâve come to the right place! In this first part of the book, I introduce the craft of food photography: the hardware, the styling, and the working relationships youâll deal with on the job.
Food photography, like any photography, requires some basic tools to get started. These tools include your camera and lenses (of course), a few lights to make your food look yummy, and some supporting props and backgrounds to complement the foodâs best traits.
Also in this part, I provide info about working with chefs and other crew members on a shoot. So what are you waiting for? Dig in!
1
Exploring Food Photography
In This Chapter
Introducing food styling basics
Finding where to set your focus
Taking a peek at camera and lighting gear
Backing up and saving your photos
Starting your food photography business
Maybe you picked up this book because youâve started a food blog and are interested in creating more interesting photos, or perhaps youâre looking to grow your budding food photography business. Or could it be that you want to create a pictorial cookbook to showcase your delicious recipes? Or maybe itâs close to lunchtime and youâre getting a little hungry!
Whatever the reason, welcome to the wonderful world of food styling and photography! Like most types of photography, food photography is a complementary blend of the artistic and technical, with a pinch of extra styling to make the food images look scrumptious.
In this book, I provide a robust look at food styling and photography to help you capture the deliciousness of your food subjects. I include helpful information on equipment and settings, composition and focus, managing your images, and growing your business, among other subjects.
Some folks insist that food photography is far more difficult than other types of photography, but with a little know-how under your belt, I think youâll find itâs a piece of cake!
Styling Food for Delicious Photos
Food styling is all about making foods look appetizing and interesting for the camera. At its core, styling involves choosing backgrounds and settings for a shoot. That is, you pick (and place) the dishes, linens, unique surfaces, and utensils. Check out everything thatâs involved in Figure 1-1.
For this photo, I placed the cupcakes on a green milk glass cake plate, with a wrinkled white fabric set behind the food. The arrangement of the cupcakes may look natural and effortless, but it took a lot of experimenting to get just the right look for the shot.
You may notice a small riser hidden under the center cupcake to lift it up from the bunch. I also put one tiny plastic block under one side of the green-frosted cupcake at the back to make that cupcake lean slightly off-kilter.
85mm, 1/40 sec., f/3.2, 200
Figure 1-1: These cupcakes are carefully arranged on a green cake plate.
Getting into a little more detail, you also have the garnishes and accents, or the little something extras, that increase interest and deliciousness in a photo. You can add so many different types of accents to a food dish, such as the large sprig of dill and the cream-colored sauce in Figure 1-2. Creativity reigns with accents, so donât limit yourself to that conventional piece of parsley!
Pull it all together by placing these elements, which I discuss further in the following sections, in a pleasing composition, and shoot a lot of images!
The food youâre photographing may look good for only a short period of time, so use the time wisely and approach your subject from various tilts, angles, and distances (see Chapter 10 for details). If you have time, try some different backgrounds and settings as well. You can also change up the garnishes for a slightly different look. The more images and options you have to choose from, the better.
70mm, 1/40 sec., f/7.1, 200
Figure 1-2: A couple of well-placed accents can enhance any dish.
In Figure 1-2, my chef provided the lovely grilled salmon and vegetables dish on a clean white plate. For this part of the shoot, I decided to use a dark background to really make the colors of the dish stand out. I steamed away the wrinkles of a dark brown cloth napkin and then placed it under the plate to use as a background. I tweaked the vegetables slightly to make the arrangement look a little more natural. I also wanted to make sure the veggies picked up the highlights from the lights.
Speaking of lights, for the image in Figure 1-2, I had three lights going on at the shoot: a key light, or main light; a fill light (a weaker light source) to help shape the light and shadows; and a small light shooting across the back of the scene as a background light. (See the later section âLooking at lightingâ and Chapter 9 for details on lighting your food subjects.)
Starting with backgrounds
Backgrounds are an integral part of a food imageâs overall look, even if you donât actually see more than a hint of them. Backgrounds often set the mood for the image and either blend in or contrast with the food subject. Whatever look you go for, the idea is to really make the food the star of the show. A clean, beautifully lit white background, as shown in Figure 1-3, creates a light, whitewashed setting that can be a lovely and appetizing look for a food shot.
85mm, 1/50 sec., f/3.5, 400
Figure 1-3: An all-white background lets the food shine.
And on the other extreme, a rustic, southwestern type of background can provide a bold and colorful counterpoint to the food subject, as the rusty, well-worn painted metal chair does in Figure 1-4.
32mm, 1/125 sec., f/5.0, 400
Figure 1-4: The background in this shot complements the rustic look of the tomatillos.
Did you notice how each of the tomatillos in Figure 1-4 points in a different direction? The variety of angles in the placement of foods against a background can al...
