Guest Blogging – Food Photography #5

I often upload my pictures, look at them and instantly know mistakes I have made, things I would like to change and know that I can’t. It is alright if the dish is something you repeat often in your house. You can forgive yourself and take the shot the next time, but what if it is something exotic, that you prepare once in a while? That is where a food photography tip comes in handy. When Lubna invited me to write on her blog, I had a difficult time deciding upon the aspects that I wanted to highlight as most obvious aspects are easily found on the web, or have been discussed in the earlier write-ups. Then I looked up my ‘tip’ document and decided to share my notes with you. I just keep adding tips/mistakes that I should keep in mind the next time, or not repeat. I did tweak the language to make it more presentable. I hope you find it helpful too. I am sure many of you know some or all of the tips I have given. But I believe that reading tips, keeping it as a reference, and re-reading ensures fewer mistakes in turn ensuring better photographs. FRAMING, CROPPING AND POSITIONING: Try not to let props/flowers/leaves/vegetables etc. play peek-a-boo with your photograph. In the picture of the ‘pear and plum cake’ below the stem makes an appearance on the LHS of the photograph. It does not add any feel or substance but it does disturb the eye. It is a mistake I hope not to repeat again. If you need to place a spoon, a flower, a leaf, flaunt it. Do not show a portion of the spoon, a portion of a complete flower or leaf. You could scatter the petals or leaves, if it adds aesthetic appeal. For example, rose petals & herbs such as coriander, rosemary etc. look nice scattered around your dish if they have some relevance. Do not position your featured dish in the center of the photograph, if you have a blank canvas. It creates a void and the reader will visually crop it if you do not. Compose the picture off center, by the rule of thirds etc. as briefed in the previous articles. Centering may work but not as a general rule, but then sometimes one must break the rules. PICTURE ASSOCIATION: Food photography is very much similar to family/portrait photographs. Why do you keep going back to your wedding pictures or baby photographs? They take you back in time, create an association and convey emotions. As a serious food blogger, that is exactly what your food should do. Establish a visual connection with your readers. Impress upon them the recipe, the story or the reason why that dish is dear to you, through your image, because that is the most powerful content of a food blog – the recipe and write up comes later. If you want the first time reader to linger around long enough, a good visual is important. Why not create the scene in your food setting? You might want to show a kid tucking into food with gusto. Works great, but I do not like the idea of bringing my family members into my blog. How do you create a breakfast scene then? Here is an example. I haven’t shown hands or people digging into the food but I am sure this pancake shot conveys a hearty breakfast. Make a note why it gives you that feeling and use those notes. Every time the reader sees the picture he will remember the recipe and the story with it. A slice of an apple, a knife, a licked spoon, a morsel of bread/roti broken off from the whole – all this conveys to the reader that there is someone who ate the food you cooked. Dripping liquids such as maple syrup or sprinkled castor sugar can work magic too. I am guilty of using my daughter’s hands so much in my photographs that she calls herself a hand model! A child or an adult holding a plate, spoon or fork can make a world of difference to a photograph. It conveys movement, action and the human touch. Do not repeat it too often. It is a very impressionable tool and repetition is easily noticeable. The example above of the coconut butter also illustrates a good exposure. The white has been well exposed as the butter and the bowl are of the same colour. It is also a good example of how effective contrasting colours can be. Sorry about the self praise, but that happens to be a favourite of mine. PHOTOGRAPHING INDIAN DISHES: Indian dishes tend to be runny, sometimes lose texture as the gravies are smooth and sometimes like my son says, the colour is a total put off. Sometimes the dish is such that traditionally it is not garnished even with coriander leaves. This is the case with many dishes from South India. Coriander leaves were not in use till recent times, about two decades back. Some dishes do not require tempering too. One such is stuffed eggplants/baghara baingan. It is luscious but dunked in gravy, turns softer, sometimes comes apart, and loses texture. You might choose the easier route and garnish the dish to make it look nice. I might have done it in the past when I started blogging, but today I won’t, because for me, the dish is no longer honest. As for earlier, well, I was ignorant! The first time I photographed bharli wangi, this is how the photograph came. I did not like it, do you? I noted down why I did not like the picture. Before I made it the next time, I took a good look at my notes and made a few changes to my style of cooking the eggplants without compromising on the taste. I slit it the eggplants from the opposite end, because the only part that can help the baingan hold its shape is the stem, and stems look elegant in any photograph. Also, I shook off the excess gravy, as the colour of the gravy itself is not appealing to the eye. It helped. Don’t you think? If it is rasam or dal that you are taking a picture of, stir the dish before you click, or keep some of the tempering aside and add it to your bowl. Do not use very bright, textured backgrounds while photographing gravy dishes. The texture or brightness of the background used tends to overshadow the dish itself, as Indian gravy dishes do not have a very rough texture, especially the ones with ground masala pastes. Matching props: It is fine if you show an adult hand, holding a plum. We know the size of an adult hand and the size of an Indian plum. But it is not the same case when you have a photograph of a small bowl and a big spoon, a large napkin supporting a tiny bowl. Would you serve soup or dessert like that to your guest? Keep your props proportional. Wrong proportions often create distorted images. I have made this mistake so often before! Get inspired: Browsing through good food photographs will help you visualize your food picture. It will help you get familiar with placing of elements, the rules of photography and keep you inventive. The downfall is that it makes you hungry after a good meal. But that again is what you want your pictures to do. So learn. I use pinterest.com to help me pin pictures that inspire me, help me with styling or creating visuals. When I create a dish that puts me in a fix, I look through my pin boards and look for tips. Join a public platform where you can showcase your pictures and join groups that challenge you to create a new kind of photograph each time, if you can afford the time. I joined flickr. Flickr groups have some great food photographers. Just browsing through their food photographs is an inspiration. I also browse many food photography sites. Downside is, I drool, I cook, I take photographs, I eat and tend to put on weight. But the downside is worth the learning. This really helps. Inspiration is a very powerful tool. In the beginning you might copy but very soon you will develop your own style. Taking online courses in photography can help develop your style too. Be experimental: Break rules often. But, only after you have taken the right pictures. Sometimes you will find that being different brings out a new style and a better photograph. It is wiser to be cautious and take pictures conventionally as well, because you may not want to repeat the dish soon enough to take another picture if things go wrong. PROPS IN PHOTOGRAPHY: I do not shop for props per se, but I do keep an eye out whenever I am out on the streets. I have in the process found some places where I can get props cheap and good. For napkins, I used to go to this shop in Crawford Market that supplied to hotels. They always had defective ones that looked great. I got them for Rs.15/- to Rs.20/- each. Here is my collection. For glasses, I prefer shops that sell individual pieces rather than sets. In shops like Star, Big Bazaar etc. you can ask for defective pieces. I found that if one or two glasses in a set break, they sell the others in the set as singles. I have procured quite a few glasses for Rs.9/- to Rs.20/- from such places, and these are good ones. No scratches or damages. It is just that they cannot be sold as sets. The best things I have got are free. I found one of my neighbours disposing off his wooden racks to the ‘raddiwallah’. I knew it would go for peanuts, so I offered to buy it. He gave it to me for free because he wasn’t getting much for it anyway. I sand papered and sawed away the paint as much as possible, and the background works for me. You can convey your gratitude in some other way. Maybe treat them to your home baked/coooked goodies some time! I conserve handmade paper bags, ribbons and jute bags received with gifts/shopping. They come in handy quite often.I often use candle holders for glasses. In fact those were my first shot glasses, before I purchased a set of six. Recently I had been to my aunt’s place and she was telling me about things she had collected over the years and how they were no longer in use. My ears stood up. I requested a peek and found some interesting stuff I could use. An iron tempering wok, an old aluminium bowl, etc. They make good props. I use the wok daily. I use the bowl only for photography, not for serving or cooking. The lesson is – never hesitate to ask. More often than not, it makes people happy to see you adding value to their things, especially small ones that no longer seems important to others. I take back remnants of cloth pieces from my tailor if I place a stitching order. The small pieces make good napkins. I do not buy foam boards. I have often found thermocol buffers that come with packaged goods make good reflectors. I don’t buy these goods often but I use the boards that have been discarded by others. All said and done, never hesitate to break rules, experiment often and learn from your experience. You can find Harini Prakash aka Sunshinemom a vegan Blogger, freelance food writer and food photographer @ her

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In case if you have missed the entries under this series, here are the links to the posts…..

Guest Blogging – Food Photography #1 by Namitha of Collaborative Curry.