Food Photography – Tips from Caroline Lubbers – #BlogEats

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Even if you don’t blog I’m sure you take pictures of food.  Whether it’s the cake you slaved over for your son’s first birthday or the recreation of your great-grandmother’s potato salad.  Whatever it is you’re taking pictures of, you want it to look edible.

One of the neat things the coordinators of the BlogEats Conference did for us was bring in Caroline Lubbers of Whipped to give us some tips on Food Photography.

Caroline’s major piece of advice:  Keep It Simple.  Don’t have too much going on in your picture that the eye strays away from the food.  I mean that’s your subject, not the plate, or the background.  So make sure when you set your picture up that you don’t have anything distracting your eye from moving away from the food.

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to have a thousand dollar camera set up either.  A point and shoot camera can produce a good picture.  You just have to be aware of your lighting and know the features your camera has on it.  Oh and a good photo editing program doesn’t hurt either . 

I was glad to hear that because that’s all I have is a point and shoot.  I’m not in the market to get a higher end camera either because I just don’t want to carry a large piece of equipment and lenses with me when I’m out and about.  I am though upgrading to a ‘better’ point and shoot than I currently have.

I just ordered a Nikon Coolpix S6200 in no small part because of Kelli over at 3 Boys and a Dog, who was pleasantly surprised to find that her Nikon had a ‘food setting’ on it (which in fact did make the food pictures look much better).  Then I had ‘food setting’ envy and came home and told my husband I needed a new camera with a food setting.  I mean Kelli could probably make fried squirrel look good with the food setting on her point and shoot!

Something that was entirely new to me was Caroline’s tip that often it’s better to take a picture from the top down than it is from the side.  I had never really thought about that before, and after coming home set up a number of shots both from the top and the side views of the food and for many of the photos the top shot came out much better than the side view.  I think these pictures taken at BlogEats reflect that a top shot on this one, does more justice than a side shot.

Lighting is huge when taking pictures, especially those with food as the subject.  Natural light will always be your best friend, and even better if the day is slightly overcast.  If you can’t get a picture in natural light, learn how to adjust the balance on your camera settings to mimic it as best you can.  Here are two pictures both taken in natural light, but by using a different setting on the camera, you can see what a difference it makes.

Practice, practice, practice!  Try different set ups with the same dish you’re photographing.  Use different textures and colors to offset the food.    Look in cookbooks and magazines to see how food shots are set up.  The more you learn the settings on your camera and how to use it depending on the situation and lighting, the better photos you will take.  Have fun with it, you’ll start seeing progress after you experiment and learn!

I was invited to participate in a behind-the-scenes blogger conference with the Kraft Kitchens, for which Kraft provided full travel expenses, meals and accommodations and product samples, coupons and premiums, however my opinions are completely my own and I have not been compensated to publish positive or negative reviews of the event or products associated with my experience.