Learn Food Photography and Food Styling

How To Shoot Challenging Food: Interview with Lara Ferroni

Neel — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 02:49:00 +0000

Who could teach you how to become a better food photographer than someone who self-taught this skill to herself? About five years ago, Lara had a job with an IT giant and she took a break. In about five years she became a well known name in food photography industry. Let’s learn from Lara herself how to grow as a food photographer.

Let’s Welcome Lara Ferroni

Lara Ferroni doesn’t need any introduction. If you are a food blogger and are wanting to improve food photography, you must have visited StillLifeWith.

Lara has been photographing food for about 2 dozen magazines, websites and other clients. Her long list of clients include websites like Epicurious and magazines like Gourmet and Seattle Magazine. Her photos have also been published in Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Sunset Magazine. Read more about Lara Ferroni. Lara is also photographing for Gluten Free Girl’s upcoming cook book Gluten Free Girl and the Chef. As the Gluten Free Girl, Shauna, mentions

We were blessed to work with Lara Ferroni throughout the entire process of creating this book. Most cookbooks have photographs taken by a photographer the authors may not know, in a studio in New York, in four rapid-fire days of intense shooting. Instead, we worked with Lara for more than two years, shooting ingredients in farmers’ markets, our hands at work in the kitchen, ……

We talked with Lara on her phone for about 40 minutes. In this short time Lara explains different approaches to food photography, shooting challenging food dishes like soup, food photography workshops that she conducts from time to time and how to grow as a food photographer. This is a interview you do not want to miss.

Press play to listen to this interview.

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

How Lara Got Into Food Photography

Lara worked for Microsoft. She took a short break and started a food blog. While at this break she started taking pictures. Lara explains in the interview how she taught herself food photography. Listen how Lara became food photographer starting at 01:35 in the interview.

How To Grow as A Food Photographer

Lara explains how anyone can grow and improve their photography skills. She explains what you can do to become better photographer. In a nutshell here are three things you should do:

Study the photos from other photographers.
Experiment what you learn from these photographers
Keep experimenting with light, food styling

Lara explains this in more detail and gives some specific advice on how to grow. Listen to the interview for more elaborate explanation.

How Lara Got Her First Paid Assignment

Lara bought some citrus fruits and took some food pictures and posted them on her blog. The fruit company saw her photos and contacted her for taking food photos for them. Her challenge in this first assignment was how much to charge and licensing agreements with them.

Types of Food Photography

Lara classifies herself as editorial food photographer. She mainly does editorial photography and sometimes shoots for advertising and packaging. Each of these types have different requirements and the way a photographer interacts with the subject is different in each case. Lara explains this in more detail in this interview.

Read more about different types of food photography.

How to Shoot Challenging Food Like Soup

Some soups are pretty flat. They don’t have any texture and are pretty uninteresting to shoot. For making soup photos interesting, garnish the top by herbs or oil. Or add something in the background. Layer the photos with several elements that interact with each other. Put the soup bowl on a plate or use napkin to accentuate the bowl. Listen to the interview

Photograph That We Talk About In This Interview

We talked about these brunch photos in this interview. Lara explained her thought process behind these photographs..

Visit her portfolio to see Lara’s more food photos.

Food Photography Workshops by Lara

From time to time Lara conducts food photography workshops. You can contact her to find out more about upcoming food photography workshops. Lara also gives private lessons on food photography and these sessions can be customized.

Food Photographers That Inspire Lara

Lara has a whole list of food photographers that she likes and spends time looking at lot of their work. Some of these photographers are:

Matt Armendariz – Read food photography interview with Matt Armendariz. Visit Matt’s Blog
Keiko Oikawa from Nordljus
Heidi Swanson from 101 Cook Books
Bea Peltre from La Tartine Gourmande
Aran Goyoaga – Read Aran’s food photography story and how she became top food blogger. Visit her blog Cannelle Vanille..
Helene Dujardin from MyTartelette

As Lara mentioned, these are just a few photographers that inspire her.

Links We Discussed in This Interview

Thank you Lara

Please join me in thanking Lara for her time and advice. This interview was very special and I hope you found it helpful. You can follow Lara on Twitter @lferroni and @StillLifeWith and say hello.

What did you think about this interview. I would love to hear from you on what you would like to hear in future. Leave a comment or two on what you thought and what you would like to learn from the next food photographer. And as always thank you for visiting the food photography blog.

Read How To Shoot Challenging Food: Interview with Lara Ferroni on Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog

© Neel for Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: food photographer, people

7 Great Food Photography Resources That You May Have Missed

Neel — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:09:00 +0000

Lately there have been some awesome articles on the web. This post has 5 such articles and 2 upcoming food photography events that any new food photographer should be watching closely… Here they are.

5 Food Photography Posts from Awesome Blogs

Don’t miss even a single article…. read all of them…

4 New Food Styling Books – Kristina wrote great reviews on 4 Food Styling Books (Book 1, book 2, book 3 and book 4) that just came out not too long ago. Read these reviews on mattbites.com.

Behind the Scenes with Cookbook Photo Shoot – Some time back Matt took us behind the scenes on his cook book photo shoot. Watch it here.

How to Shoot Food in Bright Day Light – Shooting in bright daylight = lot of harsh shadows and washed out color. Checkout Andrew Scrivani’s simple tip on how to solve that.

Manual Setting for Shooting Food – Penny De Los Santos’s tip to improve photography? Learn manual settings. Few weeks back Andrew Scrivani shared four manual setting that you need to know on NYT blog.

How to Plan a Food Shoot – We’ve talked about planning for food photography before, Andrew Scrivani wrote another article on food shoot. Read it here.

Upcoming Food Photography Events

Food Photography Workshop with Clare Barboza

We interviewed Clare Barboza some time back. Clare is conducting a food photography class on Sept 7th. Here’s some more information from Clare’s blog:

The workshop will take place on Vashon Island, where participants will get to tour two farms. We’ll start at Seabreeze Farm where we’ll spend some time with the cows, chickens, ducks, pigs and sheep, and then we’ll head off to photograph the Seabreeze butcher shop, located right next to La Boucherie.

After that, we’ll move on over to Kurtwood Farms, and check out Kurt’s lovely property, animals, vegetable gardens and new cheese cave, (which is pretty darn cool.)

The last part of the day will be focused on natural light food photography, using some of the ingredients produced by these two farms.

*Lunch and transportation on the island will be provided.

Date: Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

Time: 9am to approximately 4 or 5pm

Cost: $300

(Payment is due at the time of registration)

What you’ll need: A digital SLR, a decent working knowledge of your camera, & rubber boots

What’s recommended but not required: A laptop, a card reader, and a tripod

To register: Email me to reserve your spot (clare at clarebarboza dot com)

Food Photo Festival in Spain

Bunch of wonderful folks are organizing a Food Photography Festival in Spain. There will be workshops, food photography exhibitions and great opportunity for networking. You can read about it more by going to their website.

Matt Armendariz (Listen to his food photography interview) will be speaking on Social Media for Food Photographers at this event. I would love to know if you are attending this event.

Swiss Knife photo by Edd Sowden

Read 7 Great Food Photography Resources That You May Have Missed on Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog

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Post tags: resources

Food Photography Tips from Penny De Los Santos (from International Food Blogger Conference #IFBC )

Neel — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:46:00 +0000

This past weekend Seattle had something very hot going – International Food Blogger Conference. The big hall became even hotter at around 11:00 am Pacific time on Sunday 29th Sept. That’s when Penny De Los Santos came on the stage to talk about food photography, give some tips and share her mouth-watering food images. Her photos were making the audience drool and some were even slurping air.

When the talk ended after about 75 minutes, the audience rushed to the food trucks and helplessly gulped food in their stomach. Such is the power of stunning food photos.

Let’s watch and listen Penny’s talk on food photography and how to become a better food photographer.

Watch Food Photography Talk

Missed the food photography talk? Don’t worry. We were able to find the video for this food photography talk by Penny De Los Santos. Click the play button to watch the video.

Here’s what’s discussed in this video…

Notes from Penny’s Talk

Penny’s started the talk by sharing her story on how she got started as a photographer and her experience before starting in food photography industry. She introduced the audience to her food photography philosophy. Penny also shared her first photograph that appeared on Saveur Magazine’s front cover.

(Here are Penny’s prison photos. I believe these are the same photos that she is talking about in this video)

Here’s what she shared…

Food Photography Philosophy

Penny’s approaches food photography organically. She reacts to what she sees and is in the moment. She uses everything natural as much as possible. Everything Penny shoots is real. She uses real food. Beautiful ingredients are the key to her photography.

What is a Good Food Photo?

Penny started the talk by explaining her definition of a good photograph. As for any great photograph, lighting is an important element in creating a successful photo. Light is the first element that was discussed. A good light will create an awesome food photo.

Color is the second element that improves a food composition. Composition is the key. Spend time and think about composition. This is one thing that will improve your food photos drastically. If you don’t practice composition, you will make the similar photos over and over and over.

Fourth element is the food subject itself. Pick up subjects that are interesting and beautiful. If you feel something is not, “sex it up”. Appetizing food makes great photos as well.

Primary Camera Angles

Penny shared some primary angles that are used in food photography. Overhead is the first camera angle that Penny shared. Be careful when you use this angle. This angle can be overused and quickly become a cliché.

3/4 Angle is a nice angle, but the food has to lead you to it. If your food has height, don’t use overhead. This would be an angle when you are not exactly looking top down, but you are kind of at a 3/4… something like 75 degree I think.

Side or straight on angle is pretty much at 0 degree. Side shots are great for food with height.

(Learn about different camera angles and how to select a camera angle for food photography)

These are the primary camera angles used in food photography. Varying camera angle is important so that you can pair the photos together. Same camera angle can lead to boredom to the viewer.

Varying your photos is important not just for readers or viewers but also for your creative process. Also, remember not all food looks good from the same angle. Soup make look great from a certain angle, but stacked cookies may or may not. Explore your subject by moving around the subject.

Using Available Light

Understanding light is important for every food photographer. Penny explained few things you should study as soon as you walk in the shooting studio. Here they are:

Light Direction: As soon you get to the subject, see where the subject is and what is the direction of light. Is it coming from window? What is the direction of light? From right or from back? Think about where is the light coming from.

Light Quality: The next question then is what is the quality of light. Is it soft or is it harsh? Learn how to identify quality of light. Read more how light affects your food photos.

Diffusing Light: If your light is too harsh it will create shadows on your subjects. To avoid this you need to diffuse the light. What is diffusing the light? You diffuse light by placing diffuser between the light source and food. Light can be diffused by using napkins or wax paper or round diffuser disks (see what light diffusers look like).

Editing a Dish

If a dish is not plated well or if the food is not visually appealing, Penny plates the dish. In some cases, this could also mean that the food has been removed from the usual composition and then re-composed a little differently.

Penny gave couple of examples of this. She shared a photograph of sweet corn cake, that usually do not come on their own plate. Penny plated them by giving them their own plates.

Creative Food Shots That Make an Impact

Penny explained few type of food photos that make an impact on the viewer. Food in preparation and meal in process photographs tell a great story . Go prop shopping and try to use food props that you have. Ingredients in a dish make great food photos, but are challenging to shoot. Raw food looks good but just after they have been washed. Try these food photos.

Read more on food props and how to use food props.

In the second part of her talk, Penny talked about photographing food culture, food travel and food portrait photography.

Food Photography Tips

The talk was full of awesome food photography tips. Below are some tips that have not been included in the above sections. Here they are:

Practice a lot.
If you want to improve food photography, start shooting manually.
Try to keep your background clean and not cluttered.
Push yourself and think beyond the obvious.

Read more food photography tips from other food photographers.

Thank you Penny

Thank you Penny for sharing your knowledge and wisdom in this talk and previous food photography workshop.

Readers and Viewers, if you liked this talk and gained something from this, send a note to @pennydelosantos. Say hello and connect with her. See her food photo tips from her food photography workshop.

Hoping to Interview Penny

I am absolutely excited about interviewing @pennydelosantos We haven’t decided a date yet, but am hoping that our calendars match in next week or two and we get together soon. In the meantime, don’t forget to send me your questions for this interview by sending me a tweet @neellfp

What Did You Think About the Talk

Did you attend this workshop? In person or online? What did you think? What did I miss? What did you think about this?

Read Food Photography Tips from Penny De Los Santos (from International Food Blogger Conference #IFBC ) on Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog

© Neel for Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: food photographer, penny de los santos, people, workshop

How to Get Into Food Photography Industry: Interview with Lucas Zarebinski

Neel — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 18:16:52 +0000

Are you serious about food photography? Do you want to become a food photographer and earn money doing that? In this interview Lucas Zarebinski shares his thoughts about how to get in the photography industry and how to learn from the pros.

Let’s Welcome Lucas Zarebinski

Lucas Zarebinski has been photographing food, still life, lifestyle and trees for couple of years. His work has been published in many magazines like Glamour, Los Angeles Magazine, Men’s Health, Outside Magazine. Lucas Zarebinski is one of the 30 emerging photographers to watch as listed by Photo District News – a two decade old monthly magazine covering professional photographers. You can visit his photography website

What’s In This Interview

This interview is must for anyone who wants to take Food Photography seriously and as a profession. Lucas shares his lessons and advice on how to get into photography industry. He also shares his experience and how he got his first professional assignment. This interview has lot of information for anyone who wants to become a professional photographer.

Press play button to listen the interview.

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

Here’s the photograph that we talk about in this interview.

To view other photographs discussed in this interview, visit Lucas’s photography portfolio.

Thank You Lucas

Lucas, thank you for sharing your thoughts and for sparing time for this interview. I really appreciate you doing this.

To the Readers and Listeners,

If you have questions for Lucas about this interview or photography industry in general, please leave a comment below.

More Food Photography Interviews

If you are here for the first time don’t forget to listen and read previous food photography interviews with other famous photographers like Matt Armendariz, Matt Wright, Aran Goyoaga (Cannelle Et Vanille) and lot of other food photographers. Read these Food Photography Interviews.

Upcoming Interview

I also interviewed one of the pioneers in providing food photography information online, Lara Ferroni (@lferroni) recently. I am planning to publish that interview later this week.

If you would like to ask questions to our next interview guest, follow us on @neellfp and send us a note.

All Photographs copyright property of Lucas Zarebinski. Music by Dan-O

Read How to Get Into Food Photography Industry: Interview with Lucas Zarebinski on Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog

© Neel for Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: food photographer, people

How I Shot This – Sushi and Seafood Photos

Neel — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:30:00 +0000

We are now accepting guest posts on food photography, food styling and related topics. If you are interested in writing for LFP, go to guest post page for more information.

This guest post and all the photos are from Martijn Smit, who lives in The Netherlands and is a semi professional food photographer and owner of www.culishots.com and www.martijn-smit.nl. In this post, Martijn explains how he shot these “naked sushi” photos and gives background about the thought process behind these wonderful photographs.

How I Photographed “Naked Sushi” and Seafood

Recently I shot a series of food photo’s in a friends restaurant. This friend is one of Hollands better cooks. He worked in several Michelin Star rated restaurant and really knows how to cook AND how to style it.

First we discussed what kind of food he wanted pictures of, especially structure and color was important: Shellfish, meat, vegetables and fruits was it, i.e. everything what’s used in the kitchen.

I proposed to take a black mirroring underground and a black background which gives beautiful contrast with bright green vegetables and orange color of cooked shellfish.

For the underground I took black plexiglass because it’s pretty cheap, easy to clean and light to carry. For the background I took black velvet. Velvet is the best to get real black backgrounds.

For the lighting I used a simple setup with only 2 monoblock flashheads which gives good effects, especially in combination with the shiny underground.

I used two flashes (I use Elfo monoblocks 600Ws each), one softbox 50x90cm, lifted pretty high as a fill-in light. The second flash had a wide reflector and was positioned left behind the still life table at table top level, for a nice striking light. This is what food pictures gives this typical food photo radiation.

To achieve a real black background, which was the meaning here, it’s important that the background is at least 1meter from the subject, better is 2m but we didn’t have that space. 1m of distance equals 1 F-Stop so 2 metres of distance results in the background to be 2 stops underexposed. This is a general rule which also goes for portraits photography or packshots.

I wanted to shoot with F16 an 1/125s: 1/125s because of handshaking, F16 because of DOF (depth of field). I shot with a Canon 1DS Mark III + a 70-200 F2.8 @ f150mm. F16 seems to be much DOF but if you use a calculator (http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html) you can see that DOF is only 5cm at this aperture!

This setup requires the softbox to be 1 stop less than the striking light from left behind. So very important is to measure you light setup with a good flash meter, I use a Sekonic 358.

First I switch off the softbox, point the flash meter exactly (!) to the camera and light the striking flash. The flash meter will indicate how much light was transmitted by the flash. As the shutter speed is fixed at 1/125s it will display the F-number in 1 decimal, for example F11,4. This means that you have to lower the flash energy with 0,4. On digital flashes this is easy to set.

As the softbox must be 1 stop lower this one has to be set to F8, same way as we set the striking light. Don’t forget to switch off the striking light otherwise it will influence the light measurement. When this is finished the shooting can start.

Important with a reflecting underground is the lower the camera is the brighter the reflection is. So pay a lot of attention to composition and point of view. This is not a matter of just clicking, take time to take the best shot and have a nice composition.

For this picture I took the lowest possible point of view. Don’t forget to clean the plate as with this low point of view you will see every tiny part of dust.

If you would like to write for LFP, please go to guest post page for more details.

What Do You Think?

Did you like this post? What did you think about these shots and Martijn’s story of these photos? Do you have any questions? Leave your comment below to get answers.

Read How I Shot This – Sushi and Seafood Photos on Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog

© Neel for Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: food photography, how to, meat

How to Photograph Desserts

Neel — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 21:56:55 +0000

Food photography is challenging. Every dish has its own challenges and so does taking dessert photos. From melting ice creams to layered cake, getting a perfect photo of dessert can be challenging and enlightening. So, how do you photograph a dessert? Here’s how…

How to Photograph Cold Desserts

Desserts come in all shapes and forms. There are cold desserts and then there are desserts that are hot. In this post, we will focus on cold desserts and talk about preparing the shoot, styling the dessert and taking dessert photos.

Understanding Dessert

Any food photographer who wants to make great food images should start with understanding its subjects. As we talked about the first phase of food photography process, understanding how food behaves or will behave is crucial for a great food photo shoot.

Before anything else, find out details about the dessert. What is the dominant color of this dessert? What will be its texture like? What garnishing will be used? Learn about this subject as much as you can before moving forward.

Preparing the Photography Set

Timing is very critical in photographing cold desserts. In the photo above, I had about 2 minutes to take photos before the garnishing started changing its shape. For this reason, it is almost mandatory to keep the set absolutely ready when working with cold desserts, before bringing out the dessert that will make into the final photograph.

Tip 1. Create a Shot List

Shot list is a list of possible photos that you would like to take of a subject. Note all the possible photos you would like to take. Would you like someone holding that ice cream cone? What about more than one dishes in the photo? What about different props? Brainstorm the possible photos. Get some inspiration from desserts photos.

Tip 2. Sketch Your Photos

If you are just starting out in food photography and can’t think of different possible shots under pressure, try sketching the possible images you want to get. This should be done before you start to set the table.

Tip 3. Arrange the Props

Once you know what photos you are looking for, start arranging the props. What background will look better for that ice cream? Is a spoon better for this dessert or should it be a fork? Does a white plate look better or should it be some other color? Answer these questions and set the table.

Tip 4. Adjust Lighting

Now, that you have the props in place, modify the lighting and its direction. Understand lighting and use reflectors, bouncers diffusers and whatever fancy equipment you have. Make sure the dish will be lit as much as you would like. This is something you may have to adjust once you start taking photos.

Tip 5. Lower the Temperature

For photographing cold subject, temperature of the studio (or your kitchen, as the case may be) affects the amount of time you have for taking photographs. If possible create ice baths for desserts. This can be as simple as putting ice in a container and placing desserts and plates in the ice bath. This isn’t the most realistic option for many desserts, but when possible, can help the dessert stand in the room for longer time. Another option is to lower the temperature of your studio or kitchen. Of course, you can make ice cream out of mashed potato, but I like to eat ice cream I photograph (No! not if I am on location. For on locations, rest of the team eats the ice cream).

Styling Cold Desserts

As we talked about photographing desserts earlier, timing is the key to taking dessert photos. When creating dessert images, the goal is to keep the temperature of the dish down so that you can increase the time that dessert can be photographed without melting away.

Styling a desserts varies a lot depending on the dessert itself. Styling an ice cream is different that styling a flan which is quite different than styling gulab jamun. Keep professional food styling tips in mind.

If you are using garnishes in the photo, make sure they are cold. If you are garnishing with pistachios or other nuts, cool them.

Having a freezer/chiller or refrigerator in your studio is almost a must. If you are working with cold subjects, you just can’t live without having one of these near you.

If you plan to put your dessert in a freezer, make sure you cover it or it will get frost if kept inside for long time.

Once styling is done, keep the dessert in the refrigerator for a little while before starting to take pictures. This will let the dish lower its temperature and give you more time to photograph it.

While books like Food Styling for Photographers suggest using cardboards for keeping layers of cake stiff or using Styrofoam when photographing whole cakes, as I said earlier, I like to eat after I am done photographing. So, I am okay with trading off flexibility for edibility. But if you are comfortable with using the tricks, by all means go for it.

Photographing Desserts

Before you start photographing the decorated dessert dish, experiment using a stand-in. Stand-in is the fancy name for the dish that won’t make in the final photo. Stand-in may be just a dish similar to the dish that will make in the final photo, or it may even be a look-a-like. For photos in this post, an empty small-sized can was used.

Try couple of trial shots and see if you like the composition. Make changes. Move the spoon. Try vertical frame. Now try a horizontal frame. What do you like? Keep experimenting until you find some three or four compositions that you like (If you are planning to work with a client or art director, they may dictate how you should shoot). Once you are ready you need to move quickly.

How you photograph a dessert depends on what you want to show. Remember the most important photography question? Is your photo a photograph of the dessert? or is it about the experience of having a dessert? Whatever is your goal with this photo, it should translate to how you want to shoot the dessert.

Create strong food photos. Try to find the best camera angle for shooting food photos.

If you are using artificial lighting, the timing becomes even more critical while shooting cold desserts. Most artificial light raise the temperature of the room and cold dishes start to lose their form sooner. In situations when you have to use artificial light and cannot replace it with natural light, using a stand-in is very helpful.

As we talked before, experiment with artificial lighting and modifiers using a stand-in. Adjust the positions of mirrors and bouncers. Since you are using a stand-in, you can take your time and take notes of the positions and set-ups. Now turn-off the lighting.

Bring the dish that will make in the final photos, turn on the light and make photos quickly. Once the final dish is out, there is not time to practice or experiment. Every second you waste, translates to a minute or two of preparation time wasted.

Let me repeat this – the most crucial aspect of cold dessert photography is timing. In less than two minutes the chocolate garnish in the photo above changed its shape and the dessert looked like this. It is absolutely critical that once the dessert is out, you take as many thoughtful photos as you can. This also means that you need to plan your photos beforehand. Unless you have lot of experience in food photography and you can be very creative under pressure, without good preparation, your photos may not come out as well as you thought.

While there are no hard rules, I hope this post gave you some guidelines for photographing desserts. As you start to practice and take more photos, you will no longer have to sketch the photos and create the shot list. These ideas will come to you more naturally and intuitively.

Have You Taken Dessert Photos Before?

Have you shot desserts? What has been your experience? Share your tips for photographing desserts. What did you think about this post? Was this post helpful?

Read How to Photograph Desserts on Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog

© Neel for Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: dessert, food photography, how to

Food Photography Blog, Selecting Food Props, Your Camera and Interview with Matt Armendariz – Most Popular Posts in July 2010

Neel — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:43:31 +0000

This month we talked about food props and your camera. And Ilva gave some prop styling tips. Matt Armendariz shared how he became a food photographer. Here are most popular posts in July 2010.

How to Select Props for Mouth-Watering Food Photos – Interview with Ilva Beretta
In the first part of our interview with Ilva, she shared why you need a prop in your food photos, how to select a prop and how to choose a good background.
How a Professional Food Photographer Uses Props in Her Photos and 4 Frugal Ways to Go Prop Shopping – Interview with Ilva Beretta: Part 2
In the second part of this interview, Ilva picked three of her food photos and explained her thought process behind picking food props. She also shared her tips on growing a props collection on a budget.
5 Food Photography Tips for Strong Photos
Strong photos are a result of a well managed visual attention and mind control. How to control what your viewers should see and what they should not? You should know how to. Here’s how.
Photographing Gooseberries – Food Photo Feedback Request # 4
One of the most popular post that generated lot of conversation. How would you improve a food photo of gooseberries? Share your thoughts in the post and help a fellow reader.
Can Food Photography Improve Reader Engagement on Your Food Blog?
What do you think? I think it does. Read the post to find out how you can engage your readers and improve your food blog.
How Matt Armendariz Became a Food Photographer (and His Food Photography Tips for Great Food Photos)
One of the most admired food photographer talks about how he got into food photography and how you can improve your food photos.
Poll: What Camera Do You Use?
What camera do you use? DSLR? or compact? See what LFP readers are using and tell us what you use.

Read Food Photography Blog, Selecting Food Props, Your Camera and Interview with Matt Armendariz – Most Popular Posts in July 2010 on Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog

11 Essential Food Photography Tips From Top Food Photographers

Neel — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:20:38 +0000

In last few months, we have heard from some great food photographers, chefs and food stylists. They shared with us how they advanced in food photography and gave us some very practical and useful tips that we all can use when we take food photos. Read on for 11 food photography tips.

11 Food Photography Tips from Top Food Photographers

Here they are…

1. Understand Light for Better Food Photos

Liz Vidyarthi mentioned in her interview how she uses light and her process for food photography. For any photographer, it is important to understand light. If you are food photographer, you simply cannot improve if you don’t know how to manipulate light. Listen to this food photography interview with Liz Vidyarthi to learn more about lighting, lighting equipment and her workflow.

2. Don’t Ignore Prop Styling

Prop styling is the most ignored element by most new food photographers. Ilva Beretta fabulously explained the basics of prop styling and shared with us, how she uses props in her own photographs. She also mentioned some simple and easy ways to use props in food photograph. In part one of this interview she talks about basics of prop styling and in part 2 she explains her method of using props in food photos.

3. Choose Your Background Carefully

Strong food photos have well thought background. Meeta Khurana has a knack for choosing some great backgrounds for her food photos. In a two part interview with Meeta, she shared how you can learn food photography on your own and her tips on choosing background for food photos.

4. Start Shooting Raw Food

Raw food is most convenient to shoot. You don’t have to worry about a asparagus melting because you couldn’t take photos in time. You don’t even have to worry about tomato not being hot enough. All you have to think is the veggies are fresh. Bring some fresh veggie and get started. When you are learning culinary photography, raw food is a very convenient way to experiment and learn this skill. Clare Barboza explained how to take raw food photos in a previous interview.

5. Learn Food Styling and Food Plating

A photograph can only be as beautiful as the subject is. Food styling and plating are two very important elements of a beautiful photograph. French Culinary Institute graduate chef and food photographer Adriana Mullen shared some tips to better food styling and plating in an interview with us. Read Adriana’s food styling tips.

6. Become a Great Storyteller

We all love stories. Great stories win hearts. Storytelling in one frame is an advanced photography skill that can be improved only by practicing. Listen to Matt Wright’s interview on food photography and how to tell a story with food photos.

7. Keep Experimenting

Mowie Kay’s good looking dessert blog is no secret to most LFP readers. He has won a lot of praise and recognition for his food photography. His advice to new food photographers is to keep experimenting. Framing and lighting and positioning, change it all and take that photo again. Read Mowie’s food photography tips.

8. Regularly Charge Your Creative Batteries

When you are starting to learn a new skill, it is important to be inspired and keep the wheels of creativity running and working. Aran Goyoaga mentioned some very fabulous food photographers, stylists in her interview. Look at their work and study their portfolios. Read Aran’s food photography interview..

9. Develop Your Vision

You may remember that we had a great interview with Matt Armendariz. We discussed a lot about vision and keeping the goal in mind. The secret to a great photographer begins with vision and understanding your vision. Understand how you can develop your vision and listen to Matt’s interview and start answering that one extremely important photography question.

10. Learn the Basics of Photography

Liz mentioned the importance of learning photography in general. Food photography is a special type of photography. Every aspiring photographer needs to know the basics of photography. Listen to Liz Vidyarthi’s food photography interview and learn how she improves her photography by analyzing wide variety of photographers.

11. Stay Inspired and Learn From Experts

Above all, continue your journey to excellence not just by taking food photos regularly but also by listening to interviews of these experts on a regular basis. Get ready for our next few interviews that we will be doing with some exceptional food photographers. Get future interviews with food photographers. Grab the RSS feed or subscribe for email updates.

What is your food photography tip? How do you keep yourself inspired? Share your tips with us and rest of the readers.

Read 11 Essential Food Photography Tips From Top Food Photographers on Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog

Food Photography Can Increase Reader Engagement on Your Food Blog by 300% – A Simple Study to Understand How to Create a Successful Food Blog

Neel — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:03:01 +0000

Does outstanding food photography really build a successful food blog? What do you think? I thought it would be interesting to study some top recipe bloggers that have outstanding food photography and see how much difference does taking mouth-watering food photos make? Read further to see if food photos really contribute the success of a food blog.

Planning The Food Photography Study

You’ve heard this a lot and I have heard this too – stunning images improve your blogs. However, I have not seen any proof/study showing that if you take better food photos, your food blog will get better. There is a lot of talk about taking better images and mouth-watering dessert photographs and the story-telling.

But does it really matter? Do readers even care about photography? Is this all fluff talk? Or do better images really create an engaging audience? I wanted to find out. With this curiosity, I started investigating.

The Goal

The main goal of this study was to learn how outstanding food photos contribute in success of food blogs. This was the “what’s the purpose” of this whole study. The way I defined a successful blog was by the way it was received and whether the readers were really engaged.

Measuring Success

So once I identified the objective for this exercise, the next thing was to decide what metric is the best reflection of “successful posts”. Should it be number of visitors, or number of views on the blogs? Should I just use time spent on the page or something else? Perhaps readers engagement was the best way to tell whether a blog is successful or not. But how do we measure engagement?

What to Measure

There are lot of statistics that can measure “success” however, in my opinion, number of comments is a good way to measure impact and engagement of a blog and a post. I think if a post has interested and impacted the readers, there will be some discussion about the content of the post. In food blogs, this content can be recipe, story or photograph.

Number of comments is also something that is easily available, and is easy to collect than some of the other metrics. So, number of comments became the measure of impact and how well the post was received. It was a simple way to tell whether readers were moved by the post.

Selecting The Food Blogs and Posts

Since my goal was to measure impact of food photos on successful blogs, it made sense to start with, well, successful food blogs. Rather than hunting for successful posts on every food blog on the internet I start with popular food bloggers.

Choosing Food Blogs

This study was limited to learning the impact of food blogs that post recipes on a regular basis. The thought was to study some popular blogs that have an outstanding food photography on a consistent basis. I chose number of comments as a measure to see how popular a food blog was. If it was easy to find a post that had more than 50 comments on a blog, it was a popular blog.

Choosing the Food Photography Posts

Ideally, if a post received more than 50 comments, we defined it as “well received”. However, since I selected blogs that had many posts with 50+ comments, a successful post within a top blog should have much more than 50 comments. So I kept this number to be 70.

If in a top food blog, a post received 70 or more comments, I called it “well received.” Of course, the age of post also mattered in this case. Since very recent posts may not receive as many comments, I went with posts that were at least one month old.

What Defines Impact of Food Photos

Quick recap – we chose number of comments as a measure of being well received. Top blogs that had more posts with 50+ comments were shortlisted and in these blogs, posts with 70+ comments were selected for this study.

The next challenge was to find a connection between these posts and food photos. If there was a connection between food photos used in these posts, it should be reflected some where. For instance, if readers really liked the photograph, they would compliment the blogger. And for this again, a good place to start was comment section of a post.

I looked at comments suggesting that a reader liked photography. Comments mentioning words like photo, photography, pic, picture clearly indicate that the commenter was moved by the food photos. The number of comments were counted and compared to the number of times readers have appreciated the food photography on a particular post.

Impact of Outstanding Food Photography on Food Blogs

I selected 7 blogs that have great food images and have done that consistently. Lets look at these seven blogs and see how their photography impacts reader engagement on their blogs.

Bea from La Tartine Gourmande posted a potato salad recipe and some awesome potato salad photos. This post got about 75 comments in total (as of writing this article) and of these 75 comments, photos were mentioned 50 times. This suggests that every 2 out of 3 times someone leaves a comment about Bea’s photography. Following are few comments from readers of this post.

“Your pictures are magical/”

“Your photographs and foods are so gorgeous I can almost smell them!”

“This potato salad looks like none other I have seen before. And your pictures are beyond words!”

“Your photos always put me in a serene state of mind. They’re gorgeous. And this potato salad really does speak of spring.”

“Fabulously-looking salad – a true joy to all senses. Adding watercress adds a whole new dimension to it, both visually and taste-wise. Thanks.”

These comments clearly suggest that photography had a lot of impact on these readers. This influence was so great that they couldn’t stop themselves from writing a comment.

Helene from Tartelette shared a recipe of fresh berry tartelette and more than some mouth-watering tartelette photos. After 71 comments in total, 48 times readers talked about photos in this post. As in the first case, in this post too, there were many comments on photography. Here are few of them:

“These are stunning!! I love the second shot!”

“Wow, those are the most stunning tartlettes!”

“Your pictures are so beautiful and always induce sweets cravings!
Thanks for sharing!”

Aran from Cannelle Vanille Blog has some stunning food images in Raspberry, Cocoa and Mesquite post. This post received 77 comments, 52 times photography was discussed in the comments. (Read How Aran became a food photographer.)

Diane and Todd from White on Rice Couple wrote about Vietnamese Pork Banh Mi and included some outstanding photos of this dish. Again, 48 times food photos were discussed in 75 comments that they received.

Meeta from What’s For Lunch Honey took some great macarons photos for her Raspberry Macarons post. Similar response to food photos – 45 discussions in 77 comments. (read Meeta’s advice on how to select background for food photography)

Mowie from Mowielicious received a whopping 99 comments on his dark cherry cake post and has awesome cherry crumble cake photographs. In those 99 comments, 72 times photos of this post were discussed. (Mowie tells us How to Make Your Food Blog Good Looking)

Kajal from Aapplemint posted dark chocolate cake photos in the recipe post and received 84, 47 of which are related to photography.

All these food bloggers, received lot of wonderful comments from their readers. Readers were so moved that they couldn’t stop themselves and wrote a comment complimenting these bloggers. Almost in each of these cases, 2 out of 3 comments were on their food photography. In other words, readers of these blogs were engaged and wanted to participate in the “community” just by looking at these stunning food photos.

On a high level, if you aggregate all of the posts in this set, in 558 comments, 362 times food photography was mentioned. So what did we learn from the study?

Summary of This Study

We looked at 7 food photographers who have mastered this art and we selected their posts with 70+ comments. We then scanned the comments section of these posts for expressions that imply some interest in the photographs. After completing this exercise, we looked through some 560 comments and found around 360 comments/instances that related to photography in these posts. This tells us that on an average, every 2 out of 3 comment related to photography on that post where the comment was made.

Conclusion

After this study, it is clear that just by improving your photography you can evoke a response in an audience on your food blog. If every 2 out of 3 comment relates to food photography, it can also be said that, 66% of the comments have something to do with food photography and therefore, better food photography is related to better engagement and emotional response in your audience.

To look at this idea a little differently it can be said that just by improving your food photography, you can get more reader engagement and hence more comments. If every 2 out of 3 comments relate to photography on these blogs, you can increase the number of comments by 3 times by improving your food photography.

A food blog can be successful if your readers are engaged and are moved so much that they just can’t stop themselves from writing a comment and complimenting your food photography. While there are many blogs that may receive some comments once in a while, a successful food blog receives these comments on a regular basis, implying that your readers are engaged.

Do Your Own Food Photography Study

I am sure you have heard that better photography improves a blog. You can do this very simple exercise too. Pick a food blogger that you admire and study the comments on a post that has great food photography.

How have your readers responded to your photography? Do you read one of the blogs we picked up for this study? What do you feel about food photography on these blogs?

Photo courtesy Phil Dragash

Read Food Photography Can Increase Reader Engagement on Your Food Blog by 300% – A Simple Study to Understand How to Create a Successful Food Blog on Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog

© Neel for Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 22 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: food photography, study

What Camera Do You Use?

Neel — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:04:00 +0000

People are just fascinated by gear. The cameras and the lenses and the lights and the filters. I am too.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

If you use with Point and Shoot (P&S), in the comments below, tell us what camera do you use and do you like it? For shooting food, what challenges do you have with P&S? What questions do you have?

DSLR Users, why did you buy the camera you use? DSLRs can be complicated. What would you like to learn about your camera? Tell us in the comments below.

Share your questions with us in the comments.

Photo courtesy: by Derek K. Miller

Read What Camera Do You Use? on Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog

How Matt Armendariz Became a Food Photographer (and His Food Photography Tips for Great Food Photos) – Interview with Matt Armendariz

Neel — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:46:00 +0000

There are some people that inspire you and teach you a lot even in very few moments you spend with them. I had a wonderful opportunity to interview one such person. This interview is not to be missed. About 40 minutes of pure food photography talk with one of the great food photographer.

Let’s Welcome Matt Armendariz

Times Online calls Mattbites.com 7th best food blog in the world. His blog has been recognized by several publications, editors and writers. His blog is selected by editors of Martha Stewart Living and is one of the charter members of Martha’s Circle.

Matt is also writing a cookbook that is set to release in Spring 2011. Matt has received a lot of accolades and recognitions from many magazines and newspapers including Times Online UK, CNET and others. Matt is also featuring in August 2010 issue of Bon Appetit.

This is a very special interview go on press the play button to listen to this interview.

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

How Matt Became a Food Photographer

Matt has been in the food industry for more than 20 years. Before becoming a food photographer, Matt was a graphic artist and art director. In the interview Matt tells an interesting story about how he became a food photographer.

Role of Art Director in Food Photography

Role of art director varies greatly from shoot to shoot. Depending on the size of the photography shoot, art director may only provide creative input or may be very involved in a photo shoot. Art director is the person who communicates the idea and works with photographers and stylists to make sure idea comes out in the photo or video. In some cases, art director may also hire food photographers and stylists. Listen more at 7:52

How Can One Start Learning Food Photography

Technical knowledge are the basics of photography. Learn that. And before doing anything else, answer the most important photography question. Understanding the answer and then you work with those

How To Take Better Photos for Your Food Blog

Matt gives a great example on how food bloggers can improve food photography. Matt talks about asking yourself what are your passionate about, what is your blog about? What are you writing about. So then you take that idea and incorporating some kind of prop or element in the photograph. Listen more at 15:12.

Listen this Food Photography Interview to learn:

How Matt takes photos…
How Matt plans his photo shoots…
How is shooting for blogs different from commercial photography…
How Matt shoots photos for his food blogs…
How Matt learned food photography on his own…

Thank you

Thank you for sparing some time for this interview. You can view Matt’s food photography portfolio by visiting MattArmendariz.com. Matt can be found on twitter @mattarmendariz go say Hello to Matt.

What did you think about this interview? Tell us what can we improve. Who should we interview next? Speak your mind in the comments section below.

If you are visiting here for the first time, don’t forget to read/listen our interviews with Matt Wright, Aran Goyoaga, Adriana Mullen, Editor of Tastespotting, Clare Barboza, Liz Vidyarthi, Meeta Khurana and Mowie Kay.

For listening to upcoming Food Photography interviews, subscribe to the RSS feed or by subscribe to email updates.

Photos used in this interview are copyright property of Matt Armendariz.

Read How Matt Armendariz Became a Food Photographer (and His Food Photography Tips for Great Food Photos) – Interview with Matt Armendariz on Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog

© Neel for Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: food photographer, people

Photographing Gooseberries – Food Photo Critique Request # 4

Neel — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 03:17:00 +0000

What do you think about this gooseberry photo? Here is another photograph that our reader Iza sent us for getting feedback and helping readers with developing a creative eye.

Photographing Gooseberries

Iza from KorwelPhotography.com took this photograph and sent us some details. Below is more information on the goal of this photograph, how this photograph was taken and the story behind it.

Goal for this Raw Food Photo

I was observing the fruit ripening in my father-in-low garden, and I wanted to photograph a feeling of summer, fruit freshly picked in the garden, spontaneity.

Photography Gear and The Story

I took my Nikon D300 and my all-around 18-200 mm f/3.5-5.6 Nikkor lens. It allows me to focus from surprisingly close for non-macro lens, and I use it all the time.

I started from photographing the bushes, and the fruit hanging on them, but the photographs were not that interesting. So I looked around and saw this old, wooden garden table, and
figured it might provide simple, interesting background for a more complex set-up. The fruit placed on the table by itself were not that compelling either, so I went through cupboards looking for an appropriate plate.

This bowl decorated with flower at first didn’t look like a great idea. I typically use plain dishes, as I feel anything else is distracting from the subject. But unless I wanted to go shopping, there was nothing better in the house. So I decided to give it a try. After all, the flower on the bowl matched in color the gooseberries. I took several images of the bowl filled with berries, and then remembered that food photographers usually "spill" some fruit around, randomly, so I tried that, too. But I don’t feel the loose berries are as interestingly placed as I wanted them to be.

Iza is looking for Feedback on…

I am looking for some thoughts on how to improve the composition of the image. Also, what others think about the bowl itself- is is too distracting or is it perfect for the set?

Technical Details and Post Processing

In the final image, I used aperture of f/29. Anything else was giving me to shallow depth of field. When the fruit in the bowl were in focus, the loose fruit on the table were already too soft. It resulted in shutter speed of 1/10 sec. I was using the tripod, as it was late afternoon, and the sun was already on the other side of the house. I was using only available light, and ISO was set to 400, higher ISO already gives grainy images.

For post-processing, I used Lightroom 3, added some Vibrance and Clarity, decreased a bit the Luminance of Green and added some Vignette to darken the table in the corners.

—-

My Two Cents

Iza, overall I like this photograph. In my opinion, the dark background and green gooseberries are working together in a great way. It is hard to give a critique if you wouldn’t have specified the goal of your photograph.

One thing I would point out here is that in my opinion the photograph in its current state is beautiful, if we were to ignore your goal. One suggestion would be to try a tighter crop, there is some extra space on all four sides, that can be removed.

Now, bringing your goal of showing “feeling of summer” into perspective, I think we need to start thinking about vision, how to communicate it and the voice. My vision of “feeling of summer” may be different than your vision. In my opinion, if I were to communicate feeling of summer, I would use some iconic fruit, veggie that loudly shouts “SUMMER”. So I have to admit that part is a little challenging for me.

I think overall this is a wonderful photo. I actually like the bowl because it goes with the color of fruit.

What Are Your Suggestions?

What do you think about this photo? What are some compositional suggestions you have for Iza? What do you think about the bowl? Would you suggest a plain bowl or the current one? Does this photograph communicate what Iza is trying to communicate?

Give some suggestions for Iza by leaving a comment below.

Would you Like to Improve Your Food Photos?

Do you want to improve your food photography? Send us a photo that you would like feedback on by sending us a note by clicking this.

Read Photographing Gooseberries – Food Photo Critique Request # 4 on Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog

© Neel for Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 17 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: feedback

How a Professional Food Photographer Uses Props in Her Photos and 4 Frugal Ways to Go Prop Shopping – Interview with Ilva Beretta: Part 2

Neel — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 02:59:00 +0000

Few days back, we published part 1 of food photography interview with Ilva Beretta. We talked about how to choose the props, why we need props and how to collect them. In this interview we talk about 4 ways to build your food props collection. In this post, Ilva also shares her thought process of using props in her food photographs.

Let’s Welcome Ilva Once Again

As I said in previous part, this was one very informative interview and we talked for about 1 1/2 hours. The first part of this interview was published in audio format and I decided to publish notes for this part instead of audio interview.

4 Frugal Ways to Go Prop Shopping on a Limited Budget

In part 1 we talked about some of this. During our interview we talked about these 4 ways to collect props for photography. Below are these ways including some of my notes for explanation.

Buy from thrift stores – Thrift stores are the best places to get the props for cheap. If you live in a country where thrift stores aren’t popular, be a little creative and find stores that sell used goods.
Get it from your parents or relatives – This was the most amazing tips that Ilva suggested. Very often we forget that we can ask our parents, extended family and relatives for something like this, and possibly get this without any cost (okay! you should treat them nicely for rest of your/their life).
Make your own props – Ilva also made her own weary looking cutting board. This is a great idea.
Barter it – This year’s Food Blogger Connect event also had a “food prop swap” – another excellent way to share the love. Read more food photography tips from the Food Blogger Connect event.

How Ilva Used Props in Her Food Photos

In this interview we picked three photos and we discussed the thought process behind using props in these photos.

The first photograph we talked about was Hot Red Bell Pepper Soup. Ilva painted the cutting board with white paint and ageing agent and used decoupage to create the crackling effect. In this case, this was hot soup, it had a strong color. And her goal her was to make the photo look cool. The soup has such a strong color. The reason Ilva used white background rather than red or orange or any other color is that white made soup stand out. Red or orange was hard to combine with this food subject. Her opinion is that usually light or dark backgrounds work better then most other backgrounds. “In this case, Red or yellow distract from the main subject. You won’t be able to see the soup.”

Then we talked about this photo. The butternut squash on black background – Dark velvet in the background to contrast with yellowish orange butternut squash. Ilva explained that the main focus was to show the form and color and it was so striking here that it was a good idea to use black background. White background or any other light background would have faded the color of butternut squash.

Our third photo was that of Pistachio panna cotta. Here she wanted to create a romantic atmosphere. And that’s why she went with the pink than completely white background. The color here was very pale so if only white background was used, this food would disappear. Also the pale green in color of Panna cotta, which in itself wasn’t interesting. Since her goal here was to create a romantic atmosphere or mood. She went with rose petals to enhance the photo.

Favorite Food Photographers, Stylists, Books etc.

Ilva’s one of the recommendation is food photographer Marie Louise Avery. See her portfolio, it is very creative and unique. Great Inspiration.

Her food styling recommendation is Delores Custer. Delores recently wrote a fantastic book on food styling and it was out recently. From what I heard from Ilva, this book Food Styling is a great book and has very comprehensive tips for food styling. This book recently was available on Amazon at 37% discount. See the current price of the book here.

Another book that we talked about was Food Styling for Food Photographers. Food Styling for Photographers: A Guide to Creating Your Own Appetizing Art

Thank you Ilva

As I said, this was one great interview. We had a nice conversation was glad that Ilva was able to spend so much time with us.

Readers, Ilva spent a lot of time sharing her knowledge and expertise. I hope this was helpful to you. Make sure you say hi to Ilva on her blog or twitter profile (@lucullian). Connect with her.

Next – Matt Armendariz is Coming!!

I am totally excited about this one. Matt Armendariz from Matt Bites has graciously given us a pleasure to interview him. Tomorrow 7/15 I’ll be interviewing him starting 7:30 pm CST. Send the questions you would like me to ask him. Send them to me via twitter (@neellfp)

Read How a Professional Food Photographer Uses Props in Her Photos and 4 Frugal Ways to Go Prop Shopping – Interview with Ilva Beretta: Part 2 on Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog

© Neel for Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: food photographer, people, props

How to Make a Strong Food Photo – 5 Food Photography Tips for Strong Photos

Neel — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 01:47:47 +0000

As a visual artist, a great photographer has a knack of summarizing her vision of the scene into one frame. She does this by understanding her vision and taking action to translate that vision into a frame. She decides what information to include and what to exclude. She thinks about where to put the subject and where the light should be. She knows how to manage her viewers’ attention.

We have talked about managing your viewers’ attention previously. In this post we talk about creating a strong photo and attention management in more detail.

Making a Strong Food Photograph

A strong image is a piece of art you can look at and look into for long time and something that is very engaging. A strong photograph has a clear subject and all the elements in the photo gel together to create a masterpiece. A strong photograph attracts viewers’ attention and continues to interest the viewer.

Strong photographs have one more important quality. These images send a clear message – message that is coherent and is supported by all the different elements in the photo. Strong photographs don’t have any distracting elements.

Distracting Elements in Your Food Photos

As we have previously discussed, for making a great photo you have to direct your viewers’ attention to those areas of the frame and to those elements in the frame that are important for your vision and your visual communication.

If all the different elements in a photo are not supporting the common theme or common message, the photograph becomes weak. This element can be a cluttered background or an object that doesn’t belong in the scene. These distracting elements confuse your viewers and create chaos.

There are some common ways these distracting elements can sneak in the frame quietly if you don’t pay attention before pressing that button. Here are 5 ways distractions sneak in a photo.

5 Ways Distractions Sneak in a Photograph

Distractions come in all sizes and shapes. Take your eye of that part of the frame and there… your frame now includes an uninvited element. Below are 5 ways your food photo can be encroached by distractions.

Watch The Background

In my opinion, background of an image is most influential part of the entire photograph. It should be as pure and simple as possible. A background that is cluttered and has lot of unrelated information, tells lot of stories that no one wants to hear. A clear and supportive background accentuates the main subject of photo.

Lets look at the two slightly underexposed photos below and see how background affects the subject. The first photograph of raw ingredients of a salad is placed on a mat.

Compare this photo with one below. Same subject, a different background. In the photo above the vertical lines of the mat and horizontal black lines on the mat divert from the main subject. In the photo below, the background has no information. It is black. Where do your eyes go now?

Decide the Frame

Another common way an unwanted element can enter a photograph is by peeking through the frame. Remember that corner of the table or that wooden board you weren’t planning to include in your photo? Well crop it. Or that edge of that spoon lying on the table? You know what to do. Crop that thing.

Blurred Foreground

In landscape photography, foregrounds play an important role. In food photography, blurred foreground don’t do anything other than creating a distraction. When using shallow depth of field, anything in foreground will be blurred (of course depending on how shallow dof is) if you focus for the subject. So place the props in a way that they support the photograph and the subject.

Too Many Colors

Color is an important element of art. When the colors in a frame support each other, the output is one congruent message. In a food photograph, the color of food governs what colored background, plates and props to use. Use colors that support the color of food and you have a strong photo. Use too many colors and you got a noisy photo with lot of chaos. Below is a 12-color color wheel.

This tool helps to pick supporting colors and complementary colors. If you would like to use a complementary color scheme, simply locate the color (or one that is closest to it) of food and the color exactly opposite to it, is a complementary color. For example, yellow is complemented by violet.

What’s Your Subject

Photography starts with a subject. Sometimes a subject is a food dish, sometimes it is an emotion. The important photography question helps you identify the subject of your next photo. Unless you have a clear idea about your subject, you can fall into trap of including too many subjects. And too many subjects = distraction.

More Tips on Eliminating Distractions

What tips do you have to eliminate distractions? What do you use to make your photos strong? What are your challenges? Tell us in the comments below.

Source of color wheel

Read How to Make a Strong Food Photo – 5 Food Photography Tips for Strong Photos on Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog

© Neel for Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: food photography

How to Select Props for Mouth-Watering Food Photos – Interview with Ilva Beretta

Neel — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:24:53 +0000

Props play a very important role in food photography. Today we have someone who loves collecting food props. From borrowing it from parents to ripping off the door, she shares her expertise with us on collecting, choosing and using props in food photography.

Let’s Welcome Ilva Beretta

Ilva (@lucullian) is a freelance photographer (see her portfolio here) and mainly in editorial and stock photography. She writes at Lucullian Delights and posts recipes on the blog. She wrote series of food props posts called Food Props on Sunday. These posts have great information. Read about props for background, using plates, drinking glasses and cutlery and finally a whole post on textiles like tablecloths, kitchen towel and napkins.

I had a great time talking to Ilva. She is so passionate about food props and I was enjoying talking to her that the conversation that was supposed to last about 45 mins went to 90 mins. I thoroughly enjoyed the interview.

Unfortunately, the recording set up went bad and the output got lot of crackling and clicking and after some kung-fu kicks I was able to save the photo to only a certain degree. Following player has edited audio with some level of cleaning, there needs to be some more done.

Press play to listen to the interview. Please note this version of audio file has some crackling and click sounds at higher volumes.

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

Why Do You Need Food Props?

Props make food photographs better and create an atmosphere and environment for a photo. Props create a setting or mood in photos that makes viewer think about what photographer is trying to communicate. Ilva gives an example of a red sauce on brown plate that makes photo look bad.

Creating Prop Collection in Minimal Cost

When you don’t have too much space and limited budget, you can concentrate on some universally used props. You can go with some white plates, some spoons and forks that can be used on most variety of food photos. Once you have this, you can buy various colors, textiles and different type of glasses.

Be resourceful and try to look at things you already have. There may be some items in your house that can be used as a prop.

How to Choose a Good Background?

Selecting a good background is important for making a mouth-watering photo. Background should be select such that it enhances photograph. Unsupportive background run the photo. Like the example above, red sauce on brown plate does not look good. Similarly the background needs to be selected by thinking about color of food,

How to Select Props for a Dish

Start with color of food and then decide on plate and then think about cutlery and background. The objective here is to emphasize food so food should be prominent and everything else should be supporting food.

Try several options. It’s a process so change your cutlery or background or other props to see what looks best on your food dish.

Camera sees things differently than human eye. So train your eye to see like a camera when you are taking pictures. Until then, look through the viewfinder to see how the photo make look like.

Full Interview Notes Coming Soon

In the next week, I’ll post the remaining part of this interview, where Ilva talks about two of her favorite photo and tells us how she photographed them.

Thanks Ilva

Thank you Ilva for spending time with us and sharing your knowledge on props and how to use them in food photography.

Readers, as always, would love to hear your comments about this.

Read How to Select Props for Mouth-Watering Food Photos – Interview with Ilva Beretta on Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog

Jedi Mind Control Tricks That Every Food Photographer Should Know

Neel — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 05:38:51 +0000

"Hmm. Control, control. You must learn control." – Yoda

Her viewers’ mind, The great photographer controls. Control you must, successful you will be. Okay! Enough of Yoda English. All jokes aside, all well-known successful photographers know this – “Jedi Mind Tricks” work. Always.

Mind Control and Food Photography

Making great food photos is complex process. We have talked about the food photography process in great detail. First there is the subject, then there is the table, and the silverware and the plate. Oh, you need to control the lighting and orchestrate the equipments. Then you have to think – how to position, where to place the props and the food styling. The camera and the lenses?

There are so many things to remember and adjust and modify. How can someone who is getting into food photography remember all the minute details. So, rather than remembering the every little knob you need to turn and press every small switch, you can do something that is much simpler and when applied effectively, always works.

“What can I do?”, you may ask. Here’s the answer – learn mind control. Learn how to control your viewers’ mind. Photographer and mind control?

Yes! A great photographer is a master of mind control. She decides where a viewer should look, when he is looking at her food photo. She also implicitly communicates in what areas of a photograph should a viewer direct his attention. She moves her viewers eyes. She control his mind.

In the most simplistic terms, isn’t that what’s photography all about? You, the photographer, have a vision. If you have defined your vision in your mind clearly enough, you will know what part of the scene is important to you and what you want your viewers to see. You then take a photo and capture the scene as your vision was.

You add certain elements that you want your viewers to notice. You remove certain items from the frame and the readers can no longer see. In the entire process of photography, from the time you get the vision, to the time the photograph is captured and processed and published, you are controlling what you want your viewers to see and what you want to eliminate.

This idea is very simple and resides at the very core of photography. If you understand this idea, photography becomes simple. This simple idea is little profound and difficult to digest.

If you have answered the most important question in photography, you already have a vision. You have decided what the final photo should look like. The aim then is to manage your viewers’ attention and direct it to an area in the frame, where you want the viewers to focus.

As a photographer, you need to tell your viewers, what should they look first and what they shouldn’t look at. This can be achieved by understanding the mind control techniques used by successful photographers. I am sure you have used some of these techniques, knowingly or unknowingly.

Mind Control Techniques for Food Photographers

Effective mind control or managing and directing your viewers’ attention is the only thing that makes a photograph engaging. A strong photo clearly directs viewers’ eyes and attention. The photographer defines the main elements in the photograph and communicates this by capturing the photo in such way.

You too can control your viewers’ mind. Here are few techniques most frequently used by photographers:

Sharp Focus

Our eyes always run to the part of a photograph that is in focus and is sharper than other elements in that photograph. If you want your viewers to look towards a certain area or an element, adjust the focus so that your subject/required area is sharply focused.

Depth of Field

An element that is differentiated from rest of the elements, attracts more attention that the rest of the elements. Shallow depth of field is a wonderful technique to get that differentiation. If you have one element that you would like your viewers to see in the photograph, control depth of field to make this element pop out.

Color

Colors attract human eye. We focus on brighter colors first. We look at shades of red and yellow and orange, before looking at dark green or dark blue and other darker colors. This works only if the photo has true colors. Wrong colors make a photo unappealing. If you want your viewers to direct their attention towards a certain element, make sure its brighter and that you get true colors in photographs.

These are just three main techniques and some of this may not be a big surprise to you, but it is funny how we entangle ourselves into all the complexity around us and forget the absolute basic of all this. There are many other photography techniques to control your viewers’ mind and direct their attention to areas where you would like them to see. What are some techniques you use?

To get the most out of this post, I would request you to think about the simple concept of “what is photography?” Digest this idea and leave your thoughts below.

Read the next part of this post: How to Make Strong Photographs

Your Mind Control Tricks

What are your mind control tricks? Have you used any of these tricks? What are your thoughts on mind control and photography? What other photographic techniques can be used for controlling mind? Tell us. Leave a comment.

May the force be with you.

Yoda photo by arycogre

Read Jedi Mind Control Tricks That Every Food Photographer Should Know on Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog

© Neel for Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: depth of field, photography

Food Photo Critique Request # 3 – Chicken Quesadillas

Neel — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 19:56:21 +0000

This week’s food photo critique request comes from our long time reader Jenn from Jenncuisine. She has requested your feedback on her Chicken Quesadilla photo. How will you improve this quesadilla photo? What will you add? What will you remove?

About Chicken Quesadilla Photo

Here are the details from Jenn about the photograph

—-

Setup of this photo

This is the blog post, which also shows my photog. setup at the bottom. – it’s a pretty typical setup of mine, literally a plate on a napkin, with a blue wooden serving tray propped up for a background, and the light from the window coming in at about 4:00. It was a pretty gray day out so I did not bother diffusing the light any.

Technical Details

Below are the technical details of this photograph:

Focal Length: 95mm

Aperature: f/5.3

Exposure: 1/20 s

Camera: Nikon D200

Lens: 18-200 mm f/3.5-5.6G AF VR

RAW image processed in Photoshop Elements.

Goal for Quesadilla Photo

My goal for this shot was to give an otherwise flat and colorless food some interest and height – so I stacked the quesadillas on top of each other, and then topped the stack with some of the fillings to add in some color. The plate isn’t the most "quesadilla – like", but it was that or a plain white one and I was already using a white napkin to set the plate on. I’d tried with two different backdrops – my wooden cutting board, which I decided blended in with the tortillas too much, or this blue wooden serving tray, which I thought provided more contrast in color – my thoughts were that together the blue plate, blue/gray background would complement the warm and vibrant colors of the quesadilla stack. In post-processing I did not do much, but brightened a bit and decreased the contrast a fair amount.

I feel like the photo is missing something, and I’m not sure what. I suspect it needs most help with composition and styling. It was accepted by Tastespotting (Neel’s note: Read how Tastespotting selects food photos – Tastespotting’s editor explains ), but rejected by Foodgawker for "harsh lighting/overexposed", so obviously Foodgawker thinks that lighting is the main issue. I’m curious as to what everyone’s thoughts are about how I could improve this shot.

—–

My Two Cents

In my opinion, this is a unique and creative presentation of quesadilla. The stack is well exposed and green and red at the top add some good color to the dull quesadillas. Since the objective was to some interest to a colorless food, I think the tomato and a slice of avocado does that.

If I were to shoot this, I would start with the food. As you did here, if we decide to go with stacked quesadilla and tomato and avocado on it, I would change the other colors used in the photo. If you look at this photo there are three shades of blue, a pale quesadilla, green and red – too many colors. These 6 different colors distract me from the food. I would stick with red or green and use either one of these colors or their shades. I think this one thing really stands out for me and as I said, if i were to do this, I would choose a color or at most two and create a photo based on that. In some dishes, having many colors works (like ice cream with sprinkles) in others it does not – in my opinion.

As I said, overall this is a new presentation that I have seen for quesadilla. Its fresh.

What Do You Think?

What would you think? What are your suggestions for Jenn? Read this photo. What do you think about the frame? What about background? Your thoughts on the bright spot on the bottom right corner?

Do you need a feedback on your food photo? All you have to do is send us a note by clicking here or tweet me. We’ll get in touch with you and do the rest.

Photo used in this post is copyright of Jenn from JennCuisine.

Read Food Photo Critique Request # 3 – Chicken Quesadillas on Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog

Food Styling and Food Presentation Tips for Food Bloggers and Photographers – Interview with Adriana Mullen

Neel — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:50:06 +0000

Food presentation is tough. Who would be a better person to talk about food plating and presentation than a chef trained at French Culinary Institute. In this interview, we interview Adriana Mullen on how to make food look good for the camera. She also shares some things that should be avoided both artistically and legally.

Let’s Welcome Adriana Mullen

Adriana Mullen is a food photographer and professional chef with trained from French Culinary Institute, New York. Her portfolio is available at Adriana Mullen Photography and can be found on twitter @AdrianaMullen. Adriana, originally from Sardinia, Italy, has been living in New York for more than 20 years. In this interview, Adriana explains how to improve food presentation and shares some insights from a culinary point of view. This is a great interview for aspiring food photographers to learn about food styling.

Press the Play Button to hear the interview

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

Important: We discuss some food photography laws in this interview. As you know, laws vary from place to place, please consult a lawyer for your specific case.

What is a Great Food Photo?

Here’s how Adriana defines a good food photo:

Emotionally moves you and affects you.
If you want to eat the photo, then the photo is dead on. It is good.
And the technical aspects should be

What else makes a good photo? We talk about this at 01:45

How To Use Flowers and Herbs The Right Way

Adriana has some strong opinion about using flowers and herbs. There is a right way to use flowers and in most cases you should avoid flowers. There are laws that should be followed. Similar to flowers, herbs should be used after a careful thought. Herbs are okay to use when it is really used in the recipe. There is more to it and lot of thought is put behind using flowers and herbs. Listen to what Adriana has to say about this topic at 20:26 mins in the interview.

Food Styling, Food Plating and Presentation Tips

Don’t over plate the food
Keep it simple
Less is more – Use less food, less elements. (Read more about this Food Styling Tip)
Blanch veggies – Instead of cooking the veggies, blanch them. Blanching the veggies is easy. Put veggies in hot water for few seconds and then cool them in ice water. The color will come out nice and bright.
Don’t put too much sauces – In culinary world, too much sauce in plate is an indication that food may be not cooked well. It can be seen as you are trying to hide something.
Know when to use flowers
Use right herbs with the dish
Stacking the food – trends like this one come and go.

Read more food styling tips discussed on this blog.

How To Take Raw Food Photos

In this section we talked about two photos taken by Adriana and she explains what was the thought behind the photo (remember that one question most of aspiring food photographer ignore, this is the answer you would get).

Photographing Tuna and Soft-Shell Crabs

The goal here was to show the freshness and juiciness of tuna. The light was coming from the left side of the frame and the light seems to be going through the tuna towards the edge. The black background complements the red color and makes the tuna stronger.

Photographing Tuna – Image copyright of Adriana Mullen

Listen more about how this photograph was taken. In the interview, it starts at 29:18. We also talk about how Adriana shot this next photo. This soft-shell crab photo was shot early morning and light was sharp. In the interview, she explains how this photo was shot and the thought behind it.

Soft-shelled Crabs – Image copyright of Adriana Mullen

Thank you Adriana

Thank you Adriana for taking time to talk to us about food plating and presentation.

If you would like to get in touch with Adriana, you can follow her on Twitter @AdrianaMullen

What did you think about this interview? How do you plate your dishes for photographing them? Do you use flowers in your food photos a lot?

Oh! and the Project (IDKTNOT) Update

Read more about food photography interview project. There were some great ideas that some of you suggested. If you haven’t helped us with this, I will really appreciate if you can help with this project.

Read Food Styling and Food Presentation Tips for Food Bloggers and Photographers – Interview with Adriana Mullen on Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog

© Neel for Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: chef, food photographer, people

One Extremely Important Question That Is Ignored By Aspiring Food Photographers (and Why You Need to Address it Now)

Neel — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 15:13:30 +0000

What does this photo tell you? Think about it. Think hard. What is this photo communicating? Do you have the answer for this? NO? Stop reading any further and observe the photo. Answer the questions. Got it? Now look at the next photo.

What does this photo tell you? How is this different from the first photo? I know what you are thinking. Both are photographs of pasta. This is cooked, first one is not. What more? What does this “feel” like? What does the above photo “feel” like? Do you know why the first photo is different than second one?

Let’s look at some other examples

Photo 1 – Shaved Ice by roboppy

Photo 2 – Shaved Ice by evilmidori

Photo 3 – Shaved Ice by isteeve

Here are three different photos of shaved ice. Same subject. But all these three photos are communicating something different. Look at all of them and answer the same questions and then read on.

Photo 1 is a photograph of shaved ice. Does that communicate anything to you other than the fact that it is shaved ice? Look at second photo now. Here we have the same subject as in the photo 1. But what else? In this photo, subject is outdoor. What else do you think is happening here? This photo is open for interpretation. Let’s look at photo 3. Almost same as photo 1. Subject is placed in a tight frame and almost a very similar setting as photo 1. Here’s the difference – this photo shows that someone ate/is eating shaved ice. Again open for interpretation.

Do you see how a subject with same styling and presentation, when placed in a different settings can communicate differently? The message here is less about reading a photograph and more about taking it and putting some thoughts before clicking that button.

The point here is that to communicate with our audience using this visual medium, we need to carefully understand what we want to photograph and why are we taking a photo in the first place. If you want to take a photograph of shaved ice to show what is shaved ice, what it looks like, then it may be better to just take a photo similar to photo 1. You may be shooting for a client who wants to put a photo of shaved ice on a packaging and the objective may be just to take a shaved ice photo, in that case, photo 1 is useful.

If an open-air restaurant wants to show their shaved ice in their outdoor seating, photo 2 could work (although, I would add some other elements to it, but you get the point). And same goes for photo 3.

Before taking the next photo for your dessert recipe, ask yourself before you pick the camera – are you taking a photograph “of that dessert”? Or are you making a photo “about that dessert”? There is a difference. And it is very subtle. However it changes the whole process of going about photographing your dessert.

My hero David duChemin illustrates a similar point by comparing photographing models versus taking portraits. Picture of a model is a photo of a person. Portrait, on the other hand, is a photo about a person.

As food photographers, we need to know how to differentiate between the “photo of” and “photo about” and also learn how to take these two photos. If you are shooting a photo of something, make sure the subject stands out and your photo communicates that. If your aim is to take a photo about shaved ice and the feeling of eating it in outdoors, make sure you place yourself and the subject such that photograph communicates what you want to show.

So as a photographer do you want a photo of the dish or about the dish? Well before you can answer that, you need to know why you are shooting that dish. Are you shooting it to instigate feelings in someone? Or is your aim to show what is pasta? Before getting all geeked-up about gear, camera, lenses and all that equipment, and before you start drooling seeing that awesome camera and that f 1.2 lens, answer this question – Why are you taking that picture?

Once you know the why then and only then start thinking about the how. As David duChemin says Why defines the How. Without defining Why there is no point in talking about How. Buy all the fancy cameras in the world and all those lenses with VR and image stabilization but if you don’t define why you want to shoot the food and what you are planning to shoot, its waste of lot of money.

Without address “Why am I shooting this” you can take thousands of pictures and still get nowhere. You can wander aimlessly in the woods of photographic jungle and never reach anywhere. Or you can address this question before you take your next shot and take a step in the right direction.

Before you click that button and snap a photo for that recipe, ask yourself why are you shooting this? This will answer the question on how to shoot this recipe and what actions to take to make this photo better.

Have you had days when you shot photos after photos, pressed that button over and over and over, and still found it really challenging to get one good shot? Tell us about it in the comments below. How did you address it? What suggestions do you have for readers?

Raw Pasta photo by Montanaro Maurizio™ and Prawn Pasta with greens by nettsu

Read One Extremely Important Question That Is Ignored By Aspiring Food Photographers (and Why You Need to Address it Now) on Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog

© Neel for Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 22 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: food photography, photography

Project (I don’t know the name of this)

Neel — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 21:07:58 +0000

That last few days have been kind of very unusual. I have had dreams about talking to some famous food photographers and seeing some of you sitting in this coffee shop in a small circle listening to the advice these photographers share. Then I have also dreamt that I am sitting in a airplane and the safety announcement is in my voice. Sigh! Side effects of listening to your own voice over and over again, while editing those audio interviews for umhs and ahs.

The Project

So these dreams and thoughts and daydreams… all point to one direction. No! not love. A new project. What is this project? Something I have been wanting to do more and more. Last few food photography and styling interviews have been so useful to me and I hope, to you as well, that I have made up my mind to do more of these. In fact, my goal with this project is to interview every outstanding food photographer and food stylist in the world. The keyword is outstanding – these artists whose photography/styling work is amazing and really moves people.

I strongly believe as a student of photography we have a lot to learn from outstanding photographers as well as by looking, observing, seeing and studying stunning photos. By doing these interviews I hope you would get to know these food photographers and learn from them.

But I have a problem…

… and I don’t think I will be able to solve it without you. Yes, you! Well here’s the problem. I don’t know what to call this thing. We need a name for this project. What should we call this thing? What should be the name of this project? Something to do with food, but then it should also relate to interviewing… Can you help? Suggest a name or two (or three) in the comments below.

Photo credit: JF Sebastian

Read Project (I don’t know the name of this) on Learn Food Photography & Styling Blog

*Learn Food Photography and Food Styling*

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Photograph That We Talk About In This Interview

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Food Photographers That Inspire Lara

Links We Discussed in This Interview

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