Feasts For The Eyes – Part 2

With tens of thousands of food blogs currently on the web, covering everything from frosted cup cakes to congealed duck blood, it’s obvious that food porn is a stupendously popular and not-so-guilty pleasure.  Yet, despite this worldwide enthusiasm for documenting kitchen triumphs, trials and tribulations online, resources available to bloggers who would like to improve their food photography or presentation skills are comparatively skimpy.

photos © Markus Horak

A quick search of articles, posts and sites that address this specific area of photography turned up a number of “do’s and don’ts” lists and plenty of opinions on what cameras, lighting equipment, f-stop, mega-pixel and lenses, etc., make for the best shots.  What’s missing is the connection between love of food, knowledge of cooking and ability to articulate how to bring it all together in Technicolor food porn, either as a still photo or video.

So, as someone who cooks, but doesn’t own and couldn’t be bothered to set up special equipment for food photography, I thought I’d experiment and compile a few thoughts on how to take impactful images of cupcakes and duck blood and incorporate them into a blog.

Note:  I spent five minutes or less on each of the sample shots above.  I used a hand-held camera and adjusted the images afterword with Aperture software. Taking a terrific photo and capturing the brilliance, comfort, familiarity and allure of a particular dish are two different things.  This is more about cooks taking better photos of food, and not so much about being the most technically proficient photographer.

First, plan your photos ahead of time.  Gather everything you’ll need in one place and have a space cleared and ready.  When you’re done cooking, the last thing you’ll want to do is set up a photo shoot for your blog – especially if you’re working with food that needs to be served immediately.

For variety, I spent seven dollars at a thrift shop on a mix of single plates and cups and I changed the look of the counter and table surface with a range of napkins and dish towels.  Other “props” included parchment paper, wrapping paper and various glasses filled with iced tea or juices to provide color in the background. We’re interested in making good porn here, so stay away from plastic plates, too much pattern or anything very dated or clunky.  When shopping, if I knew I’d be preparing a dish with little color, I’d grab parsley or cilantro, etc., for contrast.  Pretty basic stuff.

One of the most important things to do is to work with natural lighting as much as possible.  If you don’t have a sunny window or outdoor access, learn how to white-balance your shots either with your camera or by using software later.  Photographs shot with indirect sunlight will have the most natural and true color range but photos shot with indoor lighting (incandescent, halogen or fluorescent) will either have a yellow or blue tint that will need to be corrected.  This is also referred to as “temperature” and even the most basic digital photo software allows for easy adjustment to a cooler (blue) or warmer (yellow) range for this purpose.

I prefer photos that look like they weren’t intentionally styled – which also plays into my five-minute rule.  There are plenty of beautiful photography sites with dramatic and technically perfect shots of food, but usually the more technically perfect and brightly lit, the more the food looks like a product shot to me.  I like textures, shadows, imperfect edges and crumbs.  A cookie isn’t a bottle of shampoo, so don’t light it like it’s sitting on a lab table.  And, unless your blog is specifically about food photography, use the time to enjoy your food so you can actually write something interesting about it.  Hmmm, that’s another topic altogether…

Don’t use the built-in camera flash, it’s not intended for close-range shots.  If you need more light, put a lamp on the side of your subject or try using a shelf in the refrigerator.  A cheap hardware store clip-on utility lamp can also solve a lot of lighting problems in a pinch.

Feature the food.  Remove anything from the shot that isn’t necessary.  Food porn isn’t about the story or the setting – cut to the close up.  If you want to show a table setting, make that a separate photo or a completely different post.

Centering is boring.  A composition is most interesting when it is balanced but off center.  Photos taken from a three-quarter view are also stronger visually than those taken from directly above or from the side.

Photo collection sites like foodgawker.com, tastespotting.com and photograzing.com allow users to post their own photos and view the work of other bloggers and professional photographers.  These sites have a limited range, however, which tends toward brightly lit and sharply focused images – not necessarily the best, most interesting or definitive way to document food.  For a little variety, check out feastingneverstops.com, a collection of food related photos with a wider creative reach.

Finally, to paraphrase Julia Child on whether to apologize for a photo gone wrong:  no matter what happens, never say one word, grit one’s teeth and smile… and keep practicing.

© Markus Horak, 2010

Feasts For The Eyes – Part 1

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