Exploring food photography

I have decided this year to make my project exploring food photography and food photography.
So last Monday, on my day off my paid job.....I spent a lovely day cooking and taking photos of the results.
Most of these are in natural light in my garden, as they say the best food photographers use natural light, although I do still favour my light box for some subjects.

Digital Photography magazine's Macro edition , Volume 12, says that "Food ultimately looks its best right after it has just been served. Often food will start losing its full appeal no more than a couple of minutes after leaving the kitchen. At its best, you should still be able to capture the steam rising from its surface and savour the fresh succulent juices still oozing from the dish that has just been served"

So with this in mind, here is what I learnt.

Here are the eggs ready for the souffle. Take time with the arrangement. This photo was taken in window light, and then sharpened and brightened in Photoshop Elements. 














Cheese and chive soufflé. The soufflé may look fantastic in the oven, but it starts to fall as soon as you take it out, so have everything set up to take the photo as soon as the soufflé comes out of the oven. I had everything set ready to go, but just taking it from the oven to my garden was enough time for the soufflé to start to flop.

I think this one (on the left) is my favourite from the soufflé series.



If you are going to take an overhead picture, then make sure you are totally overhead so everything is in focus. However, I still like this arrangement and photo.






Pizza for lunch?

This is a tomato, salami, mozzarella and pumpkin pizza decorated with a few basil leaves, and made on homemade pizza base. Photographed in natural light under the shade of my pergola in my garden.

What I learnt - use more Mouzarella so the cheese is dripping when you lift the piece of pizza. It is difficult to focus, use a shutter remote and pick up the piece of pizza all at the same time!  It would have added a nice touch to have had some wine in the wine glasses in the background.

Would you like some Olive Bread with that Pizza?
I bought the Olive Bread from a local bakery. I think the basket and the outdoor setting adds to a rustic natural homely effect.



Biscotti - almond bread - for desert?
This one was taken in my light box, as I wanted clean sharp lines with no distracting background.
What I learnt - when you buy a packed of biscotti, half of them will be broken when you open the packet!
I think this shot would make a good magazine shot as there is room for writing at the top. Placing the biscotti to one side of the shot, would also have left room for writing if it were to go into a magazine.

Thank for joining me on my food journey. I hope you have enjoyed this post. The results were certainly yummy to eat!

Thankyou to "Tiddlewinks and More" for giving me the inspiration to start a food project, the Flickr Food Styling group and its members for continued inspiration (their work is amazing), and to Kate, Martha and Linda on Flickr for their continued encouragement.

And to you for looking! I look forward to hearing from you.