Food for Thought
By Kristin Mitchell
21 Oct 2009
I've always liked still life photography. It sits still, and I can snap away for hours on end until I get the shot I wanted.
That's why I decided to do a still life set of food photographs. My aim here was to try and create something which was contemporary, fun, and interesting, with a little twist of vintage inspiration.
These photos weren't taken in a fancy studio, with fancy expensive backdrops. I didn't have fancy expensive designer wallpaper.
I researched food images before I started working. I decided that for my sort of work, less is more, and simple is most definitely better.
If you want to give this a try, here's what you will need:
A variety of subjects
A cardboard box
Patterned paper or card
black card
aluminium foil
Toothpicks and adhesive tack
scissors
elastic bands
flash guns or desk lamp
patience
First of all, I started with a cardboard box, which formed my "studio". The great thing about it is, that I can transport it around easily, and it gives me somewhere to save my props afterwards. I removed one side from the box, so that I had one side to shoot through.
The background was bought from a craft shop - the sort that sells glues and paper for making your own greeting cards. Alternatively, you could use gift wrap as your backdrop. When you're selecting your paper, think carefully about what works best together. Also, try to avoid anything remotely shiny, because when you photograph it later it will show up any light reflections unless you can carefully control the way the light hits the subject. For these pictures, I also thought about the objects I was going to photograph.
Two useful things to remember when you're working with food:
1. Buy food you like to eat anyway. It helps make clearing up a lot more pleasurable.
2. Don't leave food standing around for too long, in case flatmates/ family/ pets decide that they want to eat your photo subject.
I decided to go with food which was relatively simple and colourful, to add to the techicolour feel of the images. I mixed and matched the backgrounds accordingly, going for contrasting colours that wouldn't detract from the subject.
For the lighting, I used two speedlights. You don't need to use speedlights though, you could use a desk lamp directly overhead to help you get the same effect, just make sure you set your shutter speed and white balance accordingly.
With the yellow bell pepper, I wanted to make sure that the background stayed as dark as possible, so I made a snoot, to direct the light over the pepper. To make the snoot, simply cut out a piece of aluminum foil, and stick it to one side of black card. Roll the card around the light source, with the foil pointing inwards, and secure with an elastic band. With the pepper, I simply pointed the light directly over the top of the bell pepper. You might also want to help reflect light into the pepper from your light source, so a piece of aluminium foil placed slightly out of shot in front of the subject will help bounce light back in.
To help you prop up your subjects, adhesive tack (the sort used for putting posters on walls) is great. For awkward objects, I skewered toothpicks through the back, and then gradually built up a wall of adhesive tack to help hold it in place.
It took me a long time to achieve the final desired effect from these shots, so you will need to have patience. I advise setting your camera onto a tripod rather than trying to shoot this yourself, simply to let you get around and see whether anything needs adjusting when you're working on this. I did have a lot of fun though, trying to create simple yet interesting photographs, so go ahead and give it a try!
8 responses
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Catherine Hadler gave props (21 Oct 2009):
cool - great tips, I love a bit of food photography, will give it a go ;o)
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Marco Martinez gave props (22 Oct 2009):
Thanks for the tips. I've been wanting to try something like myself and now I'm excited to try it.
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Silvia Ganora gave props (29 Oct 2009):
Great tips! Thanks for sharing!
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Camil Seisanu gave props (30 Oct 2009):
excellent story ! bravo :)
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Joe Marfice said (1 Nov 2009):
Instead of layers of built-up tack, try modelling clay.
Loved the article. Simple, effective. -
Joy said (2 Nov 2009):
Thanks for these tips! It helps to add more to one's arsenal of food phtography 'tricks'.
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Karen Roberts gave props (13 Nov 2009):
Wonderful tips! Vote yes!
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Julien Maury gave props (19 Nov 2009):
yep voted.!!
