Thoughts on Food Photography

Recently I had the opportunity to attend Jim Sykes' workshop on food photography. The location was at the Teatro Restaurant in Ybor. Frankly, it was one of the most difficult assignments so far because I was soooo HUNGRY. And when you are hungry you just can't concentrate. I always thought food photography was simple and boring. Well, it is not. You have to be very detail oriented to get the best lighting and the perfect shots.
Here is my take on food photography.

Have a stylist who will deal with the food. Arranging the food and decorations takes a LOT of work, leave it to a professional.

Use the best food on a clean, possibly white plate. Setting is not as important because the focus is on food. Therefore, a simple background and a shallow depth of field adds dimension and context to your images. Like the one here:



Crop tight- in my situation this is not a problem, I am a tight cropper "by birth" :)










Your goal is to bring out the texture and the color of the food and you can do this with lighting. Here are some behind the scenes shots I took before the shooting started:






To see some of my food shots, click here.
To read more about photo photography, click here.

More information about food photography.

Lighting techniques.

Thanks, Jim!