Photography journal pt1: My first food photo job
I am currently in the process of getting my new photography business off the ground, and we are working on expanding our portfolio. My business partner linked up with a woman named Gabriela who is starting up a business of her own running a taco truck.
The shoot went rather quick and smooth. The food was prepared and already looked beautiful when I arrived. Once we had the lighting and camera position set, it didn't take long to lay out and focus each shot. Using a tripod and a 1/30 second exposure I was able to stop down to f/8 in order to sharpen up the focus and increase my depth of field.
I'm still learning the nuances of lighting and shooting food to look as delicious as possible, but I'm rather happy with how my first attempts came out!
Gear & settings I used on this shoot:
Canon EOS 70D, Sigma Art 18-35mm f/1.8
2x LED panel lights and 1 softbox pointed at the ceiling.
| ISO 160 | 1/30 sec | f/8 |
To the product photographers out there, what are some of your methods for getting those food shots to come out extra crispy?
Now I'm hungry after see it 😅 looks delicious.
Sounds like the photos are doing their job then! :)
Thanks for using the nobidbot tag.
Nice to find a section where I'm not competing with robots for votes ;)
Exactly. Spread the word!
These are really great photos for real food pictures – perfect food porn for Instagram! LOL
If you’re going to build a professional portfolio with food shots, permit me to share the secret to all those mouth-watering pictures by the big corporate pros, as someone whose done professional food photography for menu and full-color magazine design: The food is NOT table ready fare. Much of it is artfully created props; when real food is used, it’s not usually fully cooked and is painted, stained, or otherwise treated to “look” its mouth-watering best. This little bit of fakery also helps with lighting, because the colors and the surfaces tend to photograph better than the real thing.
For example, those fabulous looking pictures of the perfectly roasted turkey are of a bird cooked just enough to begin expanding and stretch that skin out, then it’s removed from the oven, heavily stained with sauce, then spray-shellacked for that perfect sheen. Any real food used in a corporate-style shoot is rendered inedible for the sake of art.
Another example is milk. When you see milk in those commercials and magazine ads, it is never really milk. The reason is that real milk will look washed out and not very much like milk in the photographic lighting or with a flash. We used Elmer’s glue.
Thanks for the tips! I've heard of such trickery in the food photo biz, haven't tried the fake food yet but I can see how even in good lighting the real food doesn't look as good as those plastic tomatoes would..