Club Meeting : Food Photography

Our food photography meeting was a hit!

After Liza Curtiss presented tips and tricks on how to get the most out of your food photography, members had the opportunity to shoot and test out their new skills! There was a variety of food, props, backgrounds and lighting to choose from, and members kept on shooting until we literally had to turn off the lights and tell them to go home!

Everyone left with a fun set of images, new skills, and hint of inspiration that will hopefully encourage them to keep photographing food!

A couple helpful tips:

- Lighting is key! It sets the mood and allows you to capture accurate colours and textures.

- Play with props! Think about what props (utensils, dishes, ingredients etc.) will complement your dish. The same goes for backgrounds!

- Keep it fresh! Always try to photograph food that is freshly prepared.

- Watch your angles! Most food looks great if you shoot from a 40-50 degree angle. That said, things like burgers/sandwiches/cakes look amazing from table height so that you can see their size and layers, while pizzas, salads, pies and prep stations look great from above!

- What about settings? Again, it depends on what you are photographing and how much you want to show. Typically, a good place to start for aperture would be f/4.5 and then you can increase or decrease your depth of field based on what you are capturing. A single strawberry may just need an aperture of f/2.8, while a full plate of sushi would require closer to f/8 to ensure enough is in focus to get the shot you want. The ISO should also stay as low as possible to keep clean, crisp images and shutter speed would depend on if you are shooting hand-held or not, and how much light you have.

For more information, join the club!