Welcome!
Finally Shoot The Cook is out there. I can’t wait to share all my food photography tips with you!
How many times have you come across a recipe in a book or online that you like but when you see the photos they put you off ? That is what we want to avoid by following the food photo tricks that we are sharing on Shoot The Cook. While I’m not a professional photographer, I’m a food and photography enthusiast and my passion has led me to spend most of my free time cooking and shooting food to improve the photos of my dishes. Along the different posts we will talk about all the elements that make a great food photo: lighting, camera settings, props, photo editing… and how to control them. Both beginners and anyone that is in this field will find interesting information and helpful food photography tips . The goal is to share, in this blog, the keys to save your time and improve your photos quickly and easily.
As an opening post let’s start with 8 Essential Food Photography Tips. Put them into practise in your next photo and you will see how the result is better.
1.Before turning on your cooker, before locking yourself in the kitchen, Think! Think how your dish will look (ingredients, shape, colours…) then decide which plate, cutlery or kitchen cloth can enhance your recipe. Thinking and imagining the photo that you want to get will save you time.
2.Less is often more, place less food in the plate and minimize props. There are dishes that are just stunning on their own.
3.Garnish the food that looks a bit dull! Choose the best part of your dish, make sure your plate is clean, add some fresh herbs, spices, nuts or whatever that comes to your mind that has a relation to the dish.
4.Take photos under natural light! It’s all about the lighting, if possible place your dish close to a window or even outside. Above all, don’t shoot under your bluish fluorescent kitchen light.
5.Focus on your dish, it should get all the attention. Nothing in the scene should throw a shadow on your dish.
6.White backgrounds and kitchen ware almost always work. There’ll be plenty of time to play around with colours later on.
7.If you want your photos to be super sharp, focus what you want to get all the attention, hold your camera or mobile firmly, hold your breath and shoot.
8.Don’t be satisfied with just one photo, move around and move your plate. Move away from the dish, focus on details and also try different shooting angles to show all the dish or just a part of it
Did you find those Food Photography tips helpful? Leave your comments and any ideas below. Keep practising and taking photos and you will see how your photos improve. Don’t give up in the first tutorial 😉
[…] Let’s have a look behind the scene. These photo were taken with a continuous light source from a side. Then I add a white reflector on the other side to bounce some more light on the darkest part of the scene and soften the shadows. If you are interested in food photography have a look to this list of 8 Useful Food Photography Tips. […]