Photographing food

[Walter Moss]

Does anyone have any tips/examples for food photography? A restaurant owner has asked me to photograph dishes for an upcoming menu. Thanks a lot!

[JohnC]

Will you be working at the restaurant during off hours? Or will you work in a studio? Do you have a food stylist available to prep the food and keep it looking good as you work with it?

Are you using flash? Ambient light? Hot lights?

John

[cyclohexane]

Motor oil works wonders on turkeys. Styrofoam can be substituted for lightly-colored ice cream when metering and setting up lights until you actually take the shot.

[mikej]

I was tracking down some info on Glycern the other day and ran across a lot of food photography sites that talked about how they use it to make foods look fresh and moist. They were also talking about how most food photography the food isn't even cooked. They use blow torches to brown meat and turkeys and branding irons to put the grill marks across food. They use white glue for milk, mashed potatoes for icecream, dry ice or a crystal product (they have something that you add water to and it creates vapor) to produce the steam for hot items and other tricks like that. The only thing is that the main food item has to be real in advertisement food product shots.

The one thing I learned, all the stuff you see photographed isn't eatable after they get done with it.

Mike

[JohnC]

There is a BIG difference between editorial food and advertising food. In editorial you can do all those things. In advertising the rules are more strict. In editorial you can put clear marbles in a bowl of soup to make the noodles raise up and look like there are more of them than they are. In advertising you have to use a clear bowl and shoot from a lower angle to see all those wonderful noodles filling the bowl.

[cameraguy21773]

By all accounts (at least those I've read) shooting food is tedious and difficult. I saw a book at my local Borders recently on food photography. Check yours. Also do a search online and you might find a tutorial. Here's one - http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2004...od_photos.html

[Lunatique]

I just posted some recently:
http://www.photocamel.com/index.php/topic,6318.0.html

The important things to think about are:

1) Texture of the food. I often see people using very soft and diffused lighting any kind of food, and while that's nice for pastry, it isn't as effective for other types of food. Use directional lighting for emphasis on texture.

2) Watch out for over exposure. For example, you have a dark piece of meat, but also have a small pile of white rice next to it. If you're not careful, the rice will be overblown. So, balance out the light level on the entire plate with clever placement of snoots or other methods. Or, you can bracket the exposure and overlay them in Photoshop, but that's extra post processing work.

3) Watch out for glare. A lot of food contains oil or sauce, and if you are not careful with the lighting placement, you'll get glare in unwanted places. Don't be afraid to move pieces of the food around. I assume you won't have a dedicated food stylist working with you, so you'll have to do it yourself like I had to.

4) Keep a small bowl of oil around. If something dries out, brush the oil back in for a juicy look.

5) Do some homework first. I did an entire afternoon of experiments at home before I shot the food gig. I played around with my lights and shot a plate of leftovers (although well arranged to look good) in my livingroom. It really helped to figure out what some potential problems could be.

[rpcrowe]

Food Photography

O’Reilly Digital Media
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/orei...od_photos.html

Silverace Photogrnic Food Photography
http://www.silverace.com/photogenic/...otography.html

Photo Photography book by Cindy McGill
http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_1...ink/fo1216.htm

Making Food Look Good
http://www.media-awareness.ca/englis...nderForPrint=1

Professional Photography 101
http://www.professionalphotography10...graphFood.html

Have fun shooting... Too bad we cannot eat everything we shoot! Honestly liquid shoe polish on a steak tastes just awful but looks great in the photo!