Today’s is the last day of 30 Days to Better Food Photos Workshop.

But the journey doesn’t end here. Yes, 30 days aren’t enough to learn everything about food photography.  I am sure you know that.

Now the question is how do you plan to continue learning food photography after today?

In this post, we share how you can develop your own learning plan.

Getting Started

In last 30 days, we’ve discussed several topics and you’ve had a chance to practice taking action focused on these topics. As you start designing your own learning plan, pause a bit. Think about all those topics that you had challenges with. Most participants said the topic of lighting was challenging.

Some mentioned food styling, others mentioned designing a story. Whatever your top 3-5 challenges are, write them down and start developing the next steps.

Four Phases of Learning Food Photography

Learning food photography, and for that matter, any new skills/art requires a balance of acquiring new knowledge and taking action as well getting feedback. Here are those phases:

1. Acquisition
2. Take Action
3. Get Feedback
4. Use the Feedback

Let’s look at these phases in more detail:

Acquire New Knowledge

We’ve discussed a number of topics in last 30 days. In many cases during this 30 day workshop, the post and lessons were “bite-sized” to help you focus more on doing.

After the 30 Day challenge, LFP will post detailed tutorials and will continue to interview food photographers, food stylists and other food photography related artists.

If you’ve signed up 30 Day challenge email, you will stop getting any new posts in your inbox. To get regular emails, please enter your name in the following fields.

Make sure you subscribe to LFP RSS emails.

Take action

Taking action is important. You may have read a lot of posts to improve food photography and bought books that share how to get a better photo, but if you don’t do anything with this information, nothing will change.

Doing helps this newly acquired knowledge to stick. We will soon announce regular challenges to help you take action.

Get Feedback

Feedback helps us grow. If you keep taking pictures without ever getting any feedback, you will keep making same mistakes until you realize this on your own. Getting feedback early and often is quite important. Food photo critiques will help you pin point areas of improvements for you.

LFP has a very popular critique program and very supportive readers. Look at this post from last year. You can submit your own photo for getting critiqued by going here.

Use the Feedback

Once you have received the feedback, it will not add any value unless you act on it. After submitting the photo and receiving feedback, incorporate feedback that you can and share a photo with improvements.

All of these four phases are important for learning. You cannot skip any one of these and expect to improve. Learning is an ongoing process and after you’ve completed phase four, go back to phase one of acquiring new skills.

Using this generic learning process, you should create your own plan and continue the journey.

Let’s take a look at today’s challenge.

Today’s Assignment

Task 1 – Continue Learning

Continue getting detailed food photography lessons and gaining new insight to food photography and styling. Signup below to get all future posts. (Tech details: As Google Reader is shutting down and eventually feedburner will go away, we’re moving away from RSS and using emails as primary means of communication).

Task 2  – Take Action

To complete this action, you have until end of this week. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Choose a food subject that you shot before beginning the 30Day challenge.
2. Shoot the same food subject with all that you’ve learned in last 30 Days
3. Post before and after photos in LFP community.
4. With the photo, leave a note sharing how your photo changed from before and after.

Task 3 – Get Feedback

The last task for today is to choose one photograph that you like and get feedback on that photograph. To get the most benefit, submit a photograph thoughtfully. Give as much information as you can to get the most out of this feedback exercise. Click here to submit your photograph and enter the details about it.

This post Develop Your Own Food Photography Improvement Plan – Day 30 appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Post processing can be a very intimidating topic, but it doesn’t have to be.

Today we will discuss post processing at a very high level.

There are many softwares that you can use for post processing. I use Lightroom and absolutely love it. Aperture is another software used by many but I haven’t used it all that much. I am not sure if there is a good equivalent open source software like Lightroom. These are relatively basic image editing and library management softwares.

Then there are advanced softwares like Photoshop and an open source FREE software called GIMP. In both these softwares, you can use layers and other advanced features to process your images to a great extent. I don’t have enough patience to use these tools and tricks.

Of all the tools you can use in post processing, there are few that you should absolutely know how to do. Here are those three adjustments -

Adjusting exposure – Learn how to change exposure, technically different than brightness, but some tools use it interchangeably.

Adjusting white balance – White balance is important setting in food photography. Color of food can make food unappetizing when the color is not exactly same. Remember the red cranberries?

Removing dust and other noise – Dust is something that invariably gets in the camera and can destroy the entire photo. Dust sometimes gets on the camera sensor or can be on lens as well. Yes clean your sensor and lens, but also learn how to remove this in post processing.

In coming days, we will discuss post processing in more detail.

The goal for today should be to start playing with post processing software. Today’s assignment will also be very straightforward.

We will slowly and simply ease in the post processing door. Let’s look at the assignment below.

Today’s Assignment

Estimated time: 30 mins

Step 1 – The very first step for today’s assignment is to decide your post processing software. I use and highly recommend Lightroom. It simple and intuitive and love using it.

Step 2  – In your selected software, learn how to change white balance. Read help or go to software website to learn more about editing white balance.

Step 3 - Choose a photo to experiment this with. Set white balance to 5100Kelvin, save the photo. Change the white balance to 3500K and save. Now change white balance to 6000K. save the photo.

Step 4 –  Post all these three photos and original photo in LFP community.

Step 5 – For some of you, this will take less than 5 mins to complete. For others who are not so experienced, it may take much longer. Please leave a comment below and give me feedback about this assignment. Was this too basic lesson? Or too challenging? Leave a comment with your thoughts about this assignment.

Tomorrow, we will discuss in more detail about how to keep learning food photography after these 30 days.

—–

P.S. Thank you for all the emails and comments. I am reading each and every comment and email but haven’t been able to respond to some of you. We’ve been burning the midnight oil as we are working on our first action-oriented book based on this 30 Day Challenge, with more detailed food photography lessons and some reusable templates. More on that soon.

This post Learn Simple Post Processing for Better Food Photography – Day 29 appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

How was this week for you?

This week we talked about preparation. We discussed how to further explore your food story even before getting to the scene. Before even bringing the food out and picking the camera, you started planning your photographs.

We discussed how to create a list of photos to shoot. We talked about visualizing the shot on paper and then focusing on the story. We also how to stay away from things that distract your food story

With all these lessons, now you know that for your next food story, you don’t have to wait for all stars to line up and all things to be perfect. We also discussed how to leverage the situation when you can’t take a photograph and not forget that concept. And then we’ve started moving towards understanding beautiful photography.

This past week, we’ve discussed many lessons that will help you to significantly reduce the time required to photograph food. Let’s look at what we talked about this past week –

Day 22 – Create a Shotlist for Your Food Photography Shoot

Day 23 – Sketch the Story for Better Food Photography

Day 24 – Create a NOT To Use List for Your Next Food Photo Shoot

Day 25 – Use Space Creatively in Food Photography

Day 26 – Take Bad Food Photographs (Using Sketch Shots)

Day 27 – Deconstruct Food Photos

And now we are only two days away from the last day of the challenge.

Next week, after 30 days of this challenge are over, have you thought about how you will continue to learn food photography? If you haven’t thought about it, how about redoing this challenge on your own, at your own pace again?

Now that you know these lessons, you should challenge yourself again, with different subjects.

This week’s assignment should help you evaluate your progress and share your challenges.

Remember this from last week:

As part of the assignment, it is important for you to understand what you’ve been struggling with this past week. By understanding your challenges, finding solution becomes easy. So when we ask you about your challenges, word of caution – don’t write the first thing that comes to mind.

Yes, if I ask you what did you struggled with in terms of prop styling, the quickest answer could be, “I didn’t know what to do?” Usually the first answer is not really the heart of the problem. If you say, “I didn’t know what to do?” ask again, what exactly did I not know? Was it the placement of where to place the props? Was it how to select the props? What specifically was it?

Let’s look at the assignment in detail -

Today’s Assignment

Time estimated – 15-20 mins

Today again, you need to complete three specific tasks for today’s assignment. Like we discussed last week:

For each of these tasks, you will be tempted to “just finish it”. Don’t let that voice take over you. Whatever effort you’ve been making, starting this assignment give 200% of that effort. If you’ve been spending 10 mins, starting today spend 15-20 mins. When you think about the challenges, as discussed above, be as detailed as possible. It will help you realize what specifically you are struggling with.

Step 1 – Progress Update

Start this assignment by updating your progress. Tell us how this week was and what you did and did not do.

Step 2 – Weekly Discussion

Just like last week, this week again, we have a topic for discussion. The goal of weekly discussion is to help you learn from your fellow participants.

As we discussed above, be very specific. Go into details. Rather than just saying “lighting” for example, share “My challenge with lighting is when I’m using artificial light” or “I don’t know how to light when photographing outside in the yard”. Share you challenges and give as much information as you can. Again, as you start this discussion, read what other readers are saying and what is challenging for them. If you have similar challenges, share them.

Step 3 – Your Photo of The Week

This past week I am sure you’ve taken lot of photos. The last task this week is to upload your best food photo from this past week to LFP community.

This post How to Prepare for Outstanding Food Photography – Day 28 appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

In last four weeks, we’ve discussed several food photography topics.

Remember Day 1, that’s when you looked at some great food photographers and tried to discover your feelings about their food photos? Do you remember how that exercise was for you?

You were perhaps overwhelmed? Or maybe not sure what to look at?

In today’s post, we will discuss how to feed your brain and start reading the photograph.

Feeding your brain on a regular basis is important. Studying great food photo helps you learn several aspects of it in one photo. I’m sure you flip through magazines to view food photos regularly, or browse through Pinterest or Flickr or follow a blog.

As you look at food photographs the goal should not be to just flip the pages and think “yummy”. I hope in last four weeks after discussing several aspects that make a food photo beautiful, you are able to read these photos in a more detailed way than just saying “yummy”.

Today we’ll start to read photography. So what does reading the photo mean? Reading the photo helps you understand the decisions that photographer has made while creating the photo. How do you go about actually reading a food photo?

When you are starting to read the photo, make sure there are some questions that are on the back of your mind. So let’s start with the questions. Take a look at the list of questions below. Not all questions will apply to everyone and rather than explaining this let’s take a look at 10 questions that should give you a good start:

1. What is appealing about this photograph?
2. Who is the main character of the story?
3. What do you think is the story?
4. Can you identify the direction of light source?
5. What props do you see in the photo?
6. What can you tell about harmony of the photo and its balance?
7. How is the space used?
8. Can you identify the camera angle and where was camera relative to the food?
9. How is the background?
10. What can you say about the location of the food photo?

These are some questions that you can ask when trying to read the photo. Using these answers you should be able to develop a good understanding of how the photo changes when any one element of photo changes.

Will you always have all the answers? No. There will be days when answering one question is difficult than others.

Remember the great food photographers from your exercise on Day 1 with? Here they are once again:

• Matt Armendariz
• Penny De Los Santos
• Aran Goyoaga
• Lara Ferroni
• Beatrice Peltre
• Helene Dujardin
• Teri Campbell
• Katie Quinn Davies

Today again, we will visit their portfolio and deconstruct one of their photos.

Let’s start the assignment.

Today’s Assignment

Estimated Time Required – Less than 30 mins

Read all the steps before getting started -

Step 1 – Pick two photographers from the list above and visit their portfolio.

Step 2 – Pick just one photo you like from each photographer

Step 3 – Share which two photographers you picked in the LFP community.

Step 4 – Share you results. Share the deconstruction process you followed. What were your observations?

Step 5 – Now pick two more photos from photographers that you selected. Repeat steps 3 and 4.

This post Day 27 – Deconstruct Food Photos appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

You are in the middle of cooking something, something that is time sensitive.  And while you are cooking, you see a beautiful photo opportunity, what do you do in those times? Do you make a photo or let it go?

On most days, I’ve had to let it go. Often the food subject was placed artfully and the photo would have been great with some food styling and prop styling. But because of lack of time when these situations appear, these photo opportunities were lost.

That changed some time back.

It changed with the start of creating sketch shots. Sketch shots are not final shots, they are not even presentable shots. These are like your personal notes only taken with a camera/cellphone.

These sketch shots are concept development shots.

Take Bad Food Photos

The goal of creating a sketch shot is to take a photo quickly because you don’t have enough time to spend on getting a good shot. So do the best you can, like adjusting the white balance or creating a great frame etc, but do it fast and take the shot. Take as many as you can.

Once you’ve captured sketch shots, the next step is then to develop these shots using techniques that we discussed earlier in the challenge like deciding a story, defining the story elements, creating a shot list, thoughtfully styling and then capturing the photo.

Here’s one example of a recent sketch shot.

The goal was to capture the arrangement and save it for a later time when you can use betters props

As you see here… the light is actually pretty bad, the props used like plates and the board to roll roti are both distracting. The photo is a bit underexposed too.

But that’s is all okay because this is a sketch shot.

Using this shot, we will extend this concept and make the photo by spending more time and making decisions more thoughtfully.

Knowingly or unknowingly, you have seen sketch shots on food blogs and you may even have taken these shots. What most people skip and don’t do it is to go back and create these shots more thoughtfully.

Do you use sketch shots? Tell us about your process in the comments below.

Now let’s move to the assignment.

Today’s Assignment

Unlike previous assignments this is a very spontaneous assignment.

Estimated time: 30-60 mins

Step 1 –  Today, observe with the intention to capture a sketch shot. Capture at least one sketch shot.

Step 2  – Decide how you would like to develop this story. Think about what we’ve discussed in the challenge before and the decisions we’ve discussed above.

Step 3 - Decide a date when you will take this photo and schedule it on your calendar or whatever tool you use.

Step 4 –  Post your sketch shot in LFP community. Then share what is the photo story and the decisions that you have or will make.

This post Day 26 – Take Bad Food Photographs (Using Sketch Shots) appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

We’ve talked about composition earlier in the challenge.

One of the elements of composition is use of space. Let’s learn more about using space.

The lesson in this post is going to be very small. The concept of space is very simple and one food photographer uses it very effectively.

Space in terms of art and frame is separated into negative space and positive space.

Positive space is defined by the space that the object/food subject occupies. Negative space is anything around the food subject.

When creating a food photo, the amount of negative space versus positive space changes the composition entirely. Using space you can emphasize on a subject and create a photograph that is simple yet beautiful.

Peter from Souvlaki for the Soul has a knack for using space and creates a powerful image. You’ve heard Peter’s tips on becoming a better food photographer, haven’t you?

Look at his photographs.

Do you see how space is used in these photos and how powerful these photos are? These are simple photographs and yet very powerful.

How do you achieve this? Simply by placing the subject in a way that maximizes negative space and creates a beautiful composition.

In magazines and some blogs, space is used with the intent of placing graphics or placing copy on it. In those cases, the food subject needs to be photographed with that in mind. Look at the example below:

One of the left if the photo with copy in mind. Right is the finished cover of upcoming workbook. If you have a food blog, you can use this as a recipe introduction photograph with space for recipe name.

Now lets begin today’s assignment.

Today’s Assignment

You are familiar with most steps. I’ll keep this at high level and keep it open for interpretation.

Estimated time: 30-60 mins

Step 1 –  Just like before, today again, select the subject. Ideally use the same food subject, you have been using last couple of days. This will give you an easy way to measure your improvements.

Step 2  – Using negative space, take a photo with large negative space. Explore and take as many photos as you like.

Step 3 – Take another photo with the intent of putting a copy (like Recipe Title or Story title) on it.

Step 4 –  Once you do step 2 and 3, post your best photos (one from step 2 and one from step 3) in LFP community.

This post Day 25 – Use Space Creatively in Food Photography appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Today’s tip is really very simple. It is so simple that most people won’t even give it a serious thought.

At this stage you’ve decide the story, written down the elements of the story, created a shot list and even sketched some possible frames you would like to try. You’ve also written down the backgrounds you think will work best.

Now you have too many options. To top this off, there is also that advice out there to “explore” your scene and try different plates and all the different variations.

At this point, you are most likely overwhelming with all these options. With all of the advice, there is only one tip that will relieve you – the NOT to use list.

As I said before, the idea is very simple. Since you have decided the story, you know what mood or concept you want in the photo.

For Chhole curry, if the goal is to create a traditional or rustic or royal mood, then using a plain white plate with white background will not work. Those plates and background are more modern or bright looking story so they won’t work in this case.

Similarly, for your own story, you have made several decisions until this point. You’ve decided the background and the plates and the napkins and many other things.

Now take few minutes and create a NOT to use list. Think about your story again, what are few things that you absolutely do not want in your scene.

Like we discussed in the example of Indian chhole curry, write down the options that you won’t use. Is there a certain plate that’s in your closet but won’t even bother bringing it out? Is there a background that you use a lot but it won’t be helpful in this case?

In the example, yes white plates will work independently, but for the story of being at the traditional or rustic scene, white plates won’t tell the same story.

Write down all those ideas that come to your head but will not work at all for this story.

Now, just to clarify, you are not trying to create a list that contains all possible containers you’ve ever scene. This is a list of options that come to mind but won’t tell the same story.

Pretty simple, eh? Have you written down or created a list like this before? Share it in the comments.

Today’s Assignment

Estimated time: 15 mins

Step 1 –  Decide your subject you plan to use for this exercise.

Step 2  – Read your story from Day 2 and read the elements of the story you decided on Day 8.

Step 3 – Take 2 mins and focus on what you don’t want in the scene. What are some obvious plates and backgrounds and other things that won’t tell the same story. When you start creating a photograph, use this list to stay on the story and focus on what you want to communicate.

Step 4 –  Once you have a list that you feel is complete, share two things – 1) what is your subject and the story 2) What is on your NOT to use list. Post it in LFP community.

Step 5 –Now in the comments below, tell us this – have you used a list like this before? After completing this exercise, what do you feel would change?

This post Day 24 – Create a NOT To Use List for Your Next Food Photo Shoot appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Yesterday you created a shot list for your subject.

Today we’ll discuss the next step of preparation.

One other tip that I’ve used to prepare better is to sketch how I think I would like to photograph the subject.

Creating a sketch helps you visualize the frame before you start creating the photo. I’ve found it specially helpful for prop styling. By looking at the frame on the sheet, you can visualize the position of props and how it will impact the photograph.

Before You Start Sketching

My process of sketching begins with identifying the characters of my story. Just like we discussed earlier in the challenge, I like to clearly identify my main characters, my supporting or secondary characters and what I consider extra that are essential for the story but are not required.

As you sketch your food story on a piece of paper, identify these characters. This will help you decide how prominent or not, you would like them in the frame. You can also make a decision about the position of these characters as well as lighting, focus and  distance from the lens.

Think about what your story is about?

Is this about a traditional dish that is served to an individual or is the dish sitting on the dinner table?

What props will you need to support your story?

Now using this information and ingredients, you should start the sketching process.

How to Start Sketching

Sketching should start with you deciding whether you want to frame horizontally or vertically.

Once you’ve decided this, now the question is where to place your main character? Once this is done, next move to secondary and then the extras.

Go ahead and now start experimenting.

Move the main character, place props and try different arrangements.

Example

Let’s look at an example. As you will see below, I’m preparing to take a photograph of Chhole or Chickpea curry.

In this case, I started the process by making decisions about characters of this story – Main character in this case is the Chhole or Chickpea curry. Tandori Roti is going to be secondary character in this case. Extras will be rice, raita, onions and lime. Extras can be removed if they start to crowd the scene.

Then I listed some props that will make this work in this situation. This gave me a better idea on what to focus on.

And after making all these decisions, I started the sketching process. The process is quite straightforward. Using the information collected, I started with the main character or Chhole. I made some sketches and got a rough idea of how a certain combination would look.

After experimenting with couple of variations, I knew what I wanted to start with.

One thing to note is that, the goal of sketching is not to completing finalize all minute details. Rather, it helps you find the direction, before the food is ever brought to the scene. This gives you a starting point or a launching pad.

You should still explore and trying different variations once you are at the scene. Having sketched the concept or idea doesn’t mean that you have to be rigid and should not move around the scene and take photos. All of that has it’s place. Sketching puts a visual element before you even when you cannot be at the set.

So what is your assignment today? You guessed it…

Today’s Assignment

Estimated time: 30 mins

Step 1 –  Decide your subject you plan to use for this exercise.

Step 2  – Decide the characters – main character, secondary character/s and extras

Step 3 – Create a vertical and horizontal frames

Step 4 – Sketch how you would fill the frame. Add main character, secondary and extras.

Step 5 – Once you have completed that, take a photograph and upload it on LFP community.

Step 6 –In couple of lines, share your experience in the comments below. Was this the first time you sketched your photo? Have you done this before? After sketching this on paper, what was going in your mind? Take few minutes to analyze this. Share with others and read experience of other participants.

This post Day 23 – Sketch the Story for Better Food Photography appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

So far we’ve learned about lighting for food photography, food styling 101 and prop styling.

Today you will learn one way to prepare for your photo shoot. This preparation helps you save time when you are working with food subject where time is very critical.

Before you move forward, did you update your progress? It is important to recap what you have learned in last one week.

Do it here.

Before moving forward… update your progress here.

We will prepare for food photo shoot by creating a list of shots. This list of shots, more commonly known as the shot list, includes all possible combination of camera angle, depth of field, prop arrangement, food styling, framing and everything else about food photography that you would like to capture during the shoot.

This deceptively simple task will change the way you approach food.

When you are planning for a photo shoot, in house or for a client, it is a good idea to prepare for the shoot by taking some time and writing down all possible shots you would like to capture.

Will you like an overhead shot? What about a shot with silverware in it? One without any napkins? Another from a different angle? List all of these down on a piece of paper.

This will help you not only when you are ready to shoot, but also before the shoot you can use the list to make sure you have all the required props.

Now that you have an idea, let’s start today’s assignment.

Today’s Assignment

Estimated time: 15 mins

Step 1 – Today again, select the subject. Ideally use the same food subject, you have been using last couple of days.

Step 2  – Take five minutes and make a list of photos you would like to create for your subject. It is okay to go crazy.

Step 3 – Now start with the first photo idea on your list. What all elements do you need to accomplish this? Do you have props you need, or lighting? Note these things and move to the second photo. Do the same exercise and capture the elements for all remaining photos on your shot list.

Step 4 – Take a photo of your shot list and upload your shotlist photo on LFP community.

This post Day 22 – Create a Shotlist for Your Food Photography Shoot appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Day 21 is here. Another catch up day.

This week we focused on prop styling and food styling.

Were these lessons helpful? Did you complete all the assignments?

Food styling and Prop styling is a very crucial part of creating great photos and after the 30 Day challenge is over we’ll cover more on these topics. There is a lot to learn in these two areas and we will go back to detailed tutorial formats after this challenge.

If this week you weren’t able to keep up with the lessons, take some time today and get back on track.

Here’s what we talked about this past week –

Day 15 – Use Napkins to Tell Your Food Story

Day 16 – Do the Dishes to Take Stunning Food Photos

Day 17 – Create Harmony and Balance in Your Food Photography Frame

Day 18 – Start with Simple Food Styling – Garnishing

Day 19 – Style Your Food With an Expert

Day 20 – Assemble Your Minimal Food Styling Kit

Now before you begin today’s assignment, read this completely.

As part of one of the assignment, it is important for you to understand what you’ve been struggling with this past week. By understanding your challenges, finding solution becomes easy. So when we ask you about your challenges, word of caution – don’t write the first thing that comes to mind.

Yes, if I ask you what did you struggled with in terms of prop styling, the quickest answer could be, “I didn’t know what to do?” Remember that usually the first answer is not really the heart of the problem. If you say, “I didn’t know what to do?” ask again, what exactly did I not know? Was it the placement of where to place the props? Was it how to select the props? What specifically was it?

Let’s look at the assignment in detail -

Today’s Assignment

Time estimated – 15-20 mins

Today again, there are three specific tasks for completing today’s assignment.

For each of these tasks, there will be temptation to “just finish it”. Don’t let that voice take over you. Whatever effort you’ve been making, starting this assignment give 200% of that effort. If you’ve been spending 10  mins, starting today spend 15-20 mins. When you think about the challenges, as discussed above, be as detailed as possible. It will help you realize what specifically you are struggling with.

Step 1 – Progress Update

Start this assignment with updating your progress. Tell us how this week was and what you did and did not do.

Step 2 – Weekly Discussion

Just like last week, this week again, we have a topic for discussion. The goal of weekly discussion is to help you learn from each other.

As we discussed above, be very specific. Go into details.Again, as you start this discussion, read what other readers are saying and what is challenging for them. If you have experience in that subject, share how you have approached this subject.

Step 3 – Your Photo of The Week

This past week I am sure you’ve taken lot of photos. The last task this week is to upload your best food photo from this past week to LFP community.

This post Day 21 – Simple Food Styling Tips and Prop Styling Tips for Better Food Photos – Week 3 Recap appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Better food photos require better food styling. Today we talk about tools that are required for food styling kit.

If you are a food blogger or food photographer who would like to pursue food styling more serious, getting acquainted with the tools and practicing how to use these tools becomes very important.

The better you can use these tools, the easier food styling will be for you which will lead to better food photos.

You don’t need a gazillion tools in your toolbox, at least not when you are starting and majority of time. You can get started with a very simple kit that you can assemble right now.

Let’s look at the minimal food styling kit.

Essential Tools for Your Food Styling Kit

1. Tweezers – Use this tool for picking up really small items and placing them. There are many many types of tweezers. Here are some of them. Broad and flat tweezers are good for soft food. Tweezers with very sharp tip are good for  very fine items. But as you are starting, don’t worry too much about the type of tweezers etc. Use what is available. If you use tweezers for other purposes, using same for food is not a good idea. In that case, buy them. They are very very cheap.
2. Cotton Swabs – Known by many different names like earbuds, Q-tips and cotton buds, these are used to clean small spots on the plate or dish. You can also use them to push food or wipe the plate for removing liquid.
3. Paper Towel – Paper towels
4. Squeeze Bottles – Using sauces in plating your food? Squeeze bottles made out of plastic are a good tool in your kit that gives you great control on sauces, syrups and other paste-like ingredient. Here’s what the mini version look like.
5. Brushes – Some foods look better when they are brushed with just a little bit of cooking oil when appropriate. Brushes can be used to do that. Water is sometime also brushed on certain foods if they become very dry.

Other Common Food Styling Tools in the Kit

There are items that you can have in your kit. These items are good to have, but in my experience I have used the above 5 items almost 90% of the time.

1. Skewers
2. Scissor
3. Straws
4. Toothpicks
5. Spritzers
6. Cutting Board
7. Twines
8. Syringes

So now you are wondering, with a lesson like this, what could today’s assignment look like. Well, lets find out.

Today’s Assignment

Today’s exercise is very simple.

Estimated time: Less than 30 mins

Step 1 – This assignment is not about your subject or your dish. Today you have to find tools that already exist at your home that can be used for food. Hunt in your home and gather what’s available.

Step 2  – Arrange the food styling tools that you have gathered.

Step 3 – Take a photograph of your new food styling kit.

Step 4 – Note what other tools do you absolutely need.

Step 5 – Go ahead and check the price here. Order it from here or go to a local store and buy it. But take action today.

Step 6 -  In the comments below, tell us what food styling tools did you find at home. What tools did you order or want to order?

Step 7 – Upload your photo/s from step 3 on  LFP community.

This post Day 20 – Assemble Your Minimal Food Styling Kit appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Food styling is vast and very different from food subject to food subject.

Today we will use the subject that you had chosen and decide how to style that food.

So what food subject did you chose on Day 2? Are you still using the same food subject or have you changed that subject?

In today’s post, we will use your subject and decide how you will style the food.

So to begin, you will do some research on how your food subject has been styled in some outstanding food photographs.

I find Pinterest to be the best place to do this research. It is very visual and can be used as a organization tool for best photos.

We’ve recently started using Pinterest to deconstruct amazing food photos and food styling. Today visit LFP on Pinterest and check if there is a photograph pinned for your food subject. Study these photos.

If there are no photos, search on Pinterest for your subject. For example if your food subject is chai, check if it is in LFP on Pinterest. If you find it, study that and understand how food styling has been done in this case. Is it minimalistic? Is the photo very moody?

If you don’t find your subject, search on Pinterest and you will get tonnes of Pins. Analyze them and understand how food styling has been done.

Let’s look at the assignment instructions for this exercise.

Today’s Assignment

Estimated time: 30 – 60 mins

Step 1 – Just like before, today again, select the subject. Ideally use the same food subject, you have been using last couple of days. This will give you an easy way to measure your improvements.

Step 2  – For your subject, you will do research in LFP on Pinterest and check if your subject is covered on it. If you don’t have a subject, go to Step 3. If you do have your own food subject in LFP on Pinterest go to step 4.

Step 3 – Since you are step 3, this would mean that your subject is not in LFP on Pinterest. So you’ll need to search on Pinterest and find one or more pictures that are photographed by amazing photographer.

Step 4 – Once you have found that photo, you need to analyze what food styling elements are used and note them down. Do a thorough analysis of elements used and note them down.

Step 5 – Bring the food out and take the photographs without looking at the notes.

Step 6 - Now refer to the notes that you have take and style your food subject as what you have learned. It is okay if you can’t style this perfectly. One styling is done, take photos of your food subject.

Step 7– Just like previous assignments, compare photos from step 5 and step 6. Does the photo look any different? Is one of the two better? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Step 8 – Upload the best photo/s on  LFP community.

This post Day 19 – Style Your Food With an Expert appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Food styling… easily the most challenging aspect of food photography. It is also the reason why most aspiring food photographers

Today we tackle food styling with a simple tip.

Food styling is very vast and doing it right take a lot of experience. So while this post or next couple of them won’t make you an expert, it will certainly give you some simple ways to style your food better.

Garnishing is the easiest way to style the food. Once you have food subject prepared, you can add some nuts or herbs, whatever recipe can accommodate.

Garnishes are commonly available in every kitchen so finding them is very quick and easy. Below are five ways to garnish your food.

5 Ways to Garnish Food for Photography

As we’ve discussed, garnishing is simple and easy way to style your food. Here are five easy ways:

1. Chopped Nuts or seeds
2. Creams
3. Shredded Cheese
4. Herbs
5. Spices like cardamom, cinnamon powder etc.

These are some ways you can garnish the food. Each one of these works with a certain type of food. You can add nuts to dessert, but shredded cheese may not work. Similarly shredded cheese or cream may work just fine with soup, but herbs may not work.

If you are creating a food photo for your blog, you have liberty to add whatever you like to the recipe and the food photo. If this is a commercial work, there are certain boundaries you have to work within.

One caution on garnishing – Don’t overdo it. If you overdo garnishing, it will steal the show from the food subject and that’s not what we want.

Do you have any other ways you garnish your food? Share it with rest of us in the comments below.

Let’s start

Today’s Assignment

Estimated time: 30 mins

Step 1 – Just like before, today again, select the subject. Ideally use the same food subject, you have been using last couple of days. This will give you an easy way to measure your improvements.

Step 2  – Set up the scene and bring the food and get ready to take a photograph. Do not add any garnishing at this point.

Step 3 – After step 2 is done, take a photograph without any styling garnish.

Step 4 – Add garnish. Use any one of the five above or any other you can think of.

Step 5 – Take photographs with these garnishes.

Step 6– Just like previous assignments, compare photos from step 2 and step 4. Does the photo look any different? Is one of the two better? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Step 7 – Upload the best photo/s on  LFP community.

This post Day 18 – Start with Simple Food Styling – Garnishing appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Harmony and Balance are two key principles of design.

Using these two principles, you can improve the composition of the scene and make decisions like where to place certain props and what colors to use.

Harmony is a sense of completeness in a photograph achieved by combining similarities. Elements in a harmonious photograph blend together.

We’ve been talking about creating harmony in your photograph by using colors that support the story. Understanding harmony helps decision making much easier.

Balance in a photograph is the way visually, the weight is distributed. Balance is usually divided in two main categories – symmetrical and asymmetrical.

A simple exercise to learn balancing a photograph is try to think about each element to have some “visual weight” depending on the size of the prop, and color. Roughly think about these props with their “visual weight” placed on this frame. Will the frame tilt or flip in a certain direction?

If yes, the frame isn’t balanced. Move some props and rearrange so that the frame feels more balanced.

The trick is to keep it artistic, have some drama and keep the frame balanced. Yes you can plop all the props and subject right in center and have a perfectly balanced frame. But where is the fun in that.

Artistically it may become boring. Again, there will be some subjects that will look perfectly appealing and artistic when they are right in the center.

Let’s take a look at some photographs from not too long ago.

When I started photographing the breakfast scene, I started with this arrangement. Note that there is no food subject in the scene yet. At this stage, the goal is to identify a prop composition.

Clearly in this photo something is missing. This photo doesn’t look like balanced either.

I moved the props couple of times and then started bringing in one element at a time. Once the photo felt good, it was time to bring some final elements.

Since the story here was that this was at breakfast, I thought of adding milk in the glass and here’s what I got.

I don’t know about you, but for me, the white color in the photo seemed a little off. The photo did not look in harmony. Basically, we had these props and subject that had warmer tones and milk was adding a neutral/white tone to the photo.

To create harmony of color, orange juice seemed more appropriate as the tones were matching and the photo felt more cohesive. Here’s what I got.

In food photography, prop styling plays a big role in creating a harmonious and balanced photograph. These decisions related to props should be made way in advance of food coming out to the scene.

The reason I say that is arranging props and looking for harmony and balance is much easier when the food is not visually interrupting these decisions. This also gives you time to try various arrangements when food is not rushing you to take the photo.

As you try new arrangements and add new elements, experiment and learn what feels balanced and what element brings harmony to the photo. Developing that sense of harmony and balance takes time and gets better with practice.

In the Comments…

…share your thoughts about this lesson. Harmony and Balance are more easy to show visually than by words. So, if you have confusion or specific questions ask them in comments and I’ll answer them below.

Today’s Assignment

Estimated time: 30 mins (or depending on how organized your prop storage is)

Step 1 – Just like before, today again, select the subject. Ideally use the same food subject, you have been using last couple of days. This will give you an easy way to measure your improvements.

Step 2  – Recall the details that you documented on Day 8. Or if this is a new subject, go ahead and complete Day 8 exercise for this new subject.

Step 3 – Based on Step 2, decide what elements/props will you like to use in the photo.

Step 4 – Arrange the props. Do the best you can to visually balance the scene. Assign “visual weights” and balance the frame.

Step 5– Again, compare these photos just like you did in previous assignments. Recall your story and the specific elements we discussed earlier. Which one of these photos compares closely with your story?

Step 6 – Upload the best photo/s on  LFP community.

This post Day 17 – Create Harmony and Balance in Your Food Photography Frame appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Dishes. Rather Plates. Perhaps the single most important prop in food photography.

Today we talk about dishes and plates.

White colored plates are versatile. They can be used in almost all food settings. If you were to buy just one plate, I’d recommend you to buy white colored plate.

Now remember all white is not same white. Some white plates are a little colder in tone, some are warmer. I prefer a more neutral white color. Regardless of the tone, you can’t go wrong with white plates, specially when you are just starting your props collection.

If you already have a white plate what next? My next color was a lighter blue and green. After that, I bought a black plate. I haven’t used that black plate since I bought it couple of years ago. Usually pastels and light colors work best for many photos. But again, dark plates will work too.

If you haven’t figured out it yet, here it is – it all depends on your story.

After color, you should consider the material of plates too. I have used ceramic, plastic, acrylic and even disposable plates. Scratches are a big problem on plastics and acrylics and at the same time they can look a bit… uh cheap. You don’t want to be in a situation when you have plated the food, set the scenes and ready to shoot a photo and you realize that those scratches on the plate are looking awful.

Some plates come with patterns. I’m sure you’ve seen them. Those multicolored patterns on border of the plates. Yeah!! those. Avoid them. Even if the plate looks amazingly colorful in itself, it is a best bet to avoid those plates. You can safely make this decision to never buy those plates for food photography.

Don’t buy this plate

Except for two or three situations, in most cases, these plates are distraction. Don’t use them.

On the other hand, there are plates that have patterns but these patterns are of same color, as the plate itself. These plates speak “elegance” and these are very much suitable for a story that communicates classy or elegance.

This is classy plate for food photography

As you are planning your food photo and deciding about the plate to use, try putting the food in different dishes and it will make things very clear for you and decision will be simple.

Recently, I took some photographs of bruschetta at home and tried to experiment with different plates. The result was quite different than what I expected. I had thought that this will look better on a certain colored plate, but it turned out that I liked a completely different plate – one that I hadn’t thought about.

Take a look at these photos:

Which one do you like the most?

Today’s Assignment

Estimated time: 30 mins (or depending on how organized your prop storage is)

Step 1 – Today again, select the subject. Ideally use the same food subject, you have been using last couple of days.

Step 2  – Use any plate you think would be the best for this photograph.

Step 3 – Now change the plate and take another photograph.

Step 4 – If you have other plates that are different in color, pattern or shape, take photos on them.

Step 5– Again, compare these photos just like you did in previous assignments. Recall your story and the specific elements we discussed earlier. Which one of these photos compares closely with your story?

Step 8 – Upload the best photo/s on  LFP community.

This post Day 16 – Do the Dishes to Take Stunning Food Photos appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Week three is here.. and today is Day 15.

Continuing the discussion on prop styling for food photography, let’s discuss how you can use kitchen napkins to tell your food story.

Have you noticed how food photographers use kitchen napkins?

If your story is about a formal restaurant, or the mood of your food photo is more elegant, you could use a napkin to say just that. You dish could have the napkin tucked under the plate.

If you are going for a classy feel, don’t forget to iron the napkin before you start using it in your photo.

A napkin can also be used to complete the story. Look at the napkin in the photo below… it is stained with rhubarb. Does it tell you something? Being in the baking tray, does it feel like the napkin was used to bring this out of oven?

In this photo, what if this napkin was missing? What if the frame excluded the napkin, how will that change the story? Take a look at the photo below.

Similarly napkin can be also used at background and give a different feel to the photograph.

A napkin thrown on the table near a classy dish, may show an interrupted meal.

In some cases, napkins can be used as a dish. Some food may actually work better when directly placed on napkin and not in a dish.

Remember the end goal should be to add props in a way that it looks natural and supports the overall image. Same is the case with napkin. Napkins should be used to support the image and overall story.

Napkins are one more element that is adding to the story and should not distract from the main food. This means the color should support the story and same goes for the napkin texture.

Napkin is certainly one prop that you should have in your kit. It can be used not just like a prop but also like a background in some cases.

Now, let me answer a common question. “Where can I find good props like napkins?” Have you tried finding kitchen napkins online? Take a look at a whole collection here.

Let’s move to today’s assignment.

Today’s Assignment

Estimated time: 30 mins (or depending on how organized your prop storage is)

Step 1 – Today again, select the subject. Ideally use the same food subject, you have been using last couple of days.

Step 2  – Set up the food subject as you like, without any napkin in the scene. Take a photograph.

Step 3 – Now depending on your story, add the napkin to your photograph. Napkin could be fabric or could be paper towel. It could be a formal dinner napkin or something else.

Step 4 – Take a photograph again.

Step 5– Again, compare these photos just like you did in previous asignments. Recall your story and the specific elements we discussed earlier. Which one of these photos compares closely with your story?

Step 8 – Upload the best photo/s on  LFP community.

In the comments below, tell us how your experience was when you added a napkin. Did you see any difference between the two photos?

This post Day 15 – Use Napkins to Tell Your Food Story appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Day 14 is here. Another catch up day.

How was this week for you? Were you able to see how writing a story was helpful this week?

Even though you may have struggled to write the story, the importance of knowing what you want, is incredibly helpful in creating the image in your head.

How to light your image, what props to choose, how to frame your photo and lot of other decisions depend on the story. As you create more images and practice, these decisions will become second nature to you.As you learn these details, some days will be frustrating. Some days things just won’t work. But keep moving ahead. Little by little, one step at a time keep on going.

Today we will take time to review previous lessons and pause here. Take this time to revisit any topics or days when you were busy or couldn’t find time.

Let’s recap what we discussed this past week.

Day 8 – Describe the Elements of Your Food Story

Day 9 – Light Your Food Photo

Day 10 – Modify Light for Better Food Photos

Day 11 – Correct the White Balance

Day 12 – Select the Right Background For Your Food Photo

Day 13 – Organize Your Props

Yes just like last time, there is a Day 14 assignment.

Today’s Assignment

Time estimated – 15-20 mins

Similar to last week, today’s assignment is focused on making sure that you are able to let the lessons from this week sink in. We will pause a little today and make sure you have time to catch up.

Today’s assignment does not require you taking any food. Today again, you have three specific tasks – updating your progress, weekly discussion and selecting your best food photo.

Task 1 – Progress Update

Remember the purpose of this task? You should review the progress you are making or if you haven’t had enough time, you should recognize that too.

It is important to review your own progress and understand the challenges you’ve had.

Task 2 – Weekly Discussion

Just like last week, this week again, we have a topic for discussion. The goal of weekly discussion is to help you learn from each other.

As you start this discussion, read what other readers are saying and what is challenging for them. If you have experience in that subject, share how you have approached this subject.

Task 3 – Your Photo of The Week

This past week you’ve taken lot of photos. The last task this week is to upload your best food photo from this past week to LFP community

This post Day 14 – Lighting and Prop Styling for Food Photography – Week 2 Recap appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

We’ve started talking about Props.

So today, we’ll talk about how to use props effectively and efficiently. In fact let me rephrase that… today we’ll organize props. Yes! you heard it right.

I prefer to arrange the props by type – for example, I have all the dishes in one area, kitchen napkins in other, flatware/silverware in the third location. This way  I can clearly see my options for fabric and what dish will complete the story.

There are also other ways to organize your props. Some prefer to organize props by color. Whatever method suits you, go ahead and use that to arrange the props.

Besides having everything bit more organized, this organization will give you some good ideas for using napkin or that plate or any other prop.

So today’s challenge is really designed to be simple.

Today Assignment Step by Step

Read the entire assignment before starting the challenge.

Time estimated: 30-60 mins (or more depending on what condition your props are)

Step 1 – Today, the first thing you need to do is count all the different props you have. Where ever they may be stored, those need to be brought in one place and stored.

Step 2  – Decide how you want to store them? By type or by color or some other way?

Step 3 – Arrange your props according to your decision in Step 2.

Step 4 –  Once everything is arranged, take a photograph  of the arrangement and upload the photo/s of the arrangement on  LFP community.

There is no food photograph required for your chosen subject, but of course you are encouraged to do that.

In the comments below, tell us roughly how many different props do you have? Yes all types of props including those that you may not have realized until recently.

This post Day 13 – Organize Your Props appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Last few days, we’ve talked about photographic composition, storytelling and lighting.

Now we turn the discussion towards using props.

In talking about props, one of the first props that comes to mind is the background. Today we will talk about selecting a background and types of backgrounds that are available.

Some time back, food photography blog readers did a group project where the objective was to recreate the original photograph below and only change one thing – the background.

Take a look at few of the photographs from the project below.

Original Triscuit Photograph

Photo by Robert Orsa

Crackers by Aparna Balasubramanian

Crackers by eCurry

Crackers by eCurry2

Types of Backgrounds

Several types of backgrounds can be used in your food photos. Often these backgrounds are available in your own home and you don’t need to buy any material. Here are some commonly used backgrounds:

1. Paper
2. Fabric
3. Foam board
4. Wooden boards
5. Baking sheet

What else have you used for background in your food photograph? Tell us in the comments below.

Now that you know what all options are available, how do you select the right background for your next food photograph?

How to Select the Right Background

First and foremost, the purpose of background is to support the photograph. This means you need to decide few things about the background. Here are those things:

Background Color – Decide what color background do you want? After using that color, how does the story you want to tell through a photograph change?

Background Pattern – Is the background  free of distractions? Or are you planning to use a polka dot table cover that will act as a background? What will keep the focus on the story you want to tell?

Background Texture – Texture provides a unique character to the food photos. We all have seen photos with old decayed backgrounds. How does that make you feel?

Contradicts or Complements – Does the background overall support the story you wrote? or does it contradicts? If your story is about an fresh morning and a early morning breakfast, will choosing a dark grungy decayed background support that story?

So you get the idea.. Now about today’s assignment -

Today Assignment Step by Step

Read the entire assignment before you pick up your camera.

Time estimated: 30-60 mins

Step 1 – Today again, select the subject. Ideally use the same food subject, you have been using last couple of days.

Step 2  – Set up the food subject as you like, if possible, like you set it up yesterday. What background did you use yesterday?

Step 3 – Before starting to take photo, wait. Take 10 mins to survey your home and note anything you find in your home. Share your list in the comments section below and tell us if you found something surprising.

Step 4 – Take a photograph with the same background you’ve been using.

Step 5 – Now change the background and take another photograph.

Step 6 - Repeat Step 5, until you are exhausted of options.

Step 7 – Again, compare these photos just like you did yesterday. Recall your story and the specific elements we discussed earlier. Which one of these photos compares closely with your story? If none does, that’s okay too.

Step 8 – Upload the best photo/s on  LFP community.

One Way You Can Help..

As you know, both limited and full participation challenges are completely FREE. This information is available on this website for anyone to use. If you know a friend or two who would like to improve their food photography skills, please share this with them.

Facebook – Share this on facebook
Twitter – Click on this link to Tweet http://clicktotweet.com/B4Z10 Following message will be tweeted
I’m participating in this Food Photography class. You should join me too http://www.learnfoodphotography.com/announcing-30-days-food-photos/
Pinterest – Pin this post on Pinterest

This post Day 12 – Select the Right Background For Your Food Photo appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Last few days we’ve talked about lighting.

We’ve talked about direction and quality of light. We’ve also talked about modifying light using simple tools like foam boards, trash bags and black mesh screens.

Now it is time to turn our focus to capturing the right color using correct color temperature and white balance.

Light has a different quality based on its light source. As you take food photos, depending on light source you will notice that food subject’s color may not be all that accurate.

You can attribute that to white balance. As a result of different light sources, the color temperature is different and your photograph has a weird bluish layer (with a certain light source).

Below are some commonly used symbols for light sources in a light

Each situation creates a distinguishable change in color. Daylight (or direct sun) changes color very differently than Tungsten light source.

We have talked about White Balance (WB) and capturing correct color in detail before, so I am not planning to repeat that in this post. You can read about capturing and correcting wrong colors in food photography, 5 ways to get color right and much more.

Two tips to make the most of the White Balance setting:

1. Try turning off the AB auto mode and pick a WB mode (If you don’t know how to adjust your WB, please read the camera manual).
2. Try shooting in cloudy mode WB. I like to do this sometimes and this automatically improves saturation and provides warmth.

Let’s look at today’s assignment.

Today Assignment Step by Step

Time estimated: 30-60 mins

Step 1 – Today again, select the subject. Ideally use the same food subject, you have been using last couple of days.

Step 2  – Set up the food subject in a way that the source of light is on one side. Take a photograph using all the principles we talked about in last few days.

Step 3 – Now, start by changing the WB to cloudy. Take a photograph with this mode.

Step 4 – Next change WB to Direct Sun or Daylight. Take couple of photos in this WB mode.

Step 5 –Repeat step 4 with fluorescent WB mode. Take photo when you change an angle. (remember that you are taking the photo in same light source, but only changing white balance setting in your camera).

Step 6 – Again, compare these photos just like you did yesterday. Recall your story and the specific elements we discussed yesterday. Which one of these photos compares closely with your story? If none does, that’s okay too.

Step 7 – Upload the best photo/s on  LFP community.

Did you see any difference in the color when you used different WB settings? How often have you used WB setting to correct the color before taking the photo?

Certainly you can correct the color in post processing if you are shooting RAW. But when I take photos, my goal usually is to capture the best photo I can in the camera so that I can minimize time spent in post processing. What about you?

This post Day 11 – Correct the White Balance appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Yesterday we started learning about lighting and using it to strengthen the story you want to tell.  Yesterday you experimented with direction of light.

Today we talk about modifying it.

Let’s first look at the most common ways to modify light.

Three Ways to Modify Light

Reflectors/Bouncers - I am sure you know the most commonly used budget reflector – the white foam board. Reflectors or bouncers are used, as the name suggests, to reflect the light coming from one direction to another desired direction.  As a result of this, the quantity of light in the scene is increased.

Reflectors are used mostly used to modify directional light (side light in most cases) and reduce shadows by increasing the amount of light.

So since reflectors increase light in a scene, when would you not use them in telling your food story? What do you think?

Diffusers - Diffusers are mostly used to soften the harsh light that be causing hard shadows in the scene. Simple and cheap diffusers can be found in your home. Yes right now. That white trash bag you use? Put it on the window pane. There. You have a diffuser to use.

Since diffuser creates soft light, in which story would you not use a diffuser?

Blockers - You should have stopped being surprised by now. Yes blockers block light. They remove light from a scene. Most common blockers in your house? Window blinds. Technically window blinds remove light from the scene, so there you go.

More professional blockers are, guess what? Black foam boards. You can also buy mesh/screen sheets that can be used as blockers.

They are used to remove light from a scene when you need less light than what’s available. Place them at an angle between light source and food subject. In all the three light modifiers, I find blockers to be most tricky.  You can only learn the skill by using them.

Quick note - Simi and Fay discussed about Reflections (of light source) in food photography, while other type of photography can creatively use reflections, in most cases a bright spot in food can create distraction. Although, for soups and oily food, reflections can create a unique appearance and are desirable. But don’t even get me started on photographing drinks in glass… that’s when reflections irritate me the most.

If you would like to avoid reflections, the first method I like to use is to change one of the two 1) camera angle 2) light source position. Sometimes you need to change both. If that doesn’t work and there is no combination that gives me desired result, I try out diffuser (or blocker).

Mostly this should minimize reflection, if not completely remove it. The last trick in the bag is a filter called polarizing filter. This is typically my last attempt at removing reflections and comes with reducing exposure, which then needs to be adjusted.

What Should I Use

So we talked about three types of light modifiers. What next? The question is which one should you use in my next photo? I hope everyone knows the answer for that by now. The answer is whatever suits your story.

If you are showing an elegant breakfast early in the morning? You want soft light and more light, so you may end up using both reflectors and diffusers. If your shot is more moody and grungy, then? You may use blockers and diffusers to reduce and remove light from the scene.

Let’s look at today’s assignment -

Today Assignment Step by Step

Time estimated: 30-60 mins

Step 1 – Today again, select the subject. Ideally use the same food subject, you have been using last couple of days.

Step 2  – Set up the food subject in a way that the source of light is on one side. Take a photograph using all the principles we talked about in last few days.

Step 3 – Now, start with reflector. Find a reflector – something like white foam board. Or foil. Place this directly opposite to direction of light and see how shadows change. Take a photograph.

Step 4 – Next move the reflector from being directly opposite to at an angle. Take a photo. Change the angle again and take another photo. You can change the angle in vertically as well as horizontally. At every change, see how the shadows change. For this exercise, the goal is to increase the amount of light in the scene.

Step 5 –Do step 3 and 4 with a diffuser (trash bag that is). Take photo when you change an angle.

Step 6 – Now compare these photos just like you did yesterday. Recall your story and the specific elements we discussed yesterday. Which one of these photos compares closely with your story?

Step 7 – Upload the best photo/s on  LFP community.

Some of you will ask, so I’ll answer in anticipation of your questions – How do I set the reflector or diffuser or blockers? Time and again this question has been asked… so here’s my secret… This works best if you have a husband or wife or girlfriend or boyfriend. They make the best reflector stand and come with voice command and everything. Ohh no, you don’t have to thank me. Good luck.

This post Day 10 – Modify Light for Better Food Photos appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

So now you have a story. Right? You exactly know what story you would to like to communicate through the photo.

Today we start talking about lighting. Lighting, as it is apparent from the numerous emails and comments, is the most challenging aspect of food photography.

In next several days, we’ll look at different aspects of lighting and how to use lighting to tell the story. While lighting is a huge topic and covering all of that in detail will take several weeks, for the purpose of this 30-Day challenge, we’ll focus on few lessons and how to take your story forward.

Light varies greatly in quality and temperature. Light is hard and light is soft. Depending on the source, light varies. Outdoor light is sometimes harsh, sometimes can be soft with overcast days.

If you are outdoor on a patio or desk (or porch, if that makes you happy), managing light can be a bit more challenging versus if you were indoor and light was coming through one window. Window light can be controlled better and can be softened up by using diffusers.

So how do you decide what type of light to choose?

I think you know the answer. Go back to what story are you trying to tell?

In some cases, light can play a really important role. If your story is about two people having breakfast, you better get that morning light. If your story is about picnic (or outing) and the sandwiches, hard shadows may be appropriate and hard light would work .

Light sets the mood of the story. So depending on your story, you have to choose what type of light you want.

Back lighting is when the light source is behind the subject and photographer is facing the light source.

In general, back light that’s bright and soft in quality tends to provide a feeling of early morning. It also provides feeling of elegance and pureness.

Side lighting for a scene can be achieved if the main source is on right or left side of the subject.

Side light enhances texture and form and volume. Depending on the mood or story you are going for, side light can be amazing addition for your story.

Soft light works best in many cases when you don’t need any sense of direction or emphasis on light. Soft light is usually diffused light that creates no shadows or shine or reflection. This type of light is particularly useful when you want light to not standout and contributes minimally to the story.

Artificial light is whole another topic and needs much more understanding. At this point, we’ll leave artificial light discussions out.

One concern that most new food photography express is that they struggle with lighting. I have learned after discussing this with some new photographers is that the actual issue is not lighting, but rather not adjusting settings to capture correct exposure.

As soon as I saw this, I was very excited about this book.

Back to today’s assignment…

But before we go there… just few words…

These assignments are not very direct.. From the emails and feedback, these assignments are pushing you to do more and think more. Some days you wont’ be able to answer these questions easily… Other days, you won’t be able to answer at all. That’s okay. Creating something new is sometimes frustrating. Some days it feels like nothing is working.. that’s okay. Do your best and give your best and move on to the next challenge.

Today Assignment Step by Step

Time estimated: 30-60 mins

Step 1 – Today again, select the subject. Ideally use the same food subject, you have been using last couple of days.

Step 2  – Set up the food subject in a way that the source of light is on one side. Take a photograph using all the principles we talked about in last few days.

Step 3 – Move the light source (or the subject) so that light source is in the background. Take a photograph.

Step 4 – If you are available to find a harsh light source, take a photograph with that source.

Step 5 – Now compare the three photos. Recall your story and the specific elements we discussed yesterday. Which one of these photos compares closely with your story?

Step 6 – Upload the best photo on  LFP community.

More detailed articles on Lighting

We’ve discussed about some aspects of lighting on LFP before and can be found in Suggested Reading section below. For the comments below, give some feedback on content of this and previous posts. In the upcoming posts would like to learn more basics about a topic or are you learning more by doing the assignments? I appreciate your feedback.

This post Day 9 – Light Your Food Photo appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

On Day 6 you wrote a story that you wanted to capture in a food photograph. Let’s look at what you did on Day 6.

You decided a subject and then identified the main character of the story. You also wrote few lines describing what you wanted to capture in the frame.

Today we take it even further.Before we get into Day 8, please make sure you complete Day 7 tasks. Mostly importantly, make sure you have submitted your weekly progress. Yes I am reading each one of the updates.

Seriously, update your progress before moving forward. Click here.

Have you submitted your update? Do it. Go ahead. I’ll wait for you here.

Good.. so let’s continue.

Nathalia told the story about coffee in Brasil. Mihaela also told a story about coffee.  It was amazing to see so many different stories that participants wanted to capture in a photograph.

Those five or so lines gave you a good start, but is that enough for taking a photograph? From the comments on the post, it seems like for many the exercise has helped.

Next, we take this story to even more detailed level.

Let’s take an example – drinking tea with friends and having a good time.

Many cultures around the world drink tea. So how would you photograph this concept? To make this concept actionable, we need few more details. We need to answer more questions.

Let’s look at it again – We would like to photograph “drinking tea with friends and having a good time.”

Around the world, many cultures have given great importance to drinking tea. In Japan, tea culture is very sophisticated and elegant. In India, tea drinking is more alive when it is at a street vendor. In Europe, drinking tea has a different meaning to it.

So how do we make a photograph of “drinking tea with friends and having a good time.”

We need to identify elements of the food story. In your food photo, what you do want to show? Are you in India on a street corner? or in a restaurant drinking tea? You are the photographer so make a decision.

What time is it? Is it an early morning tea? or is it mid afternoon? Again, you have to decide. It’s your photograph and it’s your story.

If you are at a street vendor, what else is going on at the street vendor that you would like to show in your photograph?

Are you eating anything with your tea?

How many friends are with you? Are they all drinking tea?

Is the tea just arrived and its hot and steamy? Or has it been sitting there for a while and the tea glass is half empty?

Too many questions to answer? Absolutely. Too many decisions to make. Yes.

The more clear you are about the concept of your photograph, the more easy it will be for you to make other decisions like camera angle, depth of field, framing decisions and bunch of other decisions that we’ll talk about in next few days.

You are probably asking do all food photographers go through this exercise in this detail? What I’ve learned after interview many many food photographers is that these decisions are part of storytelling and photography process. Every food photographer’s process is different.

All the things that we have and we will talk during this 30 Day challenge, don’t actually take 30 Days to decide, as you may have figured out. In most cases, they make the decisions about camera angle, framing etc in matter of minutes. Many times these answers surface up as part of exploration.

My goal is to be as detailed as possible so that you can understand and make those decisions. As you practice food photography more, you will get better at answering these questions and asking new ones.

Now moving to today’s assignment..

Today’s Assignment Step by Step

Time Estimated – 30 mins

Before you start this assignment, remove yourself from all the distractions. Go to a place where you cannot be disturbed. You need to complete Day 6 assignment before starting today’s assignment. If you haven’t completed it, go to Day 6 and finish the assignment first.

Remember the goal – Your end goal is to clearly tell the story of a food dish and what’s going around this dish. This is the story you will capture in a photograph.

Additional Clarification – This is storytelling using one frame of photo. This is not a story that usually blogs write about as part of introduction. We are capturing a story about the food and what’s going around that food when you are taking the photo. Please ask questions below if this is not clear. This is a very important concept, so don’t hesitate… ask away.

Step 1 – Read your answers to Day 6 assignment.

Step 2 - For this story, now we will take this to the next level and describe it in finer details. Let’s start -

1. Define where are you? Are you in a restaurant or street corner? In dining area or porch?
2. What time of the day is it?
3. Is this happening in a certain season?
4. Who all are around the food? Kids or Adults?
5. Are you eating/drinking something else with it?

These are just few questions that you should ask.

What other questions would you ask for your subject? Tell us in the comments below.

Step 3 - Document all these decisions and save them. We will use these decisions in the remainder of this challenge.

Step 4 – Visit  LFP community and share 1) What questions you asked? 2) Their answers

Step 5 – Optional but Recommended – Make a photograph that communicates the story. Use ALL the details you’ve described as part of Step 2 to create the scene and make the photo.

This post Day 8 – Describe the Elements of Your Food Story appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Welcome to Day 7. One week is over and we’ve discussed many ways to improve your food photo.

In this 30 day challenge, every seventh day is a catch up day. This will give you a chance to look back and review what you have learned.

If you have missed any of the assignments or want more time to complete them, today is a good day to do that.

Today is also a day to take a break from learning anything new and to make sure you that in last 6 days you have made progress. Today is also the time to discuss a topic with your fellow participants and teach each other.

Oh yes!! There is a Day 7 assignment. The purpose though, is not to make you take more photos, but rahter to make you think and discuss with other participants.

To start today’s day let’s recap what we learned this week:

Day 1 – Study Outstanding Food Photos

Day 2 – Decide Food Photography Subjects

Day 3 – Find the Camera Angle for Your Next Food Photo

Day 4 – Tell Your Story with Depth of Field (dof)

Day 5 – Construct the Frame of Your Next Food Photo

Day 6 – Write Your Food Photo Story

Let’s look at the assignment and tasks associated with that.

Today’s Assignment

Time estimated – 15-20 mins

Today’s assignment is focused on making sure that whatever you’ve learned, you are able to internalize and digest it before we move forward. So this assignment does not involve taking a food photograph, but rather making sure you are taking the right steps, and day by day getting better.

Today there are three specific tasks each with a different purpose. Let’s look at them one by one.

Task 1 – Progress Update

The purpose of this task is to make sure you are spending few minutes and reviewing the progress you’ve made and the challenge you’ve encountered.

To start your own progress update, go to this link.

Task 2 – Weekly Discussion

The fastest way to grow your food photography skills is to learn with a group of friends. Weekly discussion will help you learn from each other. The purpose here is very simple – discuss one topic with other readers.

In the comments below, share your thoughts about this week’s topic - The food subject that is challenging for me… and why? Share what type of dish is challenging for you and what makes it challenging?

As you start this discussion, read what other readers are saying and what is challenging for them. If you have experience in that subject, share how you have approached this subject.

Task 3 – Your Photo of The Week

This past week you’ve taken lot of photos. The last task this week is to upload your best food photo from this last week on LFP community

This post Day 7 – Food Photography Week 1 Recap – 30DBFP appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

But how should you make sure that all these decisions don’t conflict with each other?For an outstanding food photograph all decisions should point in the same direction and communicate the same idea.

The camera angle you selected on Day 3 or the decision about depth of field on Day 4 or the choosing the frame on Day 5, all these three decisions should be focused towards communicating the same idea.

There are many other decisions that you will make – decisions about props, lighting, post processing and many more. Not only the three decisions you made in last three days, but all these decisions should tell the same story. For creating a successful photograph, all elements of the photo should flow together and help the story.

In order for this to happen, you need to clearly decide and define the idea or the story and understand all elements that may impact the story.

The very first step is to clearly understand the purpose and write the story.

Most good stories usually have one main character. For your story, you have to decide who is the main character.

In commercial food photography, main character of the story is usually the food. For McDonalds that may be their burger, for KFC, that character may be those chicken wings.

For editorial food photography, the type of food photography that most food bloggers use, mostly the main character is not the food.

Surprised?

Most editorial food photos tell a bigger story. Sometimes it’s about the early morning breakfast and not just the pancakes, sometimes its the appetizers in afternoon and not just bruschetta. Almost always, the story is about something more than the food or drink or the dish itself.

But what about your dish? How do you create a story that helps your food dish come alive?

For developing the story for your own food photo, you need to decide the main character of the story. Is the main character of your story the dish, or is it really about the experience of the afternoon in the sun on the beach? Are you really telling me about the tea or is it about the experience of the afternoon? What is it about?

In this assignment, your goal is to develop a story, as detailed as possible, useful for your participants.

Have You Done This?

In the comments below tell us – Have you done an exercise like this before? How did you make photography decisions before this exercise? Give as much details as possible so that I can share more specific tips. If you haven’t made these decisions before and did not think about the story as part of your process, please share that also.

Now about today’s assignment.

Today’s Assignment Step by Step

Estimated Time required – 15 mins – In today’s assignment, you will choose one of the subjects you’ve selected on Day 2 and write a story for that subject.

Before starting this, get a pen and paper. Here are the detailed steps: -

Step 1 – Select a subject from the list you created on Day 2

Step 2 – In one line, write the title of the story. The title should be very specific. Don’t leave it loose.

Step 3 – For this subject, decide what is the main character? Do you want the main character to be an experience or simply the food itself? As mentioned in the articles above, is it the drink in a glass anywhere, or is it about being on the beach and enjoying the drink? On the paper, write down who or what is the main character of the story.

Step 4 – Now that you’ve decided that the main character, next step is about filling in details. If the main character is a cake, now you need to fill the details like, who is the cake for? Is it a full cake or a piece of cake? How many people are eating the cake in this story? It is just two people who are celebrating their anniversary?

Step 5 – Visit  LFP community and post 1) What is the subject? 2) Who or what is the main character? 3) What are the details?

Update: Based on suggestions from some readers, we are adding one more step..

Step 6: Make a photograph that communicates the story. Use details you’ve described as part of Step 4 to create the scene and make the photo.

Good luck..

—–

This post Day 6 – Write Your Food Photo Story – 30DBFP appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

The Frame – a rectangle (or square) that captures the story for a food photographer.

In this assignment, your goal is to frame your next food photo. But wait… it’s not as simple as it seems.

Frame is the third element of composition.

For me, the viewer who’s looking at your photo, all I can see is the frame and what you as a food photographer chose to put inside the frame. I can only look at that one frame and try to understand the story that you as a photographer are trying to tell me. That frame is my world, in fact that’s all I know about your story.

Yes, anything that sneaked in the frame that shouldn’t have, it is because, you as a photographer gave that permission. That small corner in the back that crawled in because you let it, is now causing distraction… it’s on you – the photographer.

When it comes to composing a photo for that recipe, you as food photographer have made a choice. You have made a choice knowingly or unknowingly, to let certain objects get in the frame and leave out some objects. Just like camera angle and depth of field, this decision needs to be made consciously.

Not only what’s in the frame or outside the frame, you’ve also made a decision where to place the subject within the frame. You can decide to follow the rule of thirds and place the cake on the thirds or place it all the way to the bottom of the frame. You may choose to put it right in the middle.

You as a photographer need to make that choice.

You as a photographer may choose to show only half of the bowl of soup in the frame. The other half may be outside the frame, but you’ve made that decision too. Once again, not only what’ you include in the frame that makes a difference, but what you chose to exclude makes a lot of difference too.

Oh.. and those drinks that you shot using a horizontal frame, that’s another decision that you made on how to frame that shot. Whether to shoot horizontally or vertically is again a decision that you should make consciously.

Let’s review all the decision related to the frame you as a food photographer need to make:

1. What should be included in the frame?
2. What should be excluded from the frame?
3. Where should the main subject be in reference to the frame?
4. Should the frame be vertical or horizontal?

Depending on Day 2 and the “feeling” you want in the photo, the answer to each one of these questions is different for everyone and for every subject.

In today’s assignment, you will construct the frame carefully, cautiously and patiently.

But before getting to the assignment…

Answer This in Comments

In last two days, when you’ve shot the photos, did you think about the frame? Did you choose horizontal frame or vertical frame for a specific reason? Tell us in the comments, how you made this choice. If you unknowingly chose the frame, tell us about that in the comments. If the answer is “I don’t know” that’s fine.

Today’s Assignment Step by Step

Read the entire assignment before you pick up your camera. Estimated Time: 30 – 60 mins

In this assignment, you will make decisions about the frame and then make photos using those decisions. Let’s get started…

Step 1 – Choose the subject from your list you created on Day 2.

Step 2 – Set up the subject and the props/background you plan to use. Do not change this setting in the entire assignment.

Step 3 - Get ready to shoot the first photo. Decide how you want to orient the frame – horizontal or vertical. Which type would you use and why? If the answer is I don’t know, that’s okay. Pick one.

Step 4 – Next decide where would you like to place the subject inside the frame. You can try placing the subject on the “thirds” as defined in rule of thirds. Or you could decide to place the subject on the edge or cut a portion of the subject by pushing it outside the frame. Again, chose one placement. If you can’t decide., pick any one.

Step 5 – In step 3 & 4 you’ve made decisions about frame orientation and where to place the subject relative to the frame. Now keeping these two decisions in mind, shoot one photograph. Only one.

Step 6 – Change the frame orientation and change the placement and shoot at least 5 different photographs.

Step 7 – Post the photograph from Step 5 and the best photo from Step 6 in LFP community

Step 8 – Study the photos posted in LFP community and give +1 to those you like.

This post Day 5 – Construct the Frame of Your Next Food Photo – 30DBFP appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Today you will learn how depth of field impacts storytelling. What story are you telling with your food photo?

Yesterday we talked about the first element that impacts composition – a good camera angle. Depth of field is the second element that can help you create an amazing story.

In today’s post, we will explore depth of field and using it to tell your story.

I am sure you’ve all read about how changing the f stop can change the depth of field and how moving the lens to subject distance impacts depth of field. We will not talk about that in this post. If you would like to learn about depth-of-field (dof) read about basics of depth of field or how to control shallow depth of field in food photography.

For most new food photographers, depth of field is a by-product of a photo. Rarely do photographers make a careful decision of what depth of field to use.

So how should you choose depth of field? You need to define what you are trying to communicate.

Remember this photo that Teri Campbell shared in a recent food photography interview?

Depth of Field to tell a story – photograph copyright Teri Campbell

Do you see how depth of field has been used? This photo has a deeper depth. The background/window screen is visible.

The story here was about a person who is drinking this and is working in his garage on some DIY type project. So in order to tell that story, notice the nail and the fact that it is distinguishable nail. Depth of field is such that the nail is in focus.

Great example of depth of field. Now imagine if the depth of field would have been a little shallow and if you were not able to identify the window at the back. What if it looked like a light source but you couldn’t differentiate if you are outside on in the house? How would that change the story this photograph is telling?

Conscious decision of how much depth to use made a lot of difference in the story.

Your task today is to select a subject that you chose on Day 2, and photograph it using different depth of field. If you don’t have the subject that you chose on Day 2, pick some other food subject and do this task.

Today’s Assignment Step by Step

Estimated time: 30-60 mins

Step 1 – Choose a subject that you want to photograph.

Step 2 – Set up the subject and whatever props/background you plan to use. Do not change this setting in the entire assignment.

Step 3 – For this subject, you have to take three different photograph. Photograph 1 – isolated photograph of the subject, but no props. Hint: Use as shallow dof as possible.

Step 4 – For photograph 2, your subject is situated/placed in the surrounding but is still the main focus. Use appropriate dof. Hint: Since subject is in the environment, use a little more depth than photograph 1, but not too much. See Teri’s photo above.

Step 5 – For photograph 3, the story is that the subject is one of the main items. How should your depth of field change? Hint: use dof so that everything in the frame is in focus.

Step 6 – Post these three photographs in LFP community

In One Line or More…

… please tell us if this assignment was helpful. Did this assignment make you think in a new way? We’d love to know your feedback.

Full participation is currently closed for enrollment but you can join the waiting list to be notified of the next opening dates. You can go here to learn more.

This post Day 4 – Tell Your Story with Depth of Field (dof) – 30 DBFP appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

In last two days, you’ve given direction to your food photography. You’ve studied work of some outstanding food photographers. Then you’ve decided what subjects you would like to shoot during the 30-Day challenge.

In next few days we will focus on how to improve photographic composition.

Creating a good composition requires you to make several decisions. In next few days, we will look at three decisions that everyone needs to make for creating a photograph.

The first of those decisions is camera angle – the angle from which you chose to shoot the subject. Your photographic composition will be have more impact if you consciously make this decision, rather than pressing the button number of times and waiting for a beautiful photo to appear automatically.

What do you think is the most common camera angle used in food photography?

It’s typically between 45 degree to 60 degree when measured from horizontal surface. This is the most common angle not because food looks beautiful at this angle, but because most people don’t make a conscious decision about the camera angle.

If you notice, 45 degree to 60 degree is also the normal viewing angle for food. Food at this angle looks pretty boring.

So if this is not the angle of choice, what is the best camera angle to use?

The answer is quite simple: it depends. It depends on what type of food is it. It depends on how food is plated. The angle of choice depends on lot of different things.

If you’ve been listening to LFP podcast, you’ll know that almost all photographers explore their subject a lot.

They start in one position with a certain camera angle in mind, and they move around their subject or move towards the subject or move away from it. They explore the subject from different angles . Exploring your perspective and camera angle is part of the process.

Finding the best camera angle for your subject is also an exploration. You have to work and explore your subject and find the angle that makes it look beautiful.

Here’s today’s assignment.

Today’s Assignment Step by Step

Estimated Time – 30 mins

Step 1 – Choose a subject to shoot. Finish preparations and set it up on the surface.

Step 2 – Now decide the camera angle you would like to start with. Take a photo from this angle.

Step 3 – Now change this camera angle. Take photo from a new angle and repeat this until you have exhausted options and are satisfied with the outcome.

Step 4 – Review all the photos you’ve taken. Do not skip this step. Count how many different camera angles you used.

Step 5 – In the comments below, share how many different camera angles you used and tell us at which angle did you get the best result.

Step 6 – Upload your chosen photo in Google Plus LFP Community. Next, view what other participants have uploaded and give  +1 to those that you like.

In One Line or More…

…using the comments section below, tell us if this assignment was useful. This will help us improve the 30 day challenge and next assignments in this challenge will be designed better.

This post Day 3 – Find the Camera Angle for Your Next Food Photo – 30DBFP appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Yesterday, you spent some time studying photos of some outstanding food photographers.

Today, as a next step, you will use what you learned yesterday to make decisions and define goals about your food photography.

As part of yesterday’s exercise, you looked at many food photos. I’m sure, there were many different subjects and many different takes on food photography. Many variations in camera angles, many creative compositions.

Today’s task is to decide what subjects you want to shoot for this 30 Day Challenge.

Once you have chosen these subjects, next step is to decide what do you want to communicate about the subject.

Why Do This?

So you are probably wondering why are we doing this step? What does having a list of subjects have to do with improving food photography?

Making a decision about what you will shoot and focus on (and what you will not focus on), helps you keep your thought process linked to a chosen subject or two.

It can be very relieving too. Everyday for the next 29 days, if you don’t know what you will shoot, chances are that you will not practice any food photography.

Let’s look at the assignment in more detail.

Today’s Assignment Step by Step

Estimated time required: 15 mins

Step 1 – The first thing you need to do is decide what food dishes/subjects will you shoot in next few days. Yes!! You have to consciously decide what you will shoot. It could be anything from a fruit basket, to simple eggs or any dish that you are cooking. If you have taken a photo in last few days/weeks, you can use the same subject for this 30 day challenge. This will give you a good way to gauge how much have you grown.

Stop!! Before moving forward, take 5 mins and make a list of at least 5 food subjects that you will photograph during 30 day challenge. You don’t have to photograph all 10 subjects, but rather any number of subjects can be photographed any number of times. The goal of this exercise is to plan ahead so that you don’t skip a day because you didn’t have anything to shoot.

Do you have a list of 5 food subjects now?

No?? STOP!! and create that list of 5 subjects.

Step 2 – This is an important step. Based on what you learned by looking and studying the photos yesterday and by doing a “Feeling Analysis” of the photos, you will have learned how a certain photo feels.

For the subjects you have chosen, today think about what you want to communicate through the photo. What do you want a photo to look like? What feelings should this photo communicate? How do you want to feel about the photo.

Step 3 – Document this in a notebook. Write down what you want the food photo to look like. Store this in a safe place, because we will refer to this from time to time.

Step 4 – On Google Plus LFP community, tell us your two top food subjects you would like to learn how to shoot.

Special Note for those enrolled in Full Participation – Once you’ve completed this step, please go back to the additional information and complete any remaining items. (Not enrolled for full participation? Interested in enrolling for full participation? Go here to learn more.)

Daily Publishing Time – Each day these assignments will be posted before 7 am San Francisco time on this blog and emails to full participants will be sent before 7 am as well.

This post Day 2 – Decide Food Photography Subjects – 30DBFP appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Last week, how much time did you spend studying outstanding food photos?

Not just looking on Pinterest. Or not just browsing through your favorite blog. In today’s challenge you will first learn why you must not skip this step, then we will discuss exactly how to complete this challenge.

As we start the 30-Day challenge, we need to make sure that you familiarize yourself with outstanding food photos. Understanding what are beautiful food photos is the very first step in improving your food photos. There are some well known outstanding food photographers that consistently create amazing food photos.

Today, we will introduce you to these food photographers. They have different photography styles and their photos look different. Your assignment is to study their food photos.

This may seem like a very simple and obvious assignment and you may be tempted to skip today’s exercise. Don’t make this mistake.

Most of you were expecting the first lesson to be on ISO or Aperture or a more technical subject. While these technical subjects are important, a more important topic is being able to differentiate between an outstanding photo and a “meh” photo and a “don’t-do-that” photo.

Before you start browsing their websites, let’s look at what you need to do next.

Once you are on their portfolios, your goal is to pick 3 photos and explore what you like about them. Observe what you feel when you look at these photos. Note down the feeling. You don’t have to be technically correct, whatever words come to mind, write them down.

Don’t worry about being perfectly correct, focus on articulating your thoughts and feeling accurately.

If you are new and haven’t spend much time with food photography, chances are that you won’t be able to put your finger on what exactly is amazing about a certain photo. That’s okay. The goal is to make yourself acquainted with beauty and being able to internalize the feeling.

Once you are done with studying their photos, you should be able to understand what outstanding photos feel like. You should be able to understand how these photographs are different from those who are still learning and growing in food photography.

So first, let me introduce you to some of the outstanding food photographers. Below are some food photographers who have been consistently producing great food photos. Their styles are unique:

• Matt Armendariz
• Penny De Los Santos
• Aran Goyoaga
• Lara Ferroni
• Beatrice Peltre
• Helene Dujardin
• Teri Campbell
• Katie Quinn Davies

And now, here’s today’s assignment in more details.

Today’s Assignment

Estimated Time Required – Less than 30 mins

Read all the steps before getting started -

Step 1 – Pick two photographers from the list above and visit their portfolio.

Step 2 – Pick just one photo you like from each photographer

Step 3 – Go to the 30DBFP assignment area on LFP community on Google Plus

Step 4 – Share which two photographers you picked in this thread.

Step 5 – Share what you felt in this thread. As mentioned above, note down your feelings and what comes to mind as you observe these photos. Your goal is not to be technically accurate. Your goal very simply is to understand what you feel about these outstanding photo.

Step 6 – Now pick two more photos from photographers that you selected.

Step 7 – Note your feelings and thoughts for these photographs.

By the end of this exercise, you should be able to understand how you feel when you look at an outstanding food photo. If you can feel what a good photo looks like, you can strive to move your food photography in that direction.

Without this insight, quite likely, you would ramble and take bunch of photos, but won’t be able to tell if something is missing. Knowing how you feel about a photo, you will have better chance of identifying if you like a certain photo or not.

Special Note for those enrolled in Full Participation – Once you’ve completed this step, please go back to the additional information and complete any remaining items. (Not enrolled for full participation? Interested in enrolling for full participation? Go here to learn more.)

This post Day 1 – Study Outstanding Food Photos – 30DBFP appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Hello Foodographers…  Starting April 1st I am planning on launching another “30 Days to Better Food Photos” project.

We’ve run this before and some of you who have been around for a while may remember the project. This time, it’ll be somewhat different. Up for the challenge?

This year, we are introducing a new way to participate in this challenge. As you will read below, this is new “full participation” is for those who are completely committed to improving their food photography skills. More details on that below.

The Plan – Give me 30 Days and I’ll give you Better Food Photos

The idea is quite simple. For  30 days starting April 1st, I’ll post one simple lesson and a small task for the lesson. Your assignment each day will be to read the lesson and finish the task. Most days, this daily post will be small enough that you can read the post and complete the task in less than an hour.

So for these 30 days, you will learn one lesson to improve an aspect of food photography each day. Being goal-oriented and task-based challenge will help foodographers who are interested in getting better.  The focus of this project will be more on doing  than and less on reading and watching information.

Some information will be new while, some lessons may have been previously shared covered.

All these tasks are designed who know the basics of photography as we won’t be talking about the absolute basics of photography like aperture, shutter speed or ISO at the fundamental level.

How to Participate

There are two ways to participate in this challenge:

Participating Officially – Full Participation

As I mentioned above, for those interested in committed wholeheartedly, we are introducing “Full Level of Participation”. As part of this level, not only will you be able to read the Daily posted published on this blog, but in addition to that, you will receive more detailed lessons/resources. If you are still not sure why you should participate officially… here it is.

There are several reasons why participating officially will improve your food photography faster and more completely. Here are some of those reasons:

• Those who officially join the challenge will get some additional material. Usually blog will have limited information and will be intended for general audience. And those who will be in the official challenge using the form below, will see more detailed daily assignments and will be pointed to more detailed lessons to read more.
• Since you will join this challenge officially, we will be able to follow up with you towards the end of the challenge and learn where else can we help you.
• By participating officially, we’ll be able to help you keep on track. We will nudge you from time to time, and motivate you to complete the challenge

For joining the challenge officially, please enter your name and email in the form below.

Ending Soon: The last day to join the challenge with full benefits is Thursday March 28th 11:59pm Chicago time. After this date, you will not be able to receive full benefits for this 30-day challenge.

And yes… Full Participation is FREE

Update – Full participation is now closed.

You can become LFP Insider and you will be notified when full participation opens up.

Limited Participation

At the limited participation, you will be able to read the post on the blog or in your email. However, you will not be to participate in detailed discussions or receive more lessons on a certain topic.

Participation at this level would mean that you will NOT get any special emails, or reminder emails or end of challenge follow up. If you choose this level of participation, no action is required.

If you would like to join the challenge officially and receive full benefits, you can enter your name and email below:

As we’ve said above, the last day to commit to the challenge with full benefits is Thursday March 28th 11:59pm Chicago time. After this date, we will close the invitation to full participation level.

Did you hear… Full Participation is FREE

Update – Full participation is now closed.

You can become LFP Insider and you will be notified when full participation opens up.

Participate With Your Friend

Want to participate with a friend? Know a fellow blogger who would appreciate this challenge? Participate with them. Share the link on facebook, Pin it on Pinterest or tweet on Twitter. Share this on your blog.

Bring a friend along. Let’s conquer this 30 day challenge.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Here are some frequently asked questions about the challenge -

Question 1 – Do I need to use a DSLR for this challenge? or Can I participate using Point and Shoot?

This challenge will focus on photography concepts that are used for all types of cameras. DSLR or Point and Shoot or Mobile phone, any type of camera can be used for this challenge.

Question 2 – I won’t be able to participate on few days during the challenge, what should I do? or Can I take a break for few days if I am traveling?

If due to unavoidable circumstances, you won’t be able to participate on few days, or will need a break, that fine. Once you are back, just continue from the day you left.

This post Announcing… 30 Days to Better Food Photos appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Interview with Commercial Food Photographer

Kentucky Fried Chicken, Kroger, Pringles, Kellog’s, Wendy’s and many many more… Teri has made food photographs commercially for dozens of companies. Today in this interview, Teri teaches us about commercial food photography.

About Teri Campbell

From Teri’s website,

After attending the Ohio Institute of Photography, Teri began his career as a photographer for P&G’s in-house creative group. In 1988 he opened Teri Studios, a commercial photography studio specializing in food. His passion for food, combined with his artistic and business sensibilities has uniquely positioned him to create appetite-appealing, proprietary imagery for consumer packaged goods companies and restaurants throughout the country. Clients include Oscar Mayer, Bob Evans Restaurants, Wendy’s, SuperValu, Kellogg’s, Hershey’s, and KFC among others.

Press Play to start listening

[Audio clip: view this post on www.learnfoodphotography.com to listen]

Rate the podcast on iTunes

Food Photography Lessons Discussed

1. Commercial food photography process
2. Importance of team in photography
3. Food bloggers and different roles
4. Transition from film to digital
5. Telling a story with your food photos

Deconstructing Food Photos

Photographing Cheese and Chocolates

Photographing Drink

Photography Chicken Wings

You can find more of Teri’s work here. Check out Teri’s client list.

Links Discussed in the Interview

1. Food Photography & Lighting: A Commercial Photographer’s Guide to Creating Irresistible Image

Found this Interview Useful?

If you gained some insight from this interview and learned some things, we’d appreciate if you could rate the podcast by going here.

What one thing did you learn from this interview? Leave a comment with one thing you learned.

This post How to Start Commercial Food Photography – Interview with Teri Campbell appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

We’ve talked about food photography books that have been published in recent years. Teri Campbell is a Cincinnati based commercial food photographer and has poured his experience and wisdom in a new food photography book called Food Photography & Lighting

Let’s look at this book in more detail.

First Impressions

I was pleasantly surprised with the book and specially the second part. The dozens of case studies where Teri shares how he took the photo and deconstructs it for us using lighting diagrams and post processing insight in incredibly useful. This book has good information on someone who wants to get into the business of food photography. So my first impressions? If you are planning to open your own food photography business, you’ll find this helpful.

What’s in Food Photography & Lighting

This 273 page book is written for an intermediate food photographer who wants to get into commercial food photography. This books is organized into two main parts – Part 1 – Commercial Set Up and Part 2 – Case Studies.

Being written for intermediate or advanced food photographer, you won’t find basics of photography – the aperture, shutter speed and ISO in this book. Teri focuses on teaching commercial and business side of food photography. He gives us a tour of his first studio Longworth Hall, in Cincinnati, teaches about teams and roles of team members in a commercial assignments.

Marketing and Business consideration and a typical assignment workflow is detailed in this book. If your goal is to get into the business of food photography, this book will explain you about the business and “what happens once you get the assignment”. You will find information on creating portfolio, marketing the business, hiring representative and promoting your business.

There are dozens of case studies in this book. From ice creams scoops to splashes and pizza pulls to fried chicken with Colonel Sanders, each of these case studies are detailed. Teri explains each of them in great detail, almost in all cases, there a lighting diagram that enlightens the readers by taking them behind the scenes.

This book also shares a lot of post production tricks that you would have never guessed. With photography becoming more digital, post production has taken an important place in photography workflow. In many of the cases studies, Teri gives post processing insight and how that was applied in a specific case.

Overall a good book with lot of case studies and behind the scenes and lighting set up.

Don’t Take My Word on the Book

At the time of writing this, this book has 4.7 stars out of 5 (check out these reviews). As mentioned before, and like the subtitle A Commercial Photographer’s Guide to Creating Irresistible Images, suggests, Teri is writing for a specific audience – someone who wants to be commercial photographer.

There is a 35% off sale currently on Amazon, not sure how long it will last.

I’ll Repeat Again

If you are looking for food photography basics, this is not the book for you.  The subtitle of Teri’s book makes it abundantly clear that this is for someone interested in Commercial (Food) Photography. If you need basics on food photography try this book.

Did you buy the book?

Did you buy this book? If yes, please leave a comment below and share what your experience was.

This post Food Photography & Lighting: A Commercial Photographer’s Guide to Creating Irresistible Images appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

As we said last week, we are restarting food photo critiques. Our goal is to deliver detailed critiques to those who submit photos for critiques. Let’s start with today’s photo.

About This Photograph

Below are some details about this photograph from Simi.

Goal

I wanted a warm cosy and home made feel to the soup.

Equipment Details

Nikon – D70
nikkor 50mm lens

Technical Details

Give Feedback on

I would like to first of all know if my goal in the picture is delivered. Please comment on:

Light play
technical imperfections
is the mood conveyed

My Two Cents

This is great attempt to capture a soup photo. Soup is one of the more difficult food subject to capture. Since it is liquid, a good soup photo can be captured by keep several things like camera angle, use lighting creatively and many other tips. Read soup photography tips, if you would like to learn more.

This is a good start on the photograph. For the most part the colors are similar and background is not completely off base (like the polka dots  I saw the other day on one of the blogs). Overall I believe this is a good start, there are opportunities of improvement.

As most of you know, food photography is a complex art. There is a lot that can go wrong and in many cases, lot can be improved. Rather than overwhelm participant, my approach will be to provide two or three things than I believe can be done differently.

While Simi is looking for feedback on light play and mood, one thing I would change before getting into a more advanced level discussion is framing. While I understand that some books recommend this style of framing, in my opinion this feels a little overdone. I’d recommend experimenting with including more of the subject. On changing the framing in this case, also observe the top right edge that is red. For me that makes my eye go to that corner and distracts from the main subject.

The second thing I would change is the styling. By looking at the photo (and not reading the recipe), I can’t tell if those leaves are edible. I am assuming they are, but they look out of proportion for the size of container. If you have to style, I’d recommend cream/some version of that. It will provide a nice contrast (white on brick red).

Here are some soup photography tips, that show some great examples.

Again knowing how difficult it is to photograph soup, this is a good attempt.

I’d challenge you to capture some of the suggestions and change the soup photo and share with us again.

Your Turn

What are your suggestions to improve Everyday Tomato Soup photo. What would change in this photograph? It’s your turn now. What do you think about this photo?

Share your thoughts and opinion in a constructive manner and provide how you would change this photo.

Submit a Photo for critique

Interested in submitting a photo for critique? Click here to learn more.

This post Photo Critique Request – Everyday Tomato Soup appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Kulsum Kunwa is a food blogger from Journey Kitchen. She started her blog recently and since then, improved her food photography dramatically.

In this episode Kulsum shares her experience and how she improved her photography. We talk about lot of different topics and also disintegrate her photos and share  behind the scene decisions for taking these photos.

Press Play to listen to this interview.

[Audio clip: view this post on www.learnfoodphotography.com to listen]

What we discuss in this interview

• How to decide about lighting for food photography
• Places to find food photography props… and how to get them for free
• How to find backgrounds for your photos
• Most common props that food bloggers must have
• How to plan your photographs

Also, don’t forget to subscribe to LFP iTunes podcast.

Photographs by Kulsum Kunwa

In the podcast, as part of photo deconstruction, we discuss Kulsum’s photos. Kulsum shares how she took the photo, what decisions did she have to make and how she made those decisions. Learn from Kulsum about these food photos and why she chose the lighting, props camera angle and everything about these food photos.

All photos are copyright property of Kulsum.

For more food photography interviews and upcoming interviews don’t forget to subscribe to LFP iTunes podcast.

This post Food Photography for Food Bloggers: Interview with Kulsum Kunwa appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Getting good and helpful critiques on photography is very tough. Getting likes on facebook or “nice photo” on flickr is real easy. Getting helpful feedback that helps you improve photography is priceless. We have had a lot of great participation from readers who asked for feedback and got some really high quality actionable feedback.

That was a lot of fun. Participants found it very valuable, and so we are doing it again.

Yes… we are relaunching our famous food photography critiques and feedback series. Previously we as LFP community critiqued one photograph a week. Every week, we would choose one food photograph that was submitted by the readers. We would then discuss how the photograph can be improved.

We are excited to restart that.

How to Submit Your Photo for Critique

Before we could even formally announce this series, some readers already figured out and started submitting photos for critiques. We have created a special page with instructions on how to Submit a Photo for Critique.

Go to this page, give us the information and submit the photo.

What We Learned From Previous Series

• Even if you think your skills need improvement, critiquing and analyzing a photo will help you understand what makes a food photo beautiful and will help you improve.
• Mention what you like in this photo. Be genuine when you praise something.
• Make your critique constructive. Tell what can be improved or what would you do differently. Be specific.
• Start small, may be pick just two things that our reader can improve.

What Would You Like to See?

If you would like a feedback or critique on your photos, we would like to know. Leave us a comment below if you are interested in food photo critiques. What kind of features would you like to see in this new series? Tell us below so that we can add that in.

If you are ready, Submit a Photo for Critique.

Photo above by LeonArts.at

This post Want Your Food Photos Critiqued? appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Prop Styling is an important aspect of food photography. Color of background and the type of plate you use in a food photo, helps you complete the story you want to tell in the photograph.

In today’s podcast, we learn from Amy Paliwoda about Prop Styling for food photography.

Before we start the podcast, don’t forget to get the iTunes podcast.

Amy is a photo stylist based in Los Angeles. She started working in photography industry in 1997. In this podcast Amy teaches us about props, how to select them and how they complete the story of your food photo.

Press Play to learn about prop styling.

[Audio clip: view this post on www.learnfoodphotography.com to listen]

In this interview we discuss some photographs and how prop styling decisions were made in these cases. Listen to the interview and observe these photos. Learn from Amy when she explains about selecting props for these photos. Also included below, some of Amy’s work.

Take a look at Amy’s work Amy’s portfolio website

This post Prop Styling for Food Photographers – Interview with Amy Paliwoda appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Photography gear is fascinating.

Most people day dream about having a better camera. Or a better lens. Or that fancy filter. No! not you? that awesome sleek tripod perhaps? ok wait… it is perhaps a camera bag?

But I have to tell you that there is something out there that is much better.

It does not scratch or wear with time. It just gets better.

The longer you have it, the better it becomes.

Today, we are giving you some of that stuff.

A decent lens needs some investment. Newest DSLR camera also isn’t cheap.

Rather than investing in a photo gear, why not invest fraction of that into something that will last forever – educating yourself.

If you have been around, you know that we love these guys.

They create amazing stuff. They have top notch books on all aspects of photography.

They even have some amazing books on lighting. They have a book on macro. Lightroom. Creating depth in photos.

So now to the main part of this post – the reason why I am even writing… to give a book away for FREE.

How to Win a FREE Book

This giveaway is very straight forward. Visit Craft and Vision and tell us which book you need and why. So again… winning a FREE Book is very easy. Only three simple steps:

1. Visit Craft and Vision by clicking here.

2. Decide which book you would like.

3. Come back to this post, and in the comments tell us what book you will like and why. If you would like to learn about a certain aspect of photography, tell us that in the comments below. We’ll pick a winner and send you the ebook.

Contest void where prohibited by law. Open everywhere where legal. Last date to leave a comment Mar 28th.

Update: Hidden FREE book for Everyone, once you are on the Craft and Vision website, search for the book called Craft and Vision. It is FREE for everyone.

Photo courtesy: allerleirau

This post Something much better than Photography Gear (Win a FREE Book!!) appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Food photos that are unintentionally out of focus cannot be corrected. Perfectly styled food with great use of props cannot save the photo, if the photographer fails to focus correctly.

You may be surprised to know how many things can go wrong that can cause out of focus pictures. Yes! even in auto-focus mode.

In this post, we get into one subject that isn’t talked about much in books or blogs. We discuss how auto focus mode can lead to out of focus images and how you can capture sharp food photos.

We are not talking about impressionist art here. There are certain artistic ways where photographer purposefully blurs the image and creates an outstanding art. That’s not the focus here. We are talking about those cases, where the artist wanted a sharp image, but could not.

Let’s look at some reasons why your photos are out of focus, even when you are using auto focus mode.

5 Reasons Auto Focus Mode Does Not Work

1. Low light

The most common situation when auto focus fails to work is in low light situations. If you shoot dinner after sunset when natural light is really low, you may find auto focus motor keeps on focusing in and focusing out. This is because, the light is too low for the camera to find a spot for auto focus.

In some cases, camera focuses on a spot that has more light than rest of the scene and if you press the button, you will have captured a photo that will have to be discarded.

I have noticed this especially when trying to shoot food in a metal utensil. If the edge of the metal is shining and I am completely relying on camera brain, it will focus on the metal rather than the food itself.

To avoid this situation, make sure that the subject is well lit or you use manual focus and carefully focus on the right spot.

2. Light behind the subject

When you are trying to shoot your dish that is backlit, nailing focus on the exact spot is tricky. Backlighting presents a technical challenge in focusing on the right spot.

Whenever camera cannot find the focus spot, your focusing motor acts crazy. It tries to find a spot while searching the entire frame and the depth. It then makes a decision and focus is locked and picture is captured.

This is true for any situation where focusing is tricky, but specially true for backlighting and low light situation.

To correctly focus in this case, use manual focus.

3. Wrong Auto Focus modes

Some time back I was capturing dripping maple syrup on pancakes. I took a tethered photograph, and it popped up on the big screen. Out of focus. This was the fifth photo that was going to be trashed.

At this point, we had already dripped lot of maple syrup, and in few more attempts, pancakes were going to be useless for a photograph.

In each of these attempts the focus point was moving. And then I checked my focus-mode. It was on “continuous mode” and camera was capturing a point and focus was following that point. Even though, the difference was minor, on the big screen, it looked pretty bad.

The lesson here is that these days DSLR cameras come with many different autofocus modes (primarily three – single area, continuous and hybrid). Choosing right focus mode for right photo shoot will help you avoid wasting 2 big bottles of maple syrup.

4. Focus On the Wrong Spot

Perhaps the most common mistake of all time is to pick a wrong autofocus spot. If you are shooting a soup in a bowl, rather than setting the focus on top layer, you may accidentally set the focus on a spot behind the soup bowl.

That’s not good.

After you check the auto focus mode, make sure you check that focus is set on the right spot.

5. Lens Stuck

Until few months ago, I was using this lens . But few days back I realized that there was a serious issue with this lens.

The focus motor was getting stuck every now-n-then. I would switch it to manual mode, and play with it and turn the auto-mode back on and it would work fine.

This is more of a technical gear issue that taught me no matter what, learning a little bit about your gear is important.

How to Capture Sharp Food Images

For creating sharp food photograph, you need to take time and patiently execute few important steps:

1. Be intentional about your photograph

Food photography, and for that matter, any type of photography needs to be thoughtful exercise. You have to understand what your goal is, what you are trying to communicate with that photo. If you can’t answer this question, you won’t know where in the frame should you focus.

Understanding the goal of the photograph, for his reason, is absolutely important.

2. Use the right mode.

We have talked about different focus modes. If you have completed step 1 thoughtfully, you will be able to decide the right focus mode. Skip the first step and you will scramble with your camera while the ice cream is melting on the photo set.

3. Survey your frame

Here’s the last thing you should do to make sure your images are sharp – observe with your eyes open. When you peak through that viewfinder, make sure you screen the frame and carefully ensure that the area that needs to be in focus, is sharp and crisp.

Very often the urge to pressing the button is so high that we forget to observe.

Finding Focus

It’s very puzzling for me to find very little being written about focus and how to achieve sharp and perfectly focus images. I came across a book that talks about focus not just from a sharpness perspective, but on a more broader level.

In this book, Nicole talks about a broader meaning of sharp image. She spends considerable amount of time on the intention of your photograph. It’s a great book for anyone who wants sharp food photos.

The book is available here.

This post Why Your Food Photo is Not Focused and How to Fix Out of Focus Pictures appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Prerna Singh is a food blogger who started her blog about three years. Prerna has improved her food photography in very short time. In this podcast, our guest shares with us how she learned food photography and how she uses sketches for planning food photo shoots.

Carefully note how she uses her time being a mom and still produces an amazing photograph after cooking, writing a blog and taking care of the family.

In this podcast, you will learn:

• The correct way to learn food photography
• Why it is so important to learn about your camera
• What are some settings you should absolutely know about your camera
• How to study a food photograph
• How Prerna plans her food photography
• Prerna’s food photography workflow
• How to use sketches for planning your food photo shoot

Press play to learn how to plan your food photos

Jalebi Photo Shoot

Prerna explains how she started thinking about this photo. She talks about her process of sketching and how she used that in this process.

Chicken Curry Photo Shoot

[Audio clip: view this post on www.learnfoodphotography.com to listen]

One Lesson From This Interview

What was the most surprising lesson you learned from this interview? Leave a detailed comment below with what you learned from this interview.

This post How to Use Sketches for Planning Your Food Photos – Special Interview with Prerna Singh appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Photo Credit: juhansonin

That’s right… there are 9 people without whom your food photos will never make a great impact. If you do commercial work, you must know them and work with them. If you are a food blogger looking to create an amazing food photo, you absolutely have to learn to work with them.

Yes food bloggers!! you read it right. Read on..

Each one of these people have a specific job in a photo shoot. If any one of these individual doesn’t come to the party, your food photo is toasted. If all of them are at the photo shoot, and one of them does a sloppy job, your photo is in the tank.

It’s just like the rock band, if Ringo misses a beat, the song is toast… if Richards touches a wrong string the performance is over and the folks down the stage are not happy…

If you are a one-man (or a one-woman for that matter) band, you still need those drums and the guitar and perhaps harmonica. So even if you are taking photographs in your own house, understanding who are these people will help you improve your workflow. More on that later.

9 People or 9 Roles?

Reading this post, food bloggers are thinking, how can I afford to hire 9 people to make my photos beautiful? So, what are we really talking about here?

There are 9 critical roles or areas that every food photo shoot needs to focus on.  If you think about these areas before your photo shoot, you may miss something and may have to deal with chaos… while your loved ones are waiting for their dinner because you are photographing it.

So What if you are a food blogger? Do you still need these 9 people (or 9 roles to focus on)?

Yes. Even if you are a food blogger, you also need these 9 people. The difference is that you play all these nine roles.

So let’s look at the 9 people…

The 9 People You Need To Make a Great Food Photo

So who are these people? I am sure you have guessed at least 3 – the food photographer, the food stylist and prop stylist. But there is more… in fact there is a lot more to the story. Let’s get started

Food Photographer

The obvious One. If this person is not around, there is no photo. She needs to be at the top of her game. She should understand the technical aspect of creating a photo and needs to know what levers she can pull, or buttons she can press to change things.

She needs to understand what the other seven band members are planning to do to make a great photo. Food photography is not an individual “sport”. This is not a solo singing competition. You absolutely need to work with other team members.

Food Stylist

The second obvious. Here’s the real secret to a great food photo – the magic really happens before the camera button is pressed. Food stylist need to put some thought on how they plan to style the food way before the button is pressed.

She needs to know every little detail about the subject dish. Best food stylists know a lot about cooking. She can tell you how long to cook those greens so that their color is as green as possible and much more to get the most from your subject.

Again, being part of the band, she also works with the other 7 members to know details about photography. For instance, what angle will the food be shot from, is there a specific requirement from the client that she needs to accommodate.

Prop Stylist

You probably guessed this too. We have talked about the importance of background, or picking the right color for the shoot. We have also discussed how to select props and where to buy them from.

Prop stylist is another crucial person on the set. If someone absolutely needs to master of color theory, its her. She needs to understand what color will work best with this subject. She is searching for the best background that will go with this dish or what texture should we use on the table.

She knows the best secrets to shop for props and has a great collection of props.

The Chef

Some of you may have guessed this one. The Chef, the main person who creates and cooks the subject dish. Needless to say, he is the expert in cooking. In many cases, he also has training in plating the food. He is close partner of food stylist. He certainly needs to know some details about the photo shoot.

More importantly, working with food stylist, they come up with specific details on how to cook the dish to create the best presentation. He may have some have training in plating the food from his culinary training, but working with food stylist is important. The food stylist has expertise on how to make food look good on camera.

Without knowing how to cook the dish, you can be certain that there will be no food for photography.

Producer

Producer is the lifeline of any photo shoot. She ties everything together from working with clients to distributing the final work. She has a broad role, often changing from assignment to assignment.

Her goal is to help everyone else stay focused on what they are best at – for a photographer that’s photography, for a stylist that’s styling food.

In many cases, she does everything from finding models (for hand modeling) to finding locations, accommodations for outside parties. She also manages photo shoot budget and expenses.

Studio Manager

If you have your own studio, even if its in your basement or that extra bedroom, you need a studio manager. They say, behind every successful photographer, there is an outstanding studio manager.

Studio Manager keeps track of what’s where. He helps keep things organized in the studio. From lighting umbrellas to soft boxes, camera gear and props, organizing everything can quickly get overwhelming for someone without these skills. He oversees and manages equipment, workflow and  flow of projects and assignments.

As you may have noticed, there is certainly some overlap between Studio Manager and Producer. The main difference, in most cases, studio manager focuses on everything that happens in the studio,  producer, on the other hand works on both inside studio as well as outside studio. Producer may work with studio manager to make sure things are in order in the studio.

From a job role perspective, studio manager is a full time position with the studio, while producer mostly is for a specific project role.

If studio is well organized, photographer and stylists can be more efficient in what they do.

Digital Specialist or Tech

Digital Artist or Specialist or Tech… The magician behind the computer screen who is an expert in photo editing and organizing digital content.

With digital photography now in the mainstream, organizing, naming files correctly, backing up data and any other post production work is specially important. In many cases, photographer herself does post production and digital work. If there is a special expertize required for photo editing, digital artist can be a huge asset.

Art Director

Art Director ensures that the photograph matches the expectation of her clients. She is responsible for visual aspects of a photography assignment. So for her to be successful, being visual design skills is a must.

She also needs to communicate her vision and ideas clearly so that photographer and stylists and rest of the team and execute the idea clearly.

After communicating her vision, she oversees the creative output of a food photo shoot. She helps the team to develop concepts for the assignment, select final set of images and collaboratively influences photo editing process.

In addition to creative aspects of the photo shoot, she is also a project manager who ensure deadlines are met.

Number 9?

Who else should we add here? What other person is critical to getting beautiful photos? Add you comment below.

This post 9 Critical People You Absolutely Need for an Outstanding Food Photo Shoot appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Dinner and Photograph?

It’s everywhere. You’ve seen it on twitter. You’ve seen it on facebook. You’ve also seen this in newspapers.

Some of you don’t take food photos while you are out for a meal. There are some of you who review restaurants and take photos of what you eat. Some restaurants have started banning food photography.What do you think about this?

We asked our friends on Learn Food Photography facebook page about this. Below are their thoughts with credits.

Helge Taksdal Good. Flashes are distracting, and the world doesn’t need more noisy, underexposed shots of food.

Jay Campbell Newsflash that horrible picture taken in low light with your phone doesn’t look appetizing. Stop trying to brag to your FB friends and texting throughout your dinner and simply enjoy the moment with the people that are actually with you.

Meaghan Harvey I have to admit, even though I take a lot of photos of my food (obviously) I can totally understand where they are coming from. People can be so obnoxious about it! I actually think flash photography should be pretty well banned from all restaurants and bars.

Martin Snow No phones? No photos? What’s next, no talking to the other people at your table? I have no desire to patronize a restaurant like that.

Sadaf Afshan Bad news for food bloggers who do restaurant reviews

This post Debate: Banning Photographing Food in Restaurants appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Saveur’s new book. Details here.

Todd Coleman , Executive Food Editor for Saveur, recently shared some food photography tips from Saveur’s upcoming Saveur book. He says,

…photographs of food—especially dishes made throughout generations—tell us the story of the people who cook and eat them. The images of these dishes are not simply mouthwatering; they serve an emotional purpose, bringing to life a memory in much the same way a spoonful of your mother’s cranberry sauce, an old recipe in a family scrapbook, or the smell of onions frying in the kitchen might.

Great food photos have lot of depth. These photos stir different emotions in us. But not food photos are great. Some are merely plain. Vanilla. Below are some tips from Todd on how to make great photos.

Food Photography Tips from Saveur’s Executive Food Editor

Here’s one tip from Todd,

Pick colors in the surface or the plate that echo similar tones in the food to create a bridge between the food and the tableware.

Color is massively important in food photography.  As we have talked about it before, the goal of any photographer should to eliminate any distractions that don’t add to the subject. Color is often not given enough thought by many learning food photographers.

Read the original article for more food photography tips about light and composition.

Here’s the book. Here’s the original article with more food photography tips.

This post Food Photography Tips from Executive Food Editor for Saveur Magazine appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Each year many amazing new artists enter food photography world. There are many outstanding food photographers and artists we have interviewed in past. We have discussed the work of many other food photographers here on this food photography blog.

In this post, we present food photos of 15 such food photographers that we discovered in 2012.

15 Amazing Food Photos from Newly Discovered Food Photographers

So without any other words, let’s look at 15 food photos that we discovered last year. Don’t forget to Pin these images.

Bonus – Want more amazing food photographs? Follow us on pinterest.

Is this a comprehensive list of all amazing food photographers? Certainly not. These are just those amazing food photogs, that we have seen in last one year.

Who Did We Miss?

I am certain we’ve missed a lot of other outstanding food photographers. Tell us who we should include here in the comments below. Leave a comment with your favorite NEW food photographer’s name.

This post 15 Amazing Food Photos from 2012 appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

With the rise in food blogging new food photographers are being born every day. Everyone wants to become an outstanding food photographer, but most people fail.

Some spend time trying to become a food photographer but month after month nothing changes. It quickly starts getting frustrating and you feel like you should quit. But quitting does work either. Every so often you still feel the urge, but nothing works.

Why do most food photographers fail? Is it luck or is it something very deep that prevents success?

Read on to understand the deep reasons why most food photographers fail and how failure sets in. Ignore this and you will fail. Embrace it and fight it and you will succeed.

7 Reasons Why You Will Fail as a Food Photographer

Here are the 7 reasons why most new food photographers fail to reach their potential. Without mincing words, lets jump right to the first reason.

Reason 1: Not Enough Food Photos

One of the common reason for you to not reach your photographic potential is that you don’t take enough photos. The more food photos you take the better photographer you become. You know your camera and your equipment better. You know the settings and what those settings do. You learn how to see like your camera. Framing and composition starts getting better.

You start seeing photographs everywhere. Don’t believe me? Ask anyone who has participated in a Photo a Day project (enrollment closing soon).

Reason 2: No Love for Food

Outstanding food photographers love food. They understand their subject. If you don’t love food, it is hard to find motivation to find a subject. If you don’t love cooking, or know someone who can cook for you, the challenge becomes how will you practice all the different possible dishes that will improve your photography.

Certainly, if you love cooking and can cook, you have greater chances to become a great food photographer. Look at all the food bloggers who have excelled at food photography.

Reason 3: Taking all the LIKES and Comments seriously

With so many places to post photos, now you can also get more likes than ever. We have talked about this before. And it is important to mention it again. Our friends and family encourage us by liking our photo and leaving comments that are nice. Most new food photographers look at these comments and starting become complacent. They think that since all their friends are liking the photo, you must be getting good.

Ask yourself – of all your friends, how many do actually take photographs and appreciate a good photo? This is where the next point is really crucial.

Reason 4: Not Understanding What A Great Food Photo Looks Like

Related to reason number 3 is, not understanding what a great food photo looks like. Understanding what good food photos look like and knowing what are the elements of a great food photograph is crucial for being successful. Start with the basics and learn about design and art.

Learn about elements of art. Learn about elements of a great food photo. Understand what makes a great food photo.

Reason 5: No Committed Schedule

Have you committed to a schedule? Every Monday photographing 2 new dishes? Every Tuesday looking at portfolios of 4 new food photographers? or something like that?

If you haven’t planned your schedule, you won’t ever do it properly. As they say, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

Reason 6: Not Feeding Your Brain

As part of the creative process, feeding your brain with great food photos, specially at the early stage is really critical. This also helps you with point 4. The more photos you look at the more understanding you get. We have talked about this in detail before. Read more about food photography inspiration.

Reason 7: Reading Lot of Blogs

How many blogs do you read? No not just food photography blog. All blogs? 50? more? less? In this information age, when information comes to us from all different direction, it is a real challenge to stay focused and get something done. And that’s just the way it is now and it will only get worse. We will get even more information from even more directions. Information Overload, I am sure you’ve heard about it.

Everyone faces these barriers to a certain extent. Everyone wants to become great at something, in our case, a better food photographer. Then why do we fail?

How We Fail?

Last few months I have faced most of these barriers. I have read more blogs than ever. Not taken a single food photo. Slipped from my schedule. This year was incredibly different for me. Every time I wanted to take a photo, there was always something that prevented me.

Sometimes it was the excuse of not having “good” light. Other times it was just, “I don’t think I have time for that today”. The funny thing is that, every time I said, I don’t have time, I found I wasted hours watching random videos on internet about information I didn’t need or watching TV.

Some days it was Patrick Jane, other days it was Mr. Reese. Some days it was Manning other days it was Brady. Kalinda too was creating not letting me do the work.

There were days when I just didn’t “feel like” it.

Have you ever struggled to take a great photo? You have your camera next to you but you just don’t “feel” it. Have ever had one of those moments? Do you hear that voice in your heard that wants you to watch more TV or play that game or spend some time browsing Pinterest?  Perhaps its facebook if not Pinterest?

How To Get a FREE BOOK and Fight Back

Steven Pressfield calls that voice in your head “Resistance”, in his book The War of Art.

The War of Art is an amazing book. It helped me. If you haven’t read it, I would highly recommend it to you. Anyone who is in the field of arts needs to read it. It’s a must read for you.

I loved this book and it helped me so much that we are giving away this book for FREE to someone who is serious about food photography.

How to Get FREE Book

How to get this free book? It’s really simple. Leave one detailed comment telling what you struggled with this year and what you did to overcome it. That’s it.

One liner comments like “Please send me the book” will be disqualified. We will randomly pick a commenter who shares their struggles and barriers. Announcement of Winners will be on our Google Plus page and Facebook Page.

Do this now!!

This post Why New Food Photographers Fail (and a FREE Book to Help You Succeed) appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

There is a new food photography eBook that was released just few days ago.

Lindsay from Pinch of Yum has released a new food photography eBook that talks about a lot of different topics.

From composition tips to lighting tips and from props and set up tips to post production tips, this book has it all. The tips in this book are actionable and direct. You can start with understanding how to compose a photo and then learn about lighting for food photography.

This eBook has lot of example photos and this will help you understand author’s points and tips. Here’s what the eBook contains:

Take a look at this book. Go here to download this Book.

Includes Video Tutorials

In addition to this 48-page eBook, you also get access to several video tutorials that will help you learn about post processing as well. If you are serious about food photography, this may be a good investment for you.

Get the eBook here.

This post NEW Food Photography eBook appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

In our next episode of rapid food photography improvement, we learn from another food blogger who creates amazing food photos.

Sala Kannan has been blogging on Veggie Belly since 2008 and has consistently produced great recipes on her blog. She has also demonstrated a knack for food photography.

In today’s episode, we talk with Sala and hear her story about her journey.

[Audio clip: view this post on www.learnfoodphotography.com to listen]

Take a look at following photographs by Sala.

Don’t forget to share this on facebook.

Leave a comment and rate this podcast on iTunes by going to Podcast page.

This post Rapid Food Photography Improvement: How New Food Photographer Improved Her Food Photos – Interview with Sala Kannan appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Jenn is food blogger and amazing photographer. She started her gluten-free food blog in 2008. You can learn about Jenn by visiting her blog.

[Audio clip: view this post on www.learnfoodphotography.com to listen]

In this podcast we talk about:

1. How Jenn got started into food photography
2. How she learned and improved her food photography
3. How Jenn finds time with her full time job
4. Tips to improve your food photography

This post Interview with Jenn Oliver appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

So many of us want to improve food photography but don’t know how to and what is missing. So today, set up 15-30 mins for this exercise. Schedule a 15 to 30-min block on your calendar for yourself and follow these steps. These seven steps will teach you what type of photography do you like and what is missing in your own work.

7 Steps to Finding Your Photography POV

Below are 7 simple and straightforward steps to identifying your own POV – something unique about yourself.

Step 1 – List down five photographers you admire

You could start with looking at all the interviews we have done with outstanding food photographers. Pick five photographers whose work you love. Yes! you can pick more if you would like, but for now, start with five. List them down.

Step 2 – Find their portfolio

If you are using the central interview page, portfolio links are just one click away. They are listed on interview page under show notes.

Step 3 – Take a Look at the their photos

Choose one photographer. Take a look at their photographs. Go through their work. Write down the photo number/detail that you like. We will need this in the next step.

Step 4 – Now start reading

Pick the first photo that resonated with you. Start analyzing this photo. What camera angle was it shot at? How was the background? What about Depth of field? How is the lighting? Take note of everything that you can analyze. Write it down.

Step 5 – Repeat this with the next photo

Once you are done with one photo, repeat step 4 with next photo. Do that again, until you reach the last photo of that photographer.

Step 6 – Consolidate all your notes.

Once you have analyzed all the photos you love, take a look at your notes and list the things that are common or that you feel are important.

Step 7 – Look at your work

Now, here’s the important step. Take a look at your own work. Compare your photos and see how many photos have you taken that have same features. How many, for example, are shot at the angle that you found in step 6? If you’ve loved back lit photos, how many have you shot? If you love dark background, have you shot photos with dark background?

Once you are done with this you will have learned two things:

1. What do you love about inspiring photographers’ work
2. Understand your own work and where there is a disconnect.

If you love top view photographs, and you haven’t taken a single one, go and tak photos that are made top down.

THE Last Step

All this sounds pretty good, right? Sounds simple and all that? Still half of you will not do a thing after reading this post. The only way you will improve photography is by doing exercises like these. Reading books and blogs never made anyone a photographer. Take action.

Once done, here’s what to do

Once you have completed the exercise, in one line tell us – Your favorite photographer and what you learned from this work (Step 6). Leave a comment below.

Portfolio photo by Jason Schlachet

This post 7 Steps to Instantly Finding Your Unique Photography Vision appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips

Interview with Christina Peters

In this 60-min episode Christina tell us her story about how she got started, how she almost became a Chemist and how she became successful food photographer.

Listen to this entire interview by clicking the play button.

[Audio clip: view this post on www.learnfoodphotography.com to listen]

Show Notes and Related Links coming soon.

This post How to Improve Your Food Photos – Interview with Christina Peters appeared on Learn Food Photography and Food Styling. To read similar articles, visit Learn Food Photography and Food Styling - Food Photography and Styling Tips