Food Photography: A Beginner’s Guide to Creating Appetizing Images

234 Pages·2016·57.8 MB·English

by  Corinna Gissemann

Corinna Gissemann comes from Berlin. In 2011, she decid-
ed more or less overnight to become a stock photogra-
pher. She taught herself all the basics and photography has
since become her preferred form of creative expression.
Food and still life have always been Corinna’s favorite
genres, and her work can be found at various international
agencies, in a broad range of publications, and on many
people’s walls.
To fnd out more, visit corinnagissemann.de or send
Corinna an email at
Corinna Gissemann
Food Photography
A Beginner‘s Guide to Creating Appetizing Images
Food Photography
Corinna Gissemann
http://corinnagissemann.de/
Editor: Jocelyn Howell
Project manager: Lisa Brazieal
Marketing: Jessica Tiernan
Translation by: Jeremy Cloot
Layout and type: Cora Banek, www.corabanek.de
Cover design: Helmut Kraus, www.exclam.de
ISBN: 978-1-68198-101-7
1st Edition (1st printing, July 2016)
© 2016 Corinna Gissemann
All images © Corinna Gissemann unless otherwise noted
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tion storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher.
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v
This book is dedicated to my
parents, who have always
supported me in everything I
do; to my wonderful husband,
who never loses his patience,
whatever I may be up to; and,
of course, to my little bundle of
sunshine, my daughter Emma,
who is just as crazy as I am.
Table of Contents
1 What Gear Do You Need? 3
Which Camera? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Which Lens? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Using a Tripod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Remote Shutter Release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Artifcial Sources of Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
White Balance Using a Gray Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Memory Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Hard Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Image-Processing Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Cell Phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2 Basics 15
Farewell, Auto–Hello, M Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Setting the Aperture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Setting the Exposure Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
ISO Sensitivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Putting It All Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
RAW vs. JPEG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
White Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3 Lighting 27
Main and Fill Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Daylight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Artifcial Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Continuous Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
vi
Refectors, Flags, and Other Light Shapers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Hard and Soft Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Light-to-Subject Distance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Angles of Incidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Light Direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Light at Different Times of Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Preventing Unwanted Refections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
4 Image Design and Composition 57
Start Slowly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Portrait or Landscape Format? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Shooting Angles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Framing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Positioning the Star of the Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Steering the Viewer’s Gaze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Composing with Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Adding Texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Capturing a Mood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Creating a Feeling of Depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Practicing Image Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
5 Styling 79
Styling Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Becoming a Storyteller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Choosing a Theme for Your Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Props. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
vii
Starter Kit: 13 Must-Have Food Photo Props . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Sample Styling Kit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Working with Dummies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Styling Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Including People in Your Images. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
6 Five Food Photography Projects 99
Salads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Soups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Main Dishes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Desserts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Drinks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
7 Image Processing with Lightroom 151
About Lightroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Setting Up a Workfow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Importing Image Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Processing Your Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Working with Presets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Getting Organized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Backups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
8 Tips and Tricks 187
Simulating Condensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Combating Burned-Out Refections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Stabilizing Styrofoam Refectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
The “Full Dish” Trick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Salt in Your Beer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Gelatin Soup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
viii
Building Blocks as Placeholders 191
Cardboard Backgrounds 192
Four Eyes Are Better Than Two 192
Making Notes 193
9 Homemade Props 195
Trick Milk Bottle 196
Tongue-and-Groove Background 197
Plywood Background 199
Two-in-One Refector and Flag 201
Universal Soup Can 202
Decorated Teacup 203
Five-Second Mini Cake Stand 205
10 How to Boost Your Creativity 207
Get Out of Your Comfort Zone 208
Imitate Your Role Models 208
Learning to “Read” a Photo 208
How to Find and Use Sources of Inspiration 209
Brainstorming 210
Developing Your Own Visual Style 210
Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment 210
11 Now It’s Your Turn 213
Exercises 214
Quick Test 217
Image Sources 221
Index 222
ISO 100
1/6 second
f/5.6
100mm