Australian Pork

Sometimes, I photograph events. This was a fun one, with the request for moody lighting.

Client: PorkStar

Location: Arkhe

Food photography tips

So here are the snaps I took over the course of the Fleurieu Food and Shimmer Festival workshops to demonstrate light, storytelling and composition.

Take a look through them and see if you can 'see' what I am banging on about. :)

If you want to learn more, check out my Better Pics for Business eCourse - group intake starting soon!

Movement

In this series of apple slicing you can see the importance of taking lots of shots. A second or two can make or break an interesting photo.

Composition

The plate of food doesn't always have to be 'all alone'. Frame the plate with ingredients, drinks, other plates, cutlery...

Action

Don't be afraid to ask Chef to 'go slow' or 'do it again' if you can. Obviously you don't have this luxury during a busy service.

Move around - get the action from different angles. 

Careful of hands. If they are in front of the food they will block the view and appear very large.

Giving a sense of speed

Lower your shutter speed (use Manual on iPhone) to 1/30 and ask someone to move fast across the frame. 

Brace yourself (to minimise camera shake), or better yet, put the camera on a tripod, and focus on something that isn't moving. 

Take lots of photos to get a natural look with the person movement.

Reflector usage

Using a reflector opens up the shadows. Check out the front of the cake and see the difference (lightness) that it makes in this series.

Wine bottles

Photograph wine bottles straight on or from a distinct angle. Slightly off doesn't make the bottle look great - more like, weird.

Blur

Adding depth of field by making things out of focus in the background (and foreground) brings out where you want the viewers attention to land.

You can... 

use f2.8 or f4, perhaps even f5.6

get the lens in close to the subject

use a long lens ie. 70-200mm

zoom in on your iPhone