Food Photography For Beginners: My Experience
I think I may have just found my new favorite subject to photograph - food. I mean, we can all agree on one thing: food is great, who doesn't love food, right? But photographing food is a whole other thing.
Just by looking at all the food photographers and photos out there you may be thinking, "this is totally easy" and "how hard could taking pictures of food be?" Trust me - I thought the same thing too, but it is definitely NOT as easy as it looks.
It takes a lot of time.
Food photography has to be one of the most time consuming genres of photography out there. You would think it would take as little as an hour, but unfortunately it takes much more than an hour to get the perfect (or close to perfect) shot. You have to set up your "scene", your lighting, your camera, make your meal or drink, clean up, and edit your photos. Food photography is a full production that not only takes a lot of time, but a lot of energy to create some amazing shots!
It takes a lot of preparation.
Preparation is a key component of food photography. In my opinion, it takes the most time! You have to prepare your set up, lighting, camera, equipment, and most importantly, the FOOD!
I quickly came to the realization that setting up your camera and lighting equipment is the first this you should do when photographing food - it allows for your food and beverages to stay fresh and ready to quickly snap a pic. Even the fewest of minutes can change the way your food looks!
Before prepping my food, I like to take a few test shots to make sure my lighting and white balance is how I like. Once my setup is just how I want it, I start preparing my food or beverage (or both) - whatever I'm photographing at the moment!
It takes a lot of patience.
Before even setting up my scene, I have a vision in mind that I want to achieve. Of course, it always never goes the way I want it to but instead it turns into something better than I had hoped for, But to get to this place it takes a LOT of patience. There is not one time that I don't not get frustrated with everything where I almost want to give up! When I get to this point, I have to remind myself to take a breath and follow through and eventually it work out!
Taking a food photography class has definitely been challenging but a ton of fun and I definitely recommend to anyone looking to try something new in photography!