Update – This is an old series. To participate in an update 30 day series, visit this page.
Today we are very excited to announce a 31-Day series on this food photography blog to improve your food photos. We are calling it “31 Days of Food Photography Tips” or 31DFTP.
Starting July 1st, we will post a food photography lesson every day with a simple assignment for the next 31 days. So what is it going to be like?
Posts and Tips on Food Photography
During this time, we would publish 31 posts that will focus on helping you make better food images. These posts would range from some critical concepts of photography to some actionable food photography tips.
The initial posts in this series are focused on those of you who are just getting started and we hope these first few posts help you to grab your camera and start taking photos. Most of the remaining posts should also help those who have been taking non-food related photos for a while and have ventured into food photography recently.
Every post will be accompanied by a related assignment. Completing these assignments will give your greater and deeper understanding about the concept and help you better comprehend the tips. Importance of doing assignments is well explained by this Chinese proverb:
“Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.”
Our hope is that you would spend few minutes reading the post and then act on the tip or advice by doing these assignments.
Special Weekly Assignments
In addition to our daily assignments we will be sending special weekly assignments to those of you who are interested in taking your food photography to the even next level.
These special weekly assignments are not for everyone but for only those who are serious about food photography. These special assignments will be available only via email by joining below.
In addition to these special assignments, we would send weekly wrap ups at the end of each week of the 31-day series to this list.
If you just want to learn few tips, you will get lot of information during the next 31 days and do not have to sign up for these special assignments. Again, this list is only for those who are serious about food photography.
Submit Food Photography Tips & Win Photography Books
We also encourage our readers to share food photography tips on their own blogs in form of a blog post. After you’ve published your food photo tips, submit the link to your specific post (not your blog) using this submission form. Please fill out the form completely, specially your contact details.
During this series, we would compile the submissions and share them with everyone so that we all can learn from your post.
At the end of the series, we would randomly giveaway bundle of eBooks from Craft and Vision to one participant who has submitted a blog post about their food photography tip.
Please note: For this contest, we would be only including those posts that are published during the 31 days of this series.
If you don’t have a blog you can submit your tips in the comments section of this post and the daily posts as well. We may add a separate gift for commenters, and once finalized we will announce this separately.
More Ways to Participate
This series will be most beneficial to you if you participate actively and learn from your fellow participants by interacting with them on this blog and on food photography facebook page. Here are some ways to participate:
1. Ask Questions – Ask questions about the posts when you need clarification or have a question.
2. Participate in Discussions – You can learn most when you actively participate in this series. So, don’t miss a chance to get involved and discuss a certain concept or a tip.
3. Complete the Assignment and Share Your Results – Share your results from the assignments on LFP facebook page and tell us about your experience.
4. Share This – Sharing is fun. Help your friends and followers who are trying to get better at food photography by share this series. Tweet the post and share it on facebook and blog. Spread the word and help us in our goal
Start Participating Now!!!
What are you expecting from this series? What topics would you like to read about in the next 31 days? Leave a comment below and start participating.
Bruchetta photo taken by Neel
Cool idea, looking forward to it!
Thanks for your comment Jenn.
This comes at the right time, Neel. I have just started spending some quality time to practice food photography. Can’t wait to get started. I would like to see tips on manipulating light to create different moods in food photography.
Great Radhika. Would keep that topic in mind as we move into the 31-Day series.
Sounds great! I will participate all I can… we’ll be away one week and the kids being home gives me less time to play, but I’ll sure try.
Thanks again for making such a great resource for aspiring food photographers!
Brycia
Hi Brycia, I understand it is not always easy to participate 100% on all days. If everyday doesn’t work, you can do this on your own schedule as well…
Thank you Neel for hosting such a thing! looking forward to it!
Thanks Yue!
Looking forward to this!
Looking forward to the 31 days of food photography tips. I am tempted to join the weekly assignments group but am wondering if I will be able to do the assignments with my point & shoot camera.
Hey Usha, camera will not matter for these assignments. A point and shoot will be fine as long as you can change the settings in the camera. Even if that is not possible, I think you should be fine. And the weekly assignments are free so even if you are not able to do those, you can have them and go through them later.
Really looking forward to this. My photography needs a kick up the backside.
Can we talk about lenses? I have the DSLR kit lens, a 85 – 300 that also works as a macro and a 50,f1.8. And I still cannot crack it.
Thanks for hosting
Hi Helen,
Over these 31 days, we will touch upon some of the gear related topics. I think that should help, if doesn’t feel free to ask more questions.
Hello and thanks for another opportunity to join a community and improve our food photography. Looking forward to challenges and learning from you and the others in the group
Here’s a tip. I have 2 rules of photography and I try to follow both of these all of the time…
Rule 1 – after taking a picture, take it again closer.
Rule 2 – go back to rule number 1.
We tend to stand back and take photos that include too much. Our minds can focus on a small area of our field of view but our camera cannot. So, always try to move in and get the image down to the minimum amount of information…eliminate unnecessary information that your mind is ignoring but your camera isn’t. After composing the photo and shooting it (both vertically and horizontally) move in a little closer and start over again. You’ll find yourself staring out closer and closer after putting this in practice.
Looking forward to this! I’ve been dabbling a lot lately with food photography after 3 years of doing portrait work, and find it’s more suited to my personality. I’d like to know how and when you know it’s time to pursue work opportunities in the field. Either way, I’m eager to learn as much as i can in the next 31 days, and excited to participate with others.
This sounds right up my alley! I can’t wait!
This’s so cool, how come I missed these posts?!!
Thanks so much for this Initiative, Neel, really appreciated. Looking forward to an enriching experience.