There used to be an old saying when photographing food - you NEVER shoot food on blue. I'm sure it originated in the 70's when we had Home Economists, now called food stylists, working in test kitchens at places like Campbells and Kraft. I have no clue why this became a rule as blue is a wonderful color for so many foods. Today I'll be talking about what are the best and worst colors for … [Read more...]
Inspiring Food Photography from The Modernist Cuisine
If you haven't seen this yet - you really need to add this to your list. I'm talking about the massive cooking encyclopedia called The Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking. It's a whopping 2,438 pages in a 5 volume set. The author is Dr. Nathan Myhrvold. That's right, I said Doctor. Photography is just one facet of this man's amazing resume. He has a myriad of master's degrees in … [Read more...]
What is the Difference Between RAW and JPEG Files?
How many of you are still trying to figure out what this whole RAW file thing is about? How many of you have no idea what I’m talking about and think that you've been fine this whole time shooting JPEGS and that this doesn't apply to you? Well guess what? You’re the ones that need to read this the most. In this post I will explain what the difference between RAW and JPEG files, how to use RAW … [Read more...]
How to Properly Use Jpeg Files for Your Blog
How many of you are still shooting in JPEG file format for your food photos? Most food bloggers that I meet are. That’s ok, for now. There is a better way to shoot (future post), but for now I will discuss the best practices for shooting and using JPEG files that I bet you are not doing. If you are starting out or have a less expensive camera, chances are the only file option for you to shoot … [Read more...]
A Photo Shoot with Mendocino Farms Restaurant and a Beautiful Goat Farm
Did you know that goats can smile? It's true. They totally do. At least on this farm they do. This happy critter chomping on premium, lush, green alfalfa hay (trucked in from Utah at $9800 a truckload!) is just one of 331 goats that farmer and veterinarian Dan Drake takes care of. This is the Drake Family Farm in Ontario, California. How on earth did I end up photographing a goat farm in … [Read more...]
Why Are My Images Out of Focus???
Look familiar? Happens all the time. You take a bunch of shots, they look great on your tiny, tiny, camera LCD, get home, download the images, and whammo, a ton of images out of focus. I always shoot with my camera's lens set to Auto Focus. I have always had a hard time focusing the lens manually because my eye balls just aren't as good as most. They really did call me "four eyes" in 3rd grade. … [Read more...]
What is the Best Camera Angle for Shooting Food?
Do you have trouble figuring out what is the best camera angle to use for your food shots? I find that with the students that I teach, this is a very common problem. My students often teach me what I need to teach them. When I first started teaching, I would do a demo in class where I set up my camera while my colleague, who I was teaching the class with, would set up our food and props for … [Read more...]
Photographing Restaurants – Part 3 – How to Take Good Pictures of Food in a Restaurant
And now for the final part of my Restaurant Photography Series - Part 3 - How to take good pictures of food in a restaurant. I will finally be talking about photographing the food and chefs for restaurants. The shot above was done for Napa Valley Grille in Westwood, CA. I was hired to shoot from 2-4:30 pm. I ended up shooting from 2 - 5:30 pm. We did a ton of shots in a short time period. This … [Read more...]
Photographing Restaurants – Part 2 – My Food Styling Kit
I am not a food stylist. I am a food photographer. Huge difference. Over the years, I have learned several tricks for styling food, so when I am photographing food in restaurants without a food stylist, I will have to help the Chef style the food a lot of the time. I will show you the little food styling kit that I bring with me on location. It aint pretty, but it's extremely handy. This … [Read more...]
Photographing Restaurants – Part 1: The Business Side
When I started writing this series of articles about restaurant photography I was going to show you my behind-the-scenes of a restaurant shoot first. Then I realized I kept referring to the business of photography first as there are so many things that have to happen before you even get a client. In this post, I will explain what's involved with photographing restaurants professionally and what … [Read more...]
Behind the Scenes of a Breakfast Food Shoot
It's been very crazy and busy the last few weeks. I thought it would be fun to show some recent photo shoots and some behind the scenes shots. I had a very fun shoot with a good friend, chef and budding new food stylist, Sarah Simms Hendrix of La Femme Epicure. We tested several breakfast dishes. All the images were shot with natural light on a Canon 5d Mark II with a 24-105mm … [Read more...]
The easy way to do an overhead food shot
Overhead food photography is a great way to make a very graphic food image. Food bloggers coined the phrase, "flatlay" for this technique but traditionally we've always called it an overhead shot, just to clear up any confusion there.Overhead food images are used in all sorts of content these days. It's actually a very easy way to create a nice looking food photo because you are totally … [Read more...]
10 Strange Food Photography Tools and Tricks
Contained in this post are 10 strange photography tools that I have in the studio for shooting food. I'll also tell you where you can get them as well. I'll be mentioning or linking to a few companies here - none of the companies or links are affiliates. #1. "Shaved Ice" Looks like shaved ice, doesn't it? It's actually a space age polymer. Ok, it was space age maybe 25 years ago or more. That's … [Read more...]
Food Styling Tips – How to “Grill” Food without a Grill and make Bacon Ribbons
How many recipes do you have that involve grilling food? It's summer time, so chances are you've got several. I'm going to show you how easy it is to get the grilled look without busting out the grill for your photo shoots with these food styling tips. Then I'll show you a super quick and easy trick for making beautifully curved bacon. "Grilling" Peaches The "grilled" peach salad was made by … [Read more...]
How to Make Distressed Wood Backgrounds for Photo Shoots
Quite often I am asked where I get my backgrounds. Many of my surfaces are painted or stained wood. You don't have to be a woodworker to do this. I'll show you how easy it is. In this post I will show you how to distress wood with paint. After I had my materials, this took me about an hour to do both the wood plank surface, and the wood "wall". That's not water in the background - that's … [Read more...]
Easy Refrigerator Pickle Recipes – and How I Photographed Some of Them
What kind of pickles do you like? I love the tart, vinegary kind - not the sweet ones. A good friend of ours gave my boyfriend a great cookbook for his birthday. It's called, "This is a Cookbook, Recipes for Real Life". That was my inspiration for making pickles. They have some super easy pickle recipes in here (and loads of others too of course), and I have permission to share them with … [Read more...]
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