You may have guessed that I am now determined to improve my food photography. Winter is coming (don’t tell anyone I said that though) and there will be more time to make new feeds from all the food I am storing in the cellar, and share the results with you. And doing something well is so much more fun. So I have collected a few blogs from the Fellowship whose photography I would like to emulate. Emulate is a much politer word than ‘copy’. Be afraid ( insert witchy laughter!).
Roger has to top our list. Roger teaches food photography from his home in France so he really does have an unfair advantage that I would like to take advantage of. His work has passion but a pared down to earth handsome passion that encourages the essentials of the dish to shine. 
Barbara at Just a Smidgen produces work that is unapologetic in its feminine and romantic tones. Her work is very personal and perfect in its attention to detail.
Bread can be romantic right? If you want to see some really good bread shots pop over to Kristy’s family food blog. Wonderful.
Rachel at Rachel Eats is not yet part of The Fellowship because she does not know about us! But I have just discovered her and I cannot resist including her work. She shoots in her tiny kitchen in Rome, with very low light and can make an empty plastic box look tasty. I have been staring at her work trying to see out how she gets that lovely soft grainy look. Hmm. Is it the European light?
Taste Food chooses only one superb shot to showcase her superb food. This is a lesson in ‘less is best’. Plus Linda uses texture to pop up her images. Sometimes fabric or fiber mats and ethnic plates or stressed surfaces.
Cooking in Sens – Rosemary pushes her exposures right to the edge to create crisp light images that shine brightly from the screen. She also has the most beautiful plates. Her food is always local and delicious. Rosemary is a great food shopper. Often she cooks what is in the markets that day so it is very fresh.
Frugal Feeding creates warm tasty images getting close to his food with minimal dressing up.
The list is long and I hope to extend my search further but you get the general idea. Most of you ‘The Fellowship’, are like me – not food bloggers but we all eat food, often we grow food too and we ALL love to see good pictures of food. Not posh over styled pictures but real images of real food well presented. Sharp, clean, honest and enticing. So I am hoping to get some more tips to improve my own pictures and I shall share these with you all too.
I made tomato chutney yesterday. No picture of that though. I ran out of energy and light. It is all about the light. You will remember that Dad said – where there is light there is a picture.
So this is what I have learnt so far.
- Natural light is the best. I have set up a space by a window just for the food shots. (I remember reading once that Roger had a tea trolley that he wold set then he moved it about the house in the winter – seeking light!) Cover a lit window with baking paper or a thin white cloth so the light is indirect.
- Back light or side light the dish. Use a mirror or a white wall to bounce the light back into your subject. NEVER use a flash.
- Use your tripod -clarity is a MUST. (I hate my tripod it has a wobbly head, what use is a tripod with a wobbly head.)
- Styling: Less is Best. (Which is just as well as I am not the type to have a cupboard full of beautiful dishes and cutlery to dress the pictures with.)
- Use textures and shine. Textures in your plates and table tops. Layers of white or stone. Shiny food. Floating baking paper to add life. Imagination.
Mad said” Natural Light and Focus.” So I will make sure my shots are Sharp. Makes sense to me.
Well, I did my study, I did my homework, took photos of tomatoes before I chopped them all up and threw them unceremoniously into a pot. Then I unshackled my poor Camera House from the bonds of the mean wobbly old tripod and back outside we went.
Good morning. Poor Queenie. See how that eye has a milky blue film over it, it is meant to be a bright brown eye. This is why I have gone straight to the strong medication. She is deeply unimpressed but is eating and drinking well in this dark stall with no competition. Animals can lose weight when they are sick, and we don’t want out Queenie Wineti to lose condition during her pregnancy.
You all have a lovely day.
It is chilly again this morning. But I am promised warmer temperatures later in the week. I do hope so. I am not ready to be cold yet.
your friend on the farm, celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
80 responses to “Food Photography is not my Forte – (doesn’t mean I can’t learn though)”
You are so awesome C! Kudos to you on still making time to work on your food photography, even though I feel you do a stellar job already.
🙂 Mandy xo
I am going to be cooking and shooting images from your book soon! c
I’m learning a new aspect of photography, too. I do love to learn new things!
Loving the learning is what makes us special!! c
When I read about a foodie blogger who cooked 3 of everything just to get the perfect shot and sometimes just cooked to photograph, I realised that I’m happy taking “snaps” and enjoying my food. On the other hand, I’d rather take good snaps than bad ones. Somewhere there’s a happy balance.
Well I know one thing for sure Anne you and i do NOT have the time to cook something 3 times. once is quite enough!! Aiming for the happy balance.. c
Thank you for the mention C! I have no doubt you’ll master food photography in no time. You have an amazing eye for a good shot and you are a fast study. You’ll soon be teaching all of us how to improve our shots – I have no doubt. 😉 Enjoy your day on the farmy. I too am not ready for the cold – but I am ready to embrace fall. Cheers!
Your shots are beautiful, I love that you love fall! When the leaves start to turn I hope you and yours can come down for one last lunch under the trees! c
I’d happily pull them from school for a day for the trip. 🙂
I like the apple picture at the top and its lighting. Wish my photos would turn out that good!
And for fun, you may want to check out Carl Warner and his foodscapes. He creates these wonderful, elaborate photos using scenes built from different types of food. I love his Stilton Cottage and London Skyline photos.
That sounds great, i shall go and find them.. c
Like you, I’m always searching for ways to improve the photos that illustrate my blog (and my life). Unlike you, I come to *you* for info and inspiration in how to do that! 🙂
Morning Kathryn, darling, hope you are looking at a great week.. c
I think your photography of any kind is mighty fine! Love the tomatoes!
I can’t open windows here…way to cool. And we are way too wet. I dread winter…like you I am not ready to be cold and everything else to be cold. At least the flies will be gone. 🙂
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
That’s true, at least the flies will be gone.. You are much colder than us already, I have the doors and windows all open! It will come though.. can;t be summer forever.. c
Why not ?!?!?! I would like it! 🙂
Did you get your crops in before it started to rain? c
We got the pinto beans in and the hay. The pick’n corn will be next month. We were very lucky as the rains started after we got everything in.
Linda
I have just spent the whole day (well a large part of it) worrying about my low light and grainy pictures. And then this, I am so glad you like the pictures. I have a lovely nikon that I use badly. I take the pictures when I am cooking, with no real styling, in the window. I am a beginner too. Nice generous post. Rx
Good morning Rachel. It is your images that have set me on this path, they are so moody and I love that . I hope I didn’t upset you by calling them grainy, I love film for that very reason but am too lazy and impatient to shoot in film anymore. I don’t think you use your old Nikon badly at all! Have a glorious day, I do enjoy your blog.. c
That’s odd . . . I thought I left a comment here, but it’s gone missing.
Anyway, just wanted to pass along a link to my favorite food, photography, and creativity blog ~ Kate’s Creative Space:
Every one of her posts is a feast for the senses.
Can’t wait to see what other blogs the fellowship recommends.
Thank you nancy, i shall go in search of you in the spam, sometimes wordpress send the most unlikely people down to the dungeon. c
Allow me to put in a bit here about picture taking. I take mostly flower and bug pictures but this works for everything. Take a lot of pictures of your subject from many angles and distants(?)and camera settings, you are more apt to get some good pictures this way(Out of ever 100 pictures I take I am happy if I get a third that are keepers). . If possible use a macro lens(you can use this lens from all pictures but it is best for close ups, I only use one even for sunsets) To remove grain use a good tripod or a good photo editing program(grain is caused by movement of the camera . I use Photo shop elements 11 with Topaz Lab plug ins. If you do have and use a photo editing program you can set most camera to take pictures in RAW, this allows you to do all kinds of things to the picture. .
I only have the camera on my phone… by choice. Lighting, focus and cropping are the keys. I heard a tip from a creative director in an ad agency one time who says they get the steam in food photos from soaking a tampon in water, popping it into the microwave and placing it under the food! Do we really want steam in food photos that badly? Well, there you have it, the secret!
YIKES!! no we don’t want the steam that badly!! c
Maybe I need to explain RAW a little, a digital camera “develops” the picture inside of the camera,
But when you shot in RAW you are getting something like a negative and you need to “develop” it. Most camera that shot RAW
come with a program that use use to “develop” the picture.
Great info Sandra, i would love a macro lens, not quite in the budget this year though, however i have never worked from RAW. That is an excellent suggestion, I shall start doing some research. I use photoshop to tidy up images (very fast i might add and most definitely not as well as i should). I quite like the grainy low light shots, and you will be shocked to know that i am TRYING to take them. Not as easy in digital though. Thank you .. have a lovely afternoon.. c
My camera (cannon T3i) can take pictures in both RAW and regular at the same time.
I was surprised in the different in the 2 pictures. RAW was so much brighter and richer in color in most cases. And you have more details to play with. I now take all pictures in RAW–but the down side is there is much more editing involved. That is why I still have a few 100 pictures I have not get edited yet. Need to either sit my self down for a few days and only edit or stop taking pictures until I catch up!! LOL
The tomato shot is really nice, especially the lighting. On the others, you may want to increase your depth of field a bit so more of the part you want is in focus.
You are absolutely right Nicole, Mad has put me right on that point as well.. I have lots of room for improvement.. c
Food photography is something I really need to work on, it’s not as easy as the really great photos on other people’s blogs suggest! Thanks for the links… the only one I’ve looked at before is Rachel Eats (she writes well too), so I’ll try to educate myself by taking a look at some of your other suggestions. Not sure if anyone’s already suggested it, but the photos on 101 cookbooks (http://www.101cookbooks.com/) are pretty inspirational too.