Behind the Scenes: Food Photography
Every time I stand in the grocery store checkout line, I am hypnotized by the food recipe magazines and often have to fight the urge to buy them all - and not because I want to test out a new recipe, either; but because I want to sit and admire the photography.
I want to point out that I am not, by any means, a professional FOOD photographer. A few years ago I started dipping my feet into the food photography world and was able to find a groove that works for me when it comes to styling. A few of you on my instagram and Facebook voted that you’d like to see some behind the scene stuff and today I’m going to share that with you.
Pictured below is my setup. I know it’s probably not what you were thinking. There is nothing sexy about my setup; it’s as simple as simple can get. But you know what? It works!
Starting out with the most important ingredient to the recipe (see what I did there?): light. Whenever I know that I am going to be photographing food, or any flat-lay type of photo for that matter, I always set up beside a window that allows a lot of natural light!
Since I am typically only limited to one window, I tend to need to “throw” the light around using some sort of white reflecting surface. In this case, I’m using plain ol’ white foam core boards from Wally-World. In the two photos below, I just leaned them up against my front door and used a kitchen cooking utensil jar for the other; soooo technical, right? I’m telling you - it’s literally the most simple setup ever.
By the way, yes, I do have soft boxes. Do I want to dig them out of the garage though? No, thank you.
As far as props go, I went and grabbed a bunch of random stuff from my kitchen. Since I was photographing bread, I tried to incorporate items and tools that are needed to bake bread:
A rolling pin for the rough.
A cooling rack for the bread to cool.
A tea towel to cover to rising dough before it goes into the oven.
Dried wheat from a random floral bouquet I purchased months ago (the crap I buy, I swear).
A bread knife to cut the bread.
A cutting board to cut the bread on.
…you get the idea!
Finally, my surface. This is where options really become endless. There are a lot of photography style boards on the market for people who specifically do flatly photography and for wedding details, but you can surely make your own! In the photos below, I am using a black concrete surface from Replica Surfaces. These are great because they’re not only gorgeous, but also easy to transport. The part I love most though is that they easily wipe clean with a damp paper towel; important in case you have any spills!
By the way, I am in no way affiliated with them and was not paid or asked to inform others. I just really, really, like these surfaces.
If you don’t want to fork out the money for a styling board, you can totally save some $$ by making your own!
Some ideas include:
-Plaster/paint on a white foam core board
-Stain a few pieces of wood
-Wallpaper
…Youtube & Pinterest has some awesome ideas if you just type in “DIY Food Style Board”
As far as equipment goes, I keep it pretty basic. I primarily use a combination of both my 50mm lens and my Macro lens. Both allow me to get a variety of different shots!
I like to think of food styling as a puzzle. I will first usually put down the “star” of the show, first. In this case, it’s the bread. From that point, I use my props to just sort of piece around the main subject. Just remember - less is more!
