Mistakes I Made At the Beginning of My Food Photography Journey
Over the course of the year and a half, I have tried to learn everything possible about food photography and although I am proud of how far I have come, I obviously still have areas of improvement to work on. I think that the best way to grow as a food photographer is just to practice, practice, practice! Even though it sounds cheesy, practice does make (almost) perfect!
But at the beginning of my food photography journey I learned a couple things that really took my photos to the next level. You know, that moment when you take a photo, look at it for the first time, and smile because you are beyond happy with how it looks? I wanted to share a couple of these ‘ah ha’ moments with you so that you can upgrade your photography skills too!
Using Backdrops
This might seem like an obvious one, but for some reason at the start of this photography journey, I didn’t realize that those beautiful kitchens in all my favourite photos weren’t actually the photographers kitchen. No, that’s right, most of the time they use backdrops and props that make it look like a beautiful setup, meanwhile their actual kitchen is looking pretty disastrous.
At first, I used a plain white piece of cardboard as a backdrop but I didn’t feel that it looked very realistic or had much depth to it. So then, I painted my own grey backdrop which actually turned out great! I still use it today!
At the time I thought this was the best photo ever, but looking back on it, it isn’t as great as I thought! (that’s okay though, cheers to improvement!)
Then I made a textured white backdrop…
Then I finally decided to buy some vinyl backdrops… (these are from Club Backdrops)
I’m not saying that you have to go out and buy backdrops to be a good photographer, but it definitely helped me improve. My photos started to look a bit more professional!
But if you don’t want to buy backdrops quite yet that’s okay too! You could also use a tablecloth, stone slab, piece of wood, or just make your own like I did! (p.s. check out my highlight on Instagram to find out how to make one!)
Using Natural Light
I have to admit that I did not understand what direction light needed to go in, how shadows and highlights play a part in photography, how even the colours of walls can cast colours onto the photo. And the worst confession of all is that I even tried using a big flashlight to create artificial lighting! No judgement if this sounds like you, because we are here to learn!
Here are a few tips to get you started…
Find the window in your house that has the largest amount of light coming through!
This window should be in a room where the walls are not bright colours (preferably the walls are white or black) otherwise they will cast a certain tint on the photo.
Even the direction you place the table in affects your photos lighting, see below…
*Just a quick note! I took this photo a while ago and have since learned that the table should be at the same level as the window! As you can see in this photo, my table was below the window so there was less light coming onto the scene.
4. Turn off your lights! If you don’t know how to use artificial lighting yet, just use natural light! It takes less time to understand and can sometimes look more soft and organic. This means, do not use flashlights (oops!), or lamps, and turn off the lights in the room you are photographing in. Most lights have an orange tint to them and you don’t want this affecting the colours in the photo.
Layers and Dimension
This was an absolute game changer once I learned about. Photos need to have lots of layers to them, because this is what gives them dimension and makes a photo much more pleasing to the eye. You can use several napkins, plates, trays, and wooden boards to create layers in the photo. But you should also be paying attention to the foreground (closest point to the camera), the middle ground with the subject (the food), and the background (the farthest point from the camera). These layers frame the food in the centre of the scene and draws the eye directly to the subject.
Learning Camera Settings
Honestly, I am not very good with technology. Which is pretty ironic considering I am a photographer and photography involves a lot of technology from camera settings to editing. This is why, for me, learning camera settings was really tough and I’m still not sure if I’m doing it right half the time. But here are a couple things that I learnt that helped me understand it more. This is just to get you started but maybe someday I’ll write a more in depth post about camera settings…
Aperture: The smaller the number (f/1.8) = the brighter the photo and smaller depth of field (meaning that the background is blurry and the subject is in focus)
Shutter Speed: A fast shutter speed (1/250) = darker photo and freezes motion in the photo.
ISO: Higher number (2000) = = brighter photo and grainier, less focused photo.
Those three settings are called the Exposure Triangle because they control how much light is in the photograph. They are the basics that you need to know in order to control your camera and create stunning photos.