A field in Denmark

A field in Denmark

by Bart Arondson

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up vote 6 down vote favorite

I wish to shoot my own cooked foods. We know that it is important for the food to look fresh.

So, how to practice for food shots when I don't get ever a best shot at the first go. It takes several clicks for me to get something worthwhile, and the food won't be looking the same after nth click.

Is the only way to keep on reheating repeatedly? Or there is some other way out to practice (without wasting food much)?

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3 Answers

up vote 9 down vote accepted

I've recently started taking shots of food as well. I don't have anything particularly great to show for my efforts yet, however I have noticed that you can keep shooting for a while before the food actually starts to appear unappetizing. Additionally, if it starts to look dry, you might just want to keep a spray bottle with water in it on hand to mist and keep things looking fresh. Keeping your food covered while you investigate previous shots and evaluate your next shots can help keep it looking fresher for a little longer as well. Granted, you won't get much more than 5-8 minutes of "perfect" looking food, but you can get decent looking food for a while...and since its just practice, perfection isn't necessarily the goal (that comes later! :)

One of the things I've learned in my efforts so far include the use of a polarizer. Fresh cooked food often exhibits a lot of pinpoint highlights that eat away at your dynamic range without offering any kind of useful return. By using a polarizer, you can adjust how much of those highlights you wish to keep, and you can greatly minimize them to the point where they help enhance your food without creating a bunch of tiny overblown highlights all over everything. Use of a polarizer might help you get more keepers earlier, and not run into the problem of dry, old, unappetizing looking food. Just keep in mind, you'll need to increase exposure if you use a polarizer, by 1-2 stops.

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Which kind of polarizer would you suggest for this? BTW, "Fresh cooked food often exhibits a lot of pinpoint highlights" I didn't understand this. What do you mean by pinpoint hightlights on food? Example photos? :) – user462608 Apr 5 '12 at 13:33
I'll see if I can dig up a photo with some highlights (won't be able to do it until I get home.) You would probably want a circular polarizer. For the most part, a polarizer is a polarizer, and so long as you are not in a situation where flare/ghosting might occur, the quality shouldn't matter all that much. – jrista♦ Apr 5 '12 at 15:26
In which kind of situations do flare occur? Examples? Iam sorry for asking too many questions. – user462608 Apr 5 '12 at 15:38
Flare usually occurs when you point your lens directly at a bright light source, or point it such that a bright light source is just outside the frame. Its highly doubtful you'll be pointing your lens at a bright light source with food photography, so you don't have to worry about it. As far as polarizers go, cheaper ones tend to flare more easily than more expensive ones, so if your shooting landscapes and the like and want to polarize, a better polarizer is better. – jrista♦ Apr 5 '12 at 16:55
and the polarizer isn't going to effect the photos in any negative way at all? – user462608 Apr 6 '12 at 15:24
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up vote 10 down vote

Use a substitute to get the lighting, perspective, depth of field and background elements placed just right. Then replace with the real heated food when ready.

If your food will be in a bowl, you can partially fill the bowl with paper, foil, rice, so that you only put the food on the very top, so use less of it, reserving more for later shots.

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What kind of substitute would you suggest? – user462608 Apr 5 '12 at 9:47
Anything that you think will be appropriate for getting the lighting right. Could be wadded up newspaper, coloured paper, rice/beans/lentils. Something with some texture so you can see how light and shadows fall. I used dried beans last time. – MikeW Apr 5 '12 at 10:07
thanks for the answer. – user462608 Apr 6 '12 at 15:26
up vote 1 down vote

I would suggest using a stand in to get everything right before you even start cooking. Think of it as the equivalent of mise en place. Get the framing the way you want it, the props, the lighting, the color correction, the focus, etc. Take sample pictures until you are satisfied, then cook your dish.

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Thanks, but since the daylight is required, and the daylight may vanish by the time finish cooking. ;) – user462608 Apr 7 '12 at 1:34

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