Food photograhy

[denise]

:)Hi everyone, Mossie has kindly given me tips on photos in churches and now I could do with some tips on how to photograph food.

My pics always are spoiled by the illumination of the flash, but as it is usually dark in restaurants I need the flash to take the picture. Also they are often blurred.

There must be an art in this because others always get good pics of their food.

What are your secrets?

Here are some of my bad pictures that just did not look like the food I was eating!

1

2

3

4


Denise
Love from England

[mossie]

Well here I'll jump in again.
Turn that flash off !!!
The modern little digital cameras can handle low light situations very well. Just put it on auto or whatever it says to take control. Hold the camera steady and gently press the tit.
Sorry girls, RAF parlance. A cockpit was filled with knobs to be pulled and tits to be squeezed.
I'm off.

[GitteK]

Denise, just my immediate response:

Pic 1: you take the picture from far too far away. The table, the spoons and the sign on the table are not relevant at all for what you want to show. And the upper third of the photo shows a dark room, also irrelevant for the food description. I suggest you learn how to "crop" your photos, i.e. how to cut away the superfluous parts, like the dark room-piece.
Tip: post your food pic in a big size. I use Photobucket and resize my photos to "15" screen". Some may think they are too big, but they do allow you to show/see the details of your food on the plate.

Pic 2: your angle is too "flat" / sharp. Hold your camera as high up and vertically above the food as you can and let the food fill out the whole picture frame. Like my profiteroles in Fontainebleau:


Also your flash is too sharp/white, as you already know now: it is almost bleaching all the colours away. I never use my flash - which also then means that some of my indoor pictures get blurred, because of lack of light. Like this blurred/"wooly", too dark photo of my Terrine de lapin at Bistrot Papillon:


Pic 3 + 4: Wooooh-hoooo, shaky !! Hold you camera dead-still !! Tip: rest your elbows on the table, if possible, while photographing. And concentrate on one plate at a time. There must be some button on your camera (read the instruction manual) which can zoom in to a close-up picture (on my Canon it is a "tulip"-symbol, which I can switch on for close-ups). Take a number of pictures of the same image - and check them at once in the display, so you can see if they are satisfactory. If not - take a few more.

Lastly: I delete all pictures with which I am dissatisfied, sometimes with a heavy heart. However, I want to post only those pictures which make me happy to look at - also later on.

[Shoesy]

Wow, Gitte! An exalt to you on such a professional, helpful post. Mind you..........I know nothing about photography, but you certainly sound like you do, and we've all seen so many wonderful photos in your posts.

A note to our dear photographer Randy - You've got some real competition on this board.

[denise]

:)An exalt to you both Mossie and Gitte.

I have been experimenting with your suggestions and successfully took pictures of yesterdays chicken and barley broth and sticky toffee pudding. (I will not bore you with the pics)

Much better results.

Now I will have to seek out some decent food to photograph

Thank you
Denise

[rssilverandlight]

Thanks Shoesy but don't forget who her instructor was.

She has demonstrated good food photography.

We need to not forget the internet where one can find
a lot of good advice about food photography.

I'm located about 2 miles from Sunset Magazine where some
of the best food photography is done. It is also available
on line.