Food photography, once a special field in photography, has become everyone’s pursuit—so much so that it is now a cliché. When waiters bring dishes to the table, the first reaction of many diners is not to dig in but to reach for their cell phone to grab a food photo. I think it is safe to say that stock photo shoppers don’t find it hard to search for a photo of any particular dish. So, why don’t we provide food-related images that are more special? Adding a twist to our food photography is the goal. But how? Let me show you with the examples in this chapter.
For image 4–1, I photographed plums soaking in an interestingly scratched container. This was resting on the kitchen counter, lit by gentle afternoon sunlight though the window. The backlighting and unusual vessel made it too good a still life to skip.
Image 4–1. KEYWORDS: bowl; clean; counter; fruit; kitchen; plum; red; soak; wash; water; window; yellow
Image 4–2. KEYWORDS: farmer’s market; food; market; plant; root; turnip; vegetable; veggie
Image 4–3. KEYWORDS: beet; beetroot; carrot; farmer’s market; food; market; plant; root; vegetable; veggie
Image 4–4. KEYWORDS: baking; banana; black banana; counter top; flour; glass; granite; measuring cup; measuring spoon; mixer; ripen; ripe banana
Images 4–2 and 4–3 are two images from a farmer’s market. The displays of this traditional market format are nostalgic and provincial, a sight that is less familiar to busy urban dwellers. The repetition of the veggies makes these images heavy on the compositional elements and texture, highly compatible aesthetics for a graphic designer’s consideration.
“With your cell phone, you can shoot these even when your hands are covered in flour.”
How about images from behind the scenes? Images 4–4 (above) through 4–6 (next page) show scenes from making banana bread. Showing the blackened banana, the cooking accessories, the whipping of the batter, and the bread freshly from the oven (with a beautiful crack), these images would be great for a recipe web site. With your cell phone, you can shoot these even when your hands are covered in flour. Cell phones, after all, are not as delicate as DSLRs.
Image 4–5. KEYWORDS: baking; blend; blender; cake; container; cookie; cooking; egg; flour; mix; mixer; motion blur; rotate; sugar; turn; whip
Image 4–6. KEYWORDS: baking; banana bread; banana cake; banana walnut bread; banana walnut cake; mold
There is nothing uglier than a photo lit with direct flash. The smallness of the flash on a cell phone and the closeness to the lens are the culprits. Unlike some flashes for a DSLR that have a rotating head to implement bouncing techniques that soften the light, cell phones’ flashes can’t change directions.
Look at image 4–6. If I had left the decision to the cell phone, it would have used the flash and turned it into something like image 4–7. What a nightmare!
Go to your camera settings (use the manual if you need to), find the entry for flash, and learn how to set it to OFF. (However, if you see an alien getting off a flying saucer in the pitch dark, forget this rule—turn the flash on and grab a shot that Time will buy from you for $10,000!)
Image 4–7.
The same idea is presented in images 4–8 and 4–9, where close-up images of the finished product (bread) and one of the ingredients (grated cheese) occupy the whole frame in an open composition. The open composition did not just simplify the images by excluding distractions, it also emphasized the textures of the food, triggering the viewer’s imagination to fill in the missing senses of smell and taste.
Image 4–8. KEYWORDS: bake; bakery; baking; bread; flour; oven; recipe
Image 4–9. KEYWORDS: cheese; dairy; grated; Italian; milk; parmesan; Parmigiano-Reggiano; shredded
“Successful food photography has everything to do with the viewer’s imagination.”
We love the taste of food and we love food photography. A well-done food photo makes our mouths water! Has the irony of this ever occurred to you, since we can’t taste the food in a photo? Successful food photography has everything to do with the viewer’s imagination, and the key to exciting this imagination is capturing the texture. Our senses are intertwined. Our happy memories of delicious food are related to visuals—like the glaze over a fruit tart, the slightly burnt surface of a steak, or the light shining through a glass of full-bodied red wine. If the textures of these visuals are depicted in the photo, we can taste the food by looking at it. Image 4–8, showing a fresh-from-the-oven loaf of bread, has this quality.
Samsung and Apple cram many pixels into their phones’ tiny sensors by using very high pixel densities. While the resolution boost is nice, it comes at a price. High pixel density means small pixels—1.12 microns on the Samsung S5 and 1.2 micron on the iPhone 6. These are tiny compared to the pixels on DSLR’s sensor—4.8 microns on the Nikon D810A and 4.14 microns on the Canon 5D. Small pixels result in lower signal-to-noise ratio, which means more image-degrading noise.
Noise thrives in low light and at high ISO settings. A combination of both is a recipe for disaster. Knowing this shortcoming of your cell phone camera, it is best to use it under plenty of light. Image 4–12 (page 46) is a good example of this. This collection of food ingredients was placed under a rather strong spotlight—nothing fancy, just a 15-watt LED (which equates to an 80-watt incandescent)—that is pointing at the sink to ensure no grease is spared while washing pots.
If you think that cell phone shots you made under low light look just fine, look closer. Open the images in Lightroom or Photoshop and zoom in. You will almost certainly find that noise is a real problem. Stock photo agencies are picky about the quality—and so are the graphic designers who buy images from them. So, use lots of light and go for the best quality images.
Washing cherries can be a brief moment of food preparation most photographers would neglect, but aesthetically it can be very pleasing. Look at the splashing water on the shiny, plump, and fully ripened cherries! Contextually, this is not just about food; it is also about safety in food handling.
Images 4–10 and 4–11. KEYWORDS: bubble; cherry; container; contamination; drop; food handling; food safety; fruit; kitchen; plastic; rinse; running water; sanitary; sink; wash; washing; water
Image 4–12. KEYWORDS: bamboo leaf; chestnut; Chinese food; dragon boat festival; Duanwu festival; dumpling; egg yolk; mushroom; rice; salty egg; shitake
Image 4–13. KEYWORDS: bamboo leaf; Chinese; Chinese food; dragon boat festival; Duanwu festival; dumpling; rice; string; tie; wrap; wrapping
Exoticism is often a good approach to reach a niche market. Images 4–12 and 4–13 depict two stages of making Chinese dumplings. First, the ingredients are laid out and prepared to be stuffed into the bamboo leaf. Then, the wrapping process begins. The ingredients were photographed in an open composition, for the purpose of simplifying and purifying the composition. I can’t claim credit for the motion blur of the wrapping hands in image 4–13; the settings of a cell phone camera are really not something we want to dictate too closely.
“Cutting a bitter melon reveals its interesting profiles.”
Cutting a bitter melon reveals its interesting profiles, as shown in images 4–14 and 4–15. What would be better in the background than a wood cutting board and a knife? A wood cutting board is a far better choice than a plastic one because close examination will reveal its more intricate textures.
Image 4–14. KEYWORDS: balsam-pear; bitter gourd; bitter melon; bitter squash; cut; cutting board; food; fruit; kitchen; kitchen knife; knife; Momordica charantia; patrick; slice
Image 4–15. KEYWORDS: balsam-pear; bitter gourd; bitter melon; bitter squash; cut; cutting board; food; fruit; kitchen; kitchen knife; knife; Momordica charantia; patrick; slice
Image 4–16. KEYWORDS: alcoholic drink; amber beer; bar; beer; cold; condensation; frosty; light beer; pub, IPA
Image 4–17. KEYWORDS: Asian; charcoal; Chinese; Chinese food; Chinese women; cooking; hot pot; oriental; restaurant; seafood; steam; table; Taiwan; women
Image 4–18. KEYWORDS: bun; Chinese; Chinese food; Chinese restaurant; chopsticks; dumpling; food; pork; restaurant; spoon; steamer; Taiwan
Re-Envisioning Restaurant Images
The last three images in this collection were, like most of the food photos on Instagram, taken in a restaurant. Still, there are twists to make them unique. In image 4–16, the composition of a glass of IPA next to a glass of pale ale, with an out-of-focus female patron in the background, entices our desire for a few sips of cold beer and sets a storytelling stage. It also avoids the necessity to obtain a model release from a total stranger. If the stock photography agency’s inspector still deems the face recognizable, blur it more in Photoshop and resubmit. Images 4–17 and 4–18 were photographed in a Chinese restaurant, using a similar compositional approach. The foods are enticing and the patrons’ enthusiasm (out of focus so as not to overwhelm) draws us into the moment.
“The foods are enticing and the patrons’ enthusiasm draws us into the moment.”
Imagine dropping a tic-tac-toe grid over your image. This divides the image into thirds both vertically and horizontally. There will also be four points where the lines intersect. These four points, according to this “rule,” are the optimal positions to place the subject that you want viewers to concentrate on. Image 4–18 is an example of such a composition (as diagrammed in image 4–19). The young diner’s face is at one of the points. The buns occupy two of the other points.
Image 4–19.