Some of the most common questions I get from you guys are actually on the subject of food photography.
What camera do I shoot with? What lens am I using? Do I use a macro? What kind of studio lighting do I have? etc…
If I’m being completely honest, I always feel a little bit like an imposter when I answer these questions for you guys; An imposter because I am not a trained photographer – I am completely self taught, and so in my mind it feels like I haven’t really earned the right to pretend that I have any idea what I’m talking about.
But I want more than anything to be helpful to you guys – so I figured it was about time I wrote a quick little blog post about my food photography set up. (Amateur as it may be) So here it goes…
My Gear
Camera – My trusty Canon Rebel t5i
Lens – 50mm
White Marble Slab
White Porcelain Slab back drop / reflector
Food Subject
0-2 additional props (spoons, plates, garnishes)
That’s all guys. Honestly I’m so basic, and I truly believe you don’t need a lot to make food look good. If I can do it, you can do it.
Lighting
If I was to pick one thing that will make all the difference in your food photography – it would be good lighting. Honestly if you are shooting on your iphone with good lighting… You can create some stunning images. If you have and understand good lighting, you don’t need a fancy, expensive camera. Truly, you don’t.
I am a natural light snob, so I only shoot in natural light. (I’m a stubborn little mule like that.) LOL. No honestly, this is just a personal preference of mine, but I don’t like artificial light. I don’t even own any artificial lighting, so I couldn’t even tell you what is good if you are looking to add some to your repertoire.
At the end of the day, I just loooove natural light too much not to use it all the time. If it comes down to shooting with artificial light or not shooting at all – I wont shoot at all.
All my shoots start off exactly the same. I set up camp in front of a nice big window – preferably South or West facing – and I place my marble slab level with the window sill, usually making use of a small table I can easily move around.
I avoid direct sun rays (which can be difficult depending on the time of year and time of day) So I keep this in mind when I am timing a photoshoot. For example – the sun is lower in the sky in the mornings and evenings, so it is more likely to beam in directly through your window. I avoid the direct rays because they are quite harsh, and add more of an orange tint to your photos. Now this is not to say there is anything wrong with those natural light effects – in fact they can be quite stunning. However, they are just not my personal photography style.
For me, mid day photoshoots are ideal. This is the point when the sun is highest in the sky, so its rays wont be directly beaming in through my window. This just makes for an overall soft, natural, white light effect – which is more my style.
If ever you are finding the light from your windows are too harsh – a sheer white curtain goes a lonnnggg way. In fact this is probably one the best investments you can make for yourself. They are just ideal for those super sunny days or the days when you couldn’t get your sh*t together fast enough to shoot before the sun starts to go down from its high point.
Keeping it Simple
Once I have my lighting set up, I bring in my subject.
I’m sure you all have noticed by now that my food photography style is pretty minimalist. Again this is completely a personal preference. I love looking at styled food photography with loads of beautiful props. I appreciate that artistry so much.
I have tried to shoot with props, but I always find myself removing items one by one until all that’s left is just my marble slab, my subject and me with my camera. Sweet & Simple… what more can I say? It’s what I always circle back to. For me there is just something so striking about essentially a portrait of just food subject – free from all other distractions.
If I do end up using props, they are very minimal – like a spoon digging into a pie or a pop of fresh berries for a garnish or a slice of cake simply placed on a white plate, with a drizzle & a spoon or a vintage pie plate to add texture… it’s all verrry simple. I won’t even pretend I know how to drape a tea towel for a photo, because I truly cannot master this no matter how hard I try.
I’m also a big fan of a close up…. like I get up close and personal with my food. A super tight shot of some melty chocolate porn… alll day everyday. So more often than not I frame my photos super tight.
Again this is just a personal preference, but it is nice to get a variety of shots and angles. So when I set up a shoot, I always make sure to snap some overheads – both zoomed in and zoomed out – as well as angled and face on shots. Even if I don’t post these shots to my instagram feed, it’s always nice to have them for blog posts.
My Camera Set Up
Now that my lighting, and subject are ready to roll, I turn my camera on and get her all set up…
Real quick, let’s chat about manual mode on your camera, because ideally, this is where you want to be shooting.
I’ll be super honest – when I first got my canon, I was incredibly overwhelmed. Like wayyy too overwhelmed by all the buttons and settings to even think about shooting in manual. So for the first month I didn’t. I simply started out shooting in the automatic modes, and playing around with some of the settings in there.
Once I had mastered that, I felt ready to move into manual. I learn best visually, and through trial and error. I signed up for an online class that gave me all the info on shooting in manual mode on my Canon. The course was through SLR Lounge and I highly recommend it if you are looking to move into manual mode if you are a visual learner like me. You can find the Photography 101 course here if you are interested in checking it out. (This is not sponsored, I just really loved the course)
When I am shooting, I always keep my ISO as low as possible. 100 or 200 is ideal – but 400 is the absolute max if I have to. ISO will effect the overall quality & graininess of your photo, so keeping it as low as possible will give you a sharper, more clean image.
Because I love a good single subject, I usually keep my aperture between the 2.8 – 4 range. This gives me a nice background blur and really makes my subject pop – which is what I love to see.
If I am shooting a bigger spread – ex. a big brunch table spread with more than a single subject – I will increase my aperture to usually a 5.6 so as the capture all the details as crisp as possible.
When it comes to shutter speed, I like to keep it fast. 95 percent of the time I am shooting freehand, so camera shake (blur) is something to be mindful of. The faster your shutter speed, the crisper your image and the less likely your image will be affected by camera shake.
I will also usually position my body in the most steady way possible to avoid shaky limbs. Using your legs to brace yourself or even rest your arms when you are shooting is also suuuper helpful if you find you are struggling to hold your camera steady.
Now all that’s left to do is start shooting… and if you’re anything like me – you will find yourself getting lost in the photoshoot. Like I will lose all track of time shooting a batch of chocolate chip cookies.
I like to give myself a grace period – or a warm up period if you will. Because I’m going to be real honest the first twenty – fifty photos are usually just awful LOL. I have to ease myself into it; I have to adjust, and move things around. I have to try out a few frames and angles before I really fall in love with a set up.
But once I have everything adjusted and find that sweet spot… that’s when the magic happens, and there’s basically no tearing me away from a food photography session. I will get lost in it and take wayyyy too many photos. Like, we’re talking borderline obsessive, “too many photos.” But I can’t help myself. I love it.
Photo Editing
Once I finally tear myself away from my camera and clean up my mess. I somehow manage to get even more excited for the editing process. Importing my photos into lightroom is one of my favourite things to do. Playing around with the colours and the lighting and the highlights and the tints and the shadows… again I get lost in it.
There is so much to say about the photo editing process, I feel like that is an entirely separate blog post. So I will keep it brief here with a few quick notes…
One important thing for me to note is that I shoot all my photos in RAW format on my camera. This is a setting that you will most likely have to adjust in your camera, as most default to shoot in jpeg.
I wont get too in depth about RAW vs jpeg – but essentially when you shoot in jpeg, this means that your camera is actually automatically editing / adjusting your photos slightly to look as your frame appears in real lift. However, when you shoot in RAW, your camera makes no adjustments. So when you look at a RAW file vs a jpeg file, they will look drastically different. RAW files will look very flat.
Essentially, shooting in jpeg is great if you aren’t planning on doing a lot (or any) post editing of your photos. However, if you plan on editing your photos RAW is the best way to go as it allows you the most freedom to make the photos look exactly how you like without compromising on image quality.
After shooting, I use Adobe Lightroom to edit all my RAW photos. I don’t use Photoshop, because while it is awesome, it has a lot of features that I don’t really need. So Lightroom is perfect for me.
Like I said above, Lightroom is another blog post in itself, because there is just wayyy too much to talk about – but if you are interested to find out more about how I edit my photos, I have a tutorial saved on my instagram stories labelled “Photography” where I show you how I like to edit.
Heyyoooo! I did it guys! My first ever little photography post. Gah! Like I say, I am no pro, but you’re always asking, so i hope this was at least somewhat helpful.
Happy photo shooting!
KP xoxo
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