Food Photography: Adding Props to the Scene July 1, 2010
Posted by Nicole : Food Photography, Food Styling, Photography, Tips & Tricks , 4 comments
Canon 7D, Canon 70-200mm ƒ/4L IS lens, 1/160 sec at ƒ/4, ISO 100
When I style my food photography I tend to keep things simple—usually it’s just the main food item and some silverware off to the side. I do like to add elements to the scene at times, but when I do I always make sure that the items in the scene are relevant to the dish. I place things in the frame as if I were sitting down to a meal … in this photo it would be perfectly natural to have a glass of water and some french bread on a plate, so adding them to the scene does not take away from the image I’m trying to create.
When you’re styling and adding props to your food images try to stay away from adding ingredients used to make the food next to the dish (like uncut fruits/veggies, eggs, etc.), unless you are photographing the actual prepping of the food itself. I’m sure there are ways to make these items “work” in an image, but most of the attempts I see just don’t look natural. Just do what I do … picture yourself sitting at the table and think of what makes sense to have nearby.
Food looks more appetizing if it seems “ready to eat” … you want your viewers to think that he or she could reach in and take the first bite. If you really want to add color and throw some of those ingredients in the shot, then do some prep-work to them and make them look tasty! A whole tomato doesn’t have as much appeal as one that’s sliced into bite-sized wedges, all juicy and ripe. Yum! :)
Food Photography: Ice Cream June 30, 2010
Posted by Nicole : Food Photography, Food Styling, Photography, Tips & Tricks , 15 comments
Canon 7D, Canon 50mm ƒ/1.4 lens, 1/250 sec at ƒ/2.8, ISO 100
Last week I did my first “ice cream” photo shoot. Everything you see in the above photo is edible, however it’s not real ice cream (just a LOT of sugar with a cherry on top). I used a recipe found in the “Food Styling for Photographers” book. It’s basically just a tub of cherry frosting with powdered sugar mixed together in a mixer. If you’re interested in creating photos like these I would highly recommend that book … there are a lot of other great tips for styling ice cream and other types of food as well.
After I got the “ice cream” mixed and placed in the bowl I used a can of “Pillsbury Easy Frost” to top the ice cream and look like whipped cream (this way it didn’t melt or ooze down the side of the frosting before I was done with the shoot). I also stuck a toothpick into the bottom of the cherry so it would stay in place and not topple over.
I’m really happy how this one turned out and plan on shooting different flavors in the near future. :)
Food Photography: Styling a Sandwich June 11, 2010
Posted by Nicole : Food Photography, Food Styling, Personal, Tips & Tricks , 15 comments
The last few days I’ve posted photos from a food shoot I did, and I thought I’d share some tips on how I styled it.
When you make yourself a sandwich at home they don’t usually look all poofy and airy, they usually end up flattened with all the ingredients mushed together. Well, I wanted my sandwich to look like all of the ingredients were stacked up beautifully, and wanted those nice little curls to the deli meat, so I did more than just place all the pieces on top of each other.
In order to keep the sandwich from being flat and saggy I cut small pieces of cardboard and layered them as-needed in-between the elements. I put one under and on-top of the lettuce, and then I used tooth-pick halves to pin the bunched-up deli meat in place. The toothpicks also helped to add bulk and hold up the tomatoes, which were placed (along with the top piece of bread) directly on the deli meat.
Food Styling Tip: Use Styrofoam to Add Bulk June 4, 2010
Posted by Nicole : Food Photography, Food Styling, Photography, Tips & Tricks , 12 comments
Food styling is all about making food look delicious. I do my best to try and make food look natural, fresh and clean, and sometimes that involves adding elements that you wouldn’t necessarily eat. I usually don’t do anything “unnatural” to my food when I’m styling it, but do have a few tricks I use that you wouldn’t normally do when you’re preparing food to eat.
In this shot I needed to “bulk up” the pasta so it would look like a nice heaping bowl of food. In order to do this I added a half-dome of styrofoam (you can find these at craft stores—I got a styrofoam sphere at Michaels near the floral department and then cut it in half to fit the bowl). For the actual shot I trimmed the base of it down a little bit from what you see in the image on the left, and then piled the pasta directly on top. If I had placed the pasta directly in the bowl it would sit flat, and I wouldn’t get the nice bulkiness that the fully-styled image is showing.
Five Panning Photography Tips March 16, 2010
Posted by Nicole : Photography, Tips & Tricks , 6 comments
Canon 7D, Canon 24-105 ƒ/4L IS lens, 1/15 sec at ƒ/4.5, ISO 640
Panning is one of my favorite techniques to use when photographing fast-moving subjects. Basically what you are doing when you make a panning shot is you are following the subject and moving your lens along with them while pressing the shutter. Here are some tips for creating great panning shots:
1. Slow shutter-speed is the key. Using a slower-than-normal shutter speed will help you to effectively add motion-blur to the background. It’s usually a good idea to shoot in shutter-priority mode when creating panning photos.
2. The speed of the subject determines shutter-speed. Most of the time you won’t know exactly what your shutter speed should be in order to get a desirable image, and one factor you need to consider is how fast your subject is moving. To create a good amount of movement in the background and still keep the subject sharp a fast-moving subject will need a faster shutter-speed than a slow-moving subject.
3. Use a flash. Another useful tip is that if you have a flash or some sort of strobing light-source available then use it! It will help freeze your subject and allow you to use an even slower shutter-speed than without one. In the image in this post I wasn’t able to use a flash so I had to do my best to keep my camera steady and moving with the skater.
4. Follow-through to get the shot. Just like with kicking a ball or swinging a golf club you need to make sure that you follow the subject the entire way through the shot, and only stop once you are sure that your shutter is closed. This will help you get smooth lines in your background.
5. Use manual focus. If you know the spot that your subject will be passing by then pre-focus your lens. If you rely on auto-focus then your camera might not catch focus quickly enough, which means you would miss the shot altogether.
Panning requires a lot of trial-and-error, which I think is why I like it so much. You never quite know what you’re going to get and oftentimes you can be surprised when you review your shots. :)
