Photographing Food at Home vs. at a Restaurant

[Reyed Mia (Apprentice, DIU)]

Photographing Food at Home vs. at a Restaurant

Styling is such an important aspect of story telling and a successful food shoot. Patterns and colors can support the subject of your story or distract from it. Think about what sort of message your props and backgrounds are going to convey. For example, if you are photographing Chinese Chicken Salad for a food blog, what will it look like on Asian inspired plates vs. Chinese Chicken Salad on Mexican pottery or on a plain white plate? Are you placing your subject inside of a scene, like a chef's kitchen? Perhaps you want ingredients in view like flower, oil and vinegar, mixing spoons, etc. Remember that when evaluating your propping that less is more.

In many professional settings, like Williams-Sonoma, Martha Stewart, Good Housekeeping or Bon Appetit, the food has been styled well beyond what you would see in a professional restaurant kitchen (outside of an exquisite restaurant like French Laundry, or its equivalent). Food for print has to look both edible and perfect, but must stay within current visual trends. There are numerous techniques used to fake certain foods and it is not always necessary to use the highest quality ingredients (which can be very expensive) to get the best photographs. Trying to cut corners can save you a lot on your budget – a fruit pie stuffed with mash potato rather then expensive fruit that will never be seen can allow you to be able to spend more on props, etc.

When you look at food featured in any of these top catalogs or publications and compare it to your food made at home, do not be disappointed if your food or image doesn't quite look like what you see in those publications. Keep a journal and make notes of which foods worked and which foods did not and the reasons why. Food photography takes time and a lot of patience. You can get close, but it is good to know that most of these high-end images have been created with large budgets and a team of professionals.

Source:http://learn.usa.canon.com/resources/articles/2015/howtotakefoodphotos-home-restaurant.shtml