a presentation I gave at the #fiddup1 eat&twitt @forelinTLV

1. Introduction to food photography
eat&twitt
by @gkamin

2. What's so special 'bout food photography?
● Art
● Which makes us DO things:
● Feel hunger
● Cook
● Buy a cook book
● Buy a product at the supermarket
● Order a dish (although we don't like restaurants with
pix in their menus, but for takeaway and website it's
ok ;)

3. What's so special 'bout food photography?
● Team work:
● Photographer
● Chef
● Food stylist
● Prop stylist
● Client
● Combines studio and outdoors work
● Requires understanding of light and reflections.
● Requires working fast at times (we don't want that ice-cream melting,
don't we?)
● Requires improvisation skills
● You get to eat the stuff!

4. How they used to do it...

5. How things are done today - angle

6. How things are done today - tilt

7. How things are done today – less is more

8. How things are done today – DOF

9. How things are done today – colors

10. How things are done today – raw

11. How things are done today – location

12. Light in food photography
● Photography (esp. In the studio) is all about understanding light.
● Size of light source
● Distance from subject
● Diffusing light
● Reflections
● Food looks best under natural day light!
● Shoot next to a window with indirect sunlight (or with a curtain)
● Don't use an on-camera flash
● Make sure the light doesn't come from behind you
● Side light or backlight work best
● Use a reflector if you need to balance lighting and remove shadows

13. Light in food photography

14. Stuff to keep in mind when shooting food
● Tell a story – make series of pictures

15. Stuff to keep in mind when shooting food
● Think like a magazine editor – for a piece you'll
need:
● A cover – leave room for logo and text
● A spread – at least one great landscape shot
● Some portraits
● Don't forget to tell the story

16. Rules were meant to be broken
● Use harsh lights and shadows for drama

17. Rules were meant to be broken
● Use harsh lights and shadows for some drama

18. Rules were meant to be broken
● Go back high – shoot from above

19. Rules were meant to be broken
● Go wild
scanwiches.com

20. Rules were meant to be broken
● Shoot no food at all

21. Shooting drinks
● Use back light and improvise light tables
● Add some water to make more transparent
http://www.diyphotography.net/light-up-the-floor-a-floor-lit-table-top-studio-project

22. Shooting wine
vs.

23. Shooting wine
vs.

24. Shooting wine
vs.

25. Shooting wine
● Avoid spot lighting – creates a light dot on bottle

26. Shooting wine
● Make sure you're not reflecting in the bottle

27. Shooting wine
● What's with this background?

28. Shooting wine
● Avoid multiple light sources – 2 are enough
No fingerprints on the bottle please

29. Shooting wine
● Make sure you get some light on the bottle

30. Shooting wine
● Label should be clear, with no harsh lights or
shadows on it
● Use a strip light to create that reflection
following the bottle's height
● http://www.diyphotography.net/the-diy-strip-light

31. Where to shoot?
● Restraurants
● Go inside the kitchen or sit on the bar – shoot
where the action is!

32. Where to shoot?
● Restraurants

33. Where to shoot?
● Restraurants

34. Where to shoot?
● Restraurants

35. Where to shoot?
● Restraurants – try to grasp the place's quot;feelquot;

36. Where to shoot?
● Markets – full of color

37. Where to shoot?
● Markets – full of people

38. Where to shoot?
● Markets – full of action

39. Where to shoot?
● The outdoors – camping, hiking, etc.

40. Where to shoot?
● The outdoors – camping, hiking, etc.

41. Where to shoot?
● Factory

42. Where to shoot?
● Winery

43. Where to shoot?
● At your butcher's

44. Where to shoot?
● Any place food is involved:
● The street
● Weddings (but don't shoot people eating – they
don't like it, and it's not nice)
● When you travel – you're usually less shy when
approaching people, the subjects are more likely to
cooperate, and you get to see stuff you don't have
at home

45. Shooting at home
● Basically, you don't need anything special...
...but

46. Shooting at home
● You better get some props
● Get some stuff from IKEA or something
● Bristol paper and other backgrounds
● Shoot on different surfaces
● Wood
● Floor
● Marble
● Fabric
● Glass
● Get a reflector or improvise one

47. Shooting at home
● Shoot the process

48. Shooting at home
● Props

49. Stuff that comes in handy
● Sprayer

50. Stuff that comes in handy
● Keep your hands free – use a tripod and a
professional fork holder

51. Stuff that comes in handy
● Get some daylight at night
Lowel Ego comes with 5500K bulbs - http://www.lowel.com/ego/

52. Stuff that comes in handy
● Get some daylight at night
Lowel Ego comes with 5500K bulbs - http://www.lowel.com/ego/

53. Pay attention to the background

54. Where can I learn more?
●Courses – Weiner, Lailah
●Web resources

55. Where should I go for inspiration?
● Donna Hay

56. Where should I go for inspiration?
● Magazines
● Cook books
● Food photographers' websites
● The israelis:
– Nelli Sheffer - www.nellisheffer.com
– Danya Weiner - www.danyaphoto.com
– Daniel Lailah - www.dlp.co.il
● Recipe websites
● http://www.myrecipes.com/recipes/
● http://www.cookstr.com/

57. Where should I go for inspiration?
● Blogs – for example – Lara Ferroni
● gallery: http://platesandpacks.com
● website: http://cookandeat.com/
● Blog + challenge: http://stilllifewith.com/
● twitter: @StillLifeWith
● Others:
● Cookbook catchall: http://www.cookbookcatchall.blogspot.com/
● Mattbites: http://mattbites.com/
● Flickr groups
● Food photography club, Professional looking food photography,
Food porn, etc.

58. thanks
It's been a pleasure...
Most pictures in this presentations belong to @gkamin and are fully copyrighted.