Photographing Food or Styling Food – Please Keep This in Mind
G had made some nice chocolate mousse today and I was planning to shoot some dessert photos. G started assembling the dessert in a clean glass, a brown layer of something followed by a white layer of white chocolate, followed by another layer and layer by layer the dessert was assembled. She topped it with whip cream and some strawberries. It was looking good. Now, how bad a photo can be when subject itself is so beautiful?
How I Set Up
Once the food was ready, we decided to keep the table setting pretty minimal. Since I was shooting this at home, we wanted to get the photos as soon as possible and eat the mousse. We started with placing two glasses back to back. The important thing here was harmony. So we turned the glasses such that the slopes of the layers followed a “logical repetition.”
Lighting
Once the dessert was ready for the photos, one last thing remained – making sure we had enough light. I was shooting this near glass doors, so I had ample of light coming in. The challenge with a situation like this is when you have backlight, the front side of the subject becomes dark. So, get more light on the front side, I used some bouncers and mirrors.
I tried some photos, lighting was okay but still not the best. So I decided to move the set up in the balcony. I thought, well that might just solve the problem. I’ll get ample light and won’t need bouncers or mirrors. And I moved the table, the glasses, my tripod and camera out in the balcony.
Taking Food Photos
I started with some generic shots. Some photos that were very experimental. Then I slowly started making photos – some conscious decisions on how to select a frame, at what camera angle should I shoot? I took lot of photos, trying vertical and horizontal frames. I took a photo at about 5 degree to horizontal and then tried one at 45 degree. I took some photos at f/4.8 and some as low as 30s shutter speed. Change my zoom and tried some macros too.
And then I realized… that I needed some chocolate shaving on the top to make the dessert look more appealing. I ran to the kitchen and grabbed some chocolate bar and made some shavings directly on the glasses. I took some more photos. tried bunch of them at 5 degree angle, few others at 45, yet others at around 75 degree. Tried zooming in, tried zooming out. Then I thought it would be a good idea to use white foam board as a table. So now, we put the foam board on the table and the glasses above the foam board.
Another light bulb turned on in my head – why don’t I put some chocolate chips/chunks in the background. So, once again I ran to the kitchen get some chocolate chips. I opened the pantry door and trying looking for this bag of chocolate chips. And all of a sudden…
a "meh" chocolate mousse dessert photo The Thing Most of Us Ignore
G screamed. “Oh My God” she yelled. I ran to the balcony to see what has happened. The wind was so strong, that it lifted the foam board and the glasses on them and threw the glasses couple of feet up in the air. The glasses landed on the ground with one glass absolutely crushed after falling from some 100 feet or so. Thankfully, no one was standing below the balcony and no one was injured.
It was scary. Scary because this could have ended up much worse than this. I am absolutely horrified thinking of what could have happened if there were kids playing or someone was walking.
Lesson learned here is that please be safe and be cautious of situations like these where things may not be seem as dangerous at first, but may turn out into one very fast. I wanted to share this with you, please keep safety in mind. Be safe and stay safe. Take lot of photos.
Your Safety Share
Do you have a food photography/styling related safety incident? Please leave us a comment below.
Photo Credit: Caution by dullhunk
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I know exactly what u say coz i do shoot in the balcony ,and since we live on a high hill, it get really windy and i have to deal with flying shinny balls, flowers, cloths and what have u:-))))or cookies too!!!!
But thankfully mothing like this ,though have been quite close to it:-))))
Sea breeze ,combined with Hill winds ,are quite a pair i say:-)))
That said this pic is absolutely beautiful;-)))
Haha. flowers and cookies… I won’t mind that. Thanks for you comments.
Too bad you did not get to eat the mousse in the end. I have had no incidents yet and hope it will stay that way. My only “accident” was deleting some nice photos I took by mistake. Glad no one got hurt in your adventure.
Yeah… couldn’t get the mousse. Neither was I able to take a good photo that made me happy. Thankfully no one got hurt.
I also shoot on my front porch and have had some near misses. Luckily I live on the ground floor
I shoot on my patio. No danger of passers-by being injured. I just have to make sure that when I step back into the kitchen to get another prop or change something, the dog doesn’t help herself. She always thinks I’m setting up a table, complete with tablecloth and napkin, just for her. She has the most expressive face, full of anticipation, during photo shoots.
Glad to know nobody was hurt. Sometimes mishaps/spills/breaks make beautiful shots!
Thanks for the great tips on taking the shots. Especially when you mentioned using different angles with combining shutter speeds. It gave me some great shots of my own. Thanks again for posting.