Food Photography - Choosing the backgrounds, props and angles for your food pics

Hello everyone,

Hope all is well with you! Finally with a photography post - Choosing the backgrounds, props((bowls, plates, towels, supporting props for the backgrounds etc)) and angles for your food pics.Not that I am gud at it....but wanted to share few of my learnings/observations in this 1 yr of food blogging!

The most impt thing that attracts me to a recipe is the pic, You may have used the right ingredients, with right proportions and the dish has come out perfect but the end viewer cant see/feel any of these, so ur pic should speak for all the above.

I am fond of sambar satham esp the ones served in hotels. I made this sambar satham sometime back, noone can even try to spoil it like how I did......;) ha ha anyways I m not going to post the recipe, but will surely when I excel in it!

NOTE : All the pics below in this post are straight from my camera except for the image size reduction and sharpening of pics.I really dont like much editing as I feel the natural feeling is lost.Daylight always works best!

First let us get into choosing the props: I admit that my sambar sadam was super flop so pls see only the content of the pic not the food ok?!;)

The first confusion is the bowl: the boat shaped brown one or the white one(only 2 becos I ruled out the other bowls due to shape and size).Hmm ok I have made up my mind with the white one as I felt yellow rice wud go well with white bowl.

Now having finalised the bowl, next comes the base...I am trying with a white cloth.Actually white goes gud with everything either bowl or plate or base like the ones I hve used in Marie Biscuit dessert & Masala Kuzhipaniyaram. But here I feel the white base gets totally merged with the bowl.

Now going in for my fav chocolate brown cloth.Hmm...this is kind of ok for me but not much appealing .....

Now the same choco brown napkin on the white base hmm this looks fine to me so going ahead with this setup.

TIP: You dont even need neat napkins specifically for your food pics, Just pull out ur chudis, dupatas, saris like how I did for peanut ladoos, rose milk and what not?! sometimes even ur babies nappies wud go great like what I did for the corn pic series which most of u liked :) But remember white base always has its own professionalism so just mix and match to see which compliments best for ur food.

Now coming back....the set up of the below pic is ok but looks boring without any colors.....

So for the background I m keeping some colorful vadams, does it give an extra touch to the pic?! The white plate of the vadams still merges with white but dont worry its just going to be in the background. Ok now all set, so next comes the angles.

Angles for your food pics:

This is the most important area which makes ur pics appealing.

Angle1: This is just a closer look of the above pic......hmm not bad. This is a top angle which is a most easy shot as you can cover everything on the table easily.

Angle 2:

This has been taken from a bit of side & front angle...In most cases side front angle works fine when u get closer to the food.

Angel 3:

No major difference between A2 and A3 its only the bowl base showing off

Angle 4:

Hmm now my fav...blurring the background. I usually take most of my pics in auto mode with no macro setting on. So it means any simple setting wud do to get this blur.

The simple 2 things you need to understand are :

1.Assuming that u have a background for ur food, lets go ahead....Just focus ur eyes on the food which you want to highlight...just dont let ur eyes see the other areas at all.

2.First click the shutter button halfway to lock the focus(also called as setting focus lock) then click to capture the pic. Actually this was the first tip I got when I purchased my digicam from the shopkeeper & that seem to be very useful till now. If you dont understand the locking thing read more here

Angle 5:

Another side-front angle with slight blur of the vadams

Angle 6:

This side-top angle covers all props in the pic.

I usually take around 20-25 pics per dish but I'm seriously trying to minimise it as it leads a confusion when I come to editing. Now If I am to post this recipe, the pics I'll choose will be Angle 3,5 & 6. Before I wind up, would luv to hear your choice of angles!

Also do give me ur suggestions on what food photography topics you'd like to read and whether this post reached you or not. So to end up I wud say, it all comes by experience....the more u click the more u learn :) Happy Weekend!

Recording Actions in Photoshop

This is the continuation of my previous post 'Watermarking Images'. Whatever action you perform, photoshop records it and does it for you next time - yes this post is for it! But here I have given the steps for automating watermark but this technique can be done even for borders , headings or anything you feel you are doing repeatedly. Here you go.....

Automated watermarking steps:

1.Go to Window > Actions or (Alt+f9 in win PC). You will be shown a popup having all default actions.

2.Now click on 'create new action' icon, a popup asks for the name for the action, here I call it as 'SharmisWatermark'.

Here is where the magic starts : Click on record in the same popup

3. Now follow the same 4 steps given above for watermarking a image(or even some other actions for testing). After you are done with the steps click on stop. All ur steps will be recorded now.

4.To check whether this has been recorded properly, open another new image and press alt+f9. Ur action named 'SharmisWatermark' will be shown along with the default actions.Click on the actionname, then click play and see what happens.

5.The image that you have opened will have the watermark applied automatically or the actions performed by you while recording is ON.Isnt that cool?

I thoroughly enjoyed doing it.....it was fun. Try it and let me know!

Say NO to Plagiarisms

It was really annoying to read the plagiarisms among bloggers. I really dont understand how one can copy paste others creation and claim that its theirs. Lets try to prevent such people from doing it in future atleast.

Even disabling rightclick on the page will help only to a certain extent, still they can take a print screen and do the cropping so my suggested solution is watermarking. I searched the web and there were numerous watermarking methods, still confused whether this wud help us so enquired one of my designer collegue at office the right and easy way of watermarking images and got this method finally: Trust me its so easy if you can do it for the first time....

Open the image to be watermarked in photoshop (I use Photoshop CS3) but this can be done even in earlier versions too.

Easy way to watermark ur creations in 5 steps:

1.Now click 'T' from the tool bar on the leftside(which is hidden in the belw pic) and type the text on the image say for eg: "@Sharmis-Passions". And this text will be created in a new layer as shown in highlighted blue:

Position the text where ever u want it to be (preferably in the middle)

2.Right click on the text layer > then click blending options

NOTE : The effects can be changed according to each ones choice, I hve used Emboss effect,try experimenting with other effects too. Make the settings as shown below:

Click on Bevel & Emboss and change the style, leave others as default settings.

3. Then reduce the opacity to 56%(this can be + or - according to transparency level one needs)

4.Now holding shift and the 2 layers (1 is background layer where u have ur picture & 2 is the text layer). Right click and select merge layers. This merging layers prevents one from editing the image and changing it to their need so all is done.

5.Now both the layers are merged and as a result only 1 layer will be shown as below:



Tats it, ur creation is watermarked and cant be edited hereafter. Here is the final result!

Tired of doing these steps everytime for all ur images, you need not worry, have a solution for this repetition also...You can record the above actions and save it once, when played next time it will automatically do these steps for you...Isnt that cool? Absolutely yes for lazy creatures like me ;) Tat will be my next tutorial for u.

I was so much involved in this post yesterday that I missed Airtel Super Singer also(the only show I am addicted to currently) and by the time Amma enjoyed Kolangal(am sure for those who are in India knw abt this Kolangal fever) .

Hope this was atleast some use to you....Can I hear a yes?! :)

Photography - The Basic Elements, a deeper view....

When I first opted to learn online photography the often 3 words I read everywhere in basic elements were

• ISO,
  
• Aperture
  
• Shutter speed and I am adding one more to it
  
• Angles

Wait wait dont run away....... hearing these very technical terms, I swear I'l explain in my simplest terms. Even I was very much aversed hearing such terms for the 1st time but then learnt these are the most useful when professional photography is considered. Now first lets start with ISO...

ISO denotes how sensitive the image sensor is exposed to the amount of light present.

It is usually in numbers from lower say 100 - higher may be 2600(it depends on ur camera). This can be manually changed in settings.

Shooting at a lower ISO number requires more light - Refer 1st pic. So if you are at a place where light is less you can increase to higher ISO settings but remember higher the ISO the picture looks like washed off with sand or to be simple a grainy picture - Refer 2nd pic it automatically has given more light. I do cooking mostly during ngt times and there is no way other than to use flash till I learnt about ISO and now I can take pictures without flash by setting higher no ISO say 400 or 800.

ISO : 200 ISO: 1600

RULE :

Lower ISO number is used when there is more light

Higher ISO number is used when there is low light

Aperture

The aperture on a camera, which is measured in f-stops, controls the amount of light. Lower f-stop numbers (for e.g. in mine its 2.8) widens the aperture and allow more light to get in. The larger the hole the more light that gets in - the smaller the hole the less light. But only in some cameras you have control over to manually change the fstop settings , otherwise its automatic.

Note : This blur in 2nd pic was actually faked using photoshop ;) but to show how the blurring looks....I have used this pic...becos I have a a long way to go to learn blurring backgrounds using my digi cam....:) When we take living objects we usually get annoyed when our pictures blur....I was also with you till I discovered the beauty of blurring....I can say I am craving to take background blur pictures....Blur isn’t always a bad thing, especially when it captures the movement or the subject with a background.

Shutter speed

Shutter Speed is the amount of time that the shutters of the window are open. A fast shutter speed will freeze the subject and a slow shutter speed will make it look blurred as the subject moves. When we use flash option there is a fast shutter speed and thats the reason why we have less option for the images to shake. I usually use this in interiors where there is no enough light.

Freezing is if you check the 1st pic will u believe the fan was rotating while I clicked the pic....but yes tats the truth....It just freezes the moving objects when shutterspeed is fast.

RULE :

Fast Shutter speed - Freeze as in 1st pic

Slow shutter speed - Blur as in 2nd pic

Angles:

Till I started this space I was not aware that angles make so much of difference. In the 1st pic I took from top, so the lighting was not gud enough and pic seems to be dull too. The 2nd was taken from one side, see how much difference the lighting with angles has made and the pic looks more appealing. As I say always taking 4-5 pictures in different angles definitely makes a difference in your perspective to photography.

Having known the basics.....Lets get on to the next in my upcoming article but I'l make sure thats not boring as this :) So keep coming and do drop in ur comments !

Photography Tips - Index

Choosing the bgs, props and angles for your food pics

Basic Essentials

Elements - A Deeper view

Say No to Plagiarisms

Recording Actions in PS

Photography - The Essentials

What to photograph?? Scratching ur head of what to click?! Are you out of ideas....? There is nothing specific in the photograph world as a rule to be clicked. Break the rules!! ;)) Click this and that to explore more and you may not even know....and as a result .you might have clicked some exclamatory pictures.

Tats how I click : http://picasaweb.google.com/vsharmilee/MyClicksMacros#

The essentials :

More About Light: To take a great picture you need more than just the light from your camera's flash. It took several months to know that light plays a vital role in photography.To get it, go outside in the daytime. Sunny, cloudy, it doesn't matter. Indoor light is often insufficientfor good photography, so do yourself a huge favor and step outdoors. In my case our house is little darkened even in the daytime so I have to run to balcony each time when I make a dish. Click a picture with flash and the same picture with natural source of light - You will surely see the difference!

Composing And Clicking: Frame your shot , press the shutter halfway when a green lamp(in mine) is shown and then click it. Now you are a way closer to click wonderful pictures!
Tip: If possible take your picture in the early morning or the late afternoons. The light at these times makes for the best photography.I know we cant step out in places like Chennai where heat is scorching.

Conclusion: Now that you've done all the preparations, next is click several shots! Nobody is perfect, most of all have turned to professionals having been a amateur one day. Make sure you take more than 3-4 pictures in the same postures as a beginner to photography. But then if its a macro not a problem but living objects u need to get hold of them to stand and give the same pose for more pictures, thats the trick you should find out ;) Try clicking kids tats the most hardest I feel.....they dont stand still for a moment and tats a more challenging work! Happy Clicking! :)