Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Food photography

My sister, Paige, is planning on making a recipe book for a 4-H project. She asked me if I would photograph many of our family's favorite recipes as she made them.  I said yes.  So, slowly but surely, we are working on this project.  Today I photographed peanut butter cookies.
A few weeks ago I did chocolate chip.  Also, hush puppies.  [I'm not sure hush puppies fit in this project to well, but she made them and wanted a photo, so I did it!]
Food photography really is probably my favorite type of photography...I enjoy it quite a lot.
I start out by making a 'setup' scene in my head-imagining what dishes, props, I need, and how I want to place the food, what angle to come from etc.
Then I set my camera up, and do a test shot to check lighting.
I then will look through the viewfinder with composition in mind, checking the placement, angle, and overall feel of a photo.
Then! Start shooting!
The most recent way I have been doing food photos is a pretty cool setup.  I will put the camera on the tripod, capturing just what I need in the lens, get all the settings correct, and use a remote to snap photos while I hold my 13" reflector to give better lighting.  Its an AMAZING setup, and allows me to move around  freely while photographing!