Something educational- A food photography workshop

I am a member of the NIH Camera Club.  It is a group of artists who are interested in photography in the DC area and are somehow affiliated with NIH.  My grandfather and dad are both members and they decided that I should become a member too.  The club takes trips all around the world, I have been on one trip and it was fun.  They frequently meet for local field trips, workshops, contests, competitions, and other stuff.  It's pretty cool actually.  

This Tuesday they had a workshop for food photography and I decided to go after work, even though I would be an hour late.  Deb Lindsey taught the workshop, and she shoots for the Washington Post's food section (her work is always featured front page on the Wednesday paper.)  Her most popular shoot is when she photographs The Peep Show, but her favorite type of assignment is when the post just gives her a really vague theme and she has to use her creativity to come up with something great.   Her work is also in The Washington Post Cookbook.  She is a great artist and I want to share the tips that she shared with me for great food photography, that way I wont forget.

Unfortunately the Washington Post owns her food images so I had a lot of trouble finding more images that she has done.  The images below are not hers, but the images above are.

1.  Setting recommendations

She recommends using a macro lens (but just use whatever lens you have if you don't have a macro.)  She likes to keep the settings at f8 when shooting food at an angle.  She does this because when you shoot at an angle your area of focus is going to be a lot smaller than normal and your going to get a lot of blur on all the other places.  If you have your f stop any lower than that you will just be reducing your focus point into an even smaller space.  When you photograph food you want a good chunk of the food in focus so we can see what is in it.  This is one way food photography is different than portrait photography (at f8 everything in the background would be crystal clear if you were taking a portrait.)

She also said she would rather sacrifice ISO quality to keep near f8.  So instead of shooting at ISO 200  she would drop it down to 800 just so she keeps the aperture near 8... very interesting because I know so many ISO snobs.  example here:

yeah yeah yeah lady... (It is all about personal preference.)

2.  Lighting

             a.  From below

To illuminate thin and translucent foods she loves to light from below.  She achieves this by putting a piece of Plexiglas (covered in white contact paper for a white background) over two chairs and shining a light underneath.  It will make any thin or clear food illuminate.  For obvious reasons a ceramic bowl filled with soup would be inappropriate in this situation.  But it makes the food pop.  Other good things to use in this situation would be orange slices, tomatoes, sprouts, glass of soda, etc.

ex:

             b.  White board

Use one.  You bounce light off with it.  Other good tips here.  You can also use a silver reflector which bounces more light than a white board (white board has a softer effect.)  Also try crumpling a piece of tin foil and use that as a reflector, it will create a scattering of light rather than direct light.

             b.  Use a strobe to achieve a white or black background

Both of these pictures were taken using the same set up.  They both used a white table with a white background set up probably four feet behind the subject area.  The difference in how you get the white or black background is where you aim the strobe.  I am not a strobe expert just fyi.

                     

For the white background: aim the strobe directly at the food (maybe a little at the background too)

For the black background: aim the strobe between you and the food, not at the food, and not on the background

3. Other tips

-Clean the plate/bowl/cup/whatever.  Wipe away all of the drips, splatters, and crumbs.  These show up in your pictures and make them look sloppy.

-Natural light is one of the best ways to take pictures of food and this can be done in your own house.  Just don't forget to use some whiteboard

-Especially with soups be careful about light reflecting off of the surface of the water.  You do not want the reflection to hide the actual soup.

-You cannot get a straw to stay at the bottom of a glass with liquid in it.  You would have to defy physics.

-Play with textures.  A smooth soup might look good sitting on top of a braided place mat.

So yeah.  That's all.  Try to take some cool pictures of your food, I know I will try.  How about we make a date of it?  Say in one month come up with an interesting recipe and we will see what everyone comes up with.  Send me the link and we can share, learn, and grow together.

ttyl!