food photography and styling - amy treasure · 2020. 2. 20. · useful. i have a food photography...

F O O D P H O T O G R A P H Y &

S T Y L I N G

B Y A M Y T R E A S U R E

I started blogging back in 2011 I originally blogged about hair and beauty which I quickly outgrew! I began my parenting blog in 2013 and here I used my mobile phone for the images.

I thought my blog would grow based only on my words and that photography was second place to that. In 2015 I upgraded to a ‘big camera’ and I was given a half day photography course as a present. It was the best thing I ever did. It was then that my blog moved on in terms of its success and I quickly realised an image spoke a thousand words.

When I started food blogging I understood that my readers ate with their eyes, so my imagery became even more important.

H I , I ’ M A M Y

T H E B A S I C S

Shooting in manual mode is not as difficult as it sounds. If you have a great light source (and

we’ll talk more about that later) you really only need to worry about aperture (f stop) and

shutter speed.

I shoot most of my food images with an f-stop of 4. This seems to be the sweet spot for

getting a nice depth of food while retaining clarity.

As for shutter speed, the general rule of thumb is to set the shutter the speed at or above the

focal point of your lens. In other words: if I’m using a 50mm lens I start my shutter speed at

1/50th of a second. I can increase this if the image looks shaky but I won’t decrease it.

A T Y P I C A L S E T- U P !

– A M Y T R E A S U R E

“Look for the light.”

• A camera flash plus food doesn’t mix!

• Natural light is always best

• Move your subject in front of a window

• Use a bedsheet and a silver reflector to diffuse the light if it’s

too harsh

• Save a portion of food and photograph it the next day during

daylight hours

• Piping hot and steaming food does not always look its best!

S H O W O F F T H E

I N G R E D I E N T S , Y O U R

R E A D E R S W A N T T O

S E E T H E M !

T E L L Y O U R F O O D S T O R Y

• Gather your ingredients to tell your food story

• Consider shooting a few of the raw ingredients along with the finished dish

• Using fresh fruit and vegetables is an easy way of doing this

• You can get a good bank of images to use on Instagram where you could start off a food story

with ‘market day’ (or stocking up at the supermarket!) and progress to the finished dish

alongside the ingredients you used to create the dish.

• Google loves process shots for SEO purposes so consider adding in a step-by-step of how you

got to the finished dish

• Small clusters of props or ingredients are more visually appealing than single objects

• Arrange your food and props, take a test shot, have a good look and then rearrange until it feels

right

• Flowers are EVERYTHING when styling food, especially edible flowers as they are smaller!

• Spoons from an antique fair

• Capture by Lucy vinyl backgrounds

• Old baking trays/tins

• Measuring cups/spoons

• Vintage scales

• Wooden boards

• String/ribbon/lace

• Linen (M&S do really nice affordable napkins!)

• TK Maxx is brilliant for pretty plates and bowls

• Edible props such as herbs, flowers, dried roses etc

S O U R C E P R O P S

U N D E R S TA N D A N G L E S

• Food looks better photographed ‘top down’

• Or from the side

• A 3/4 angle sometimes works and is handy if you can’t get

everything in the shot

• Food looks best grouped in odd numbers: 3 cupcakes will always

look prettier than 2

• Red and green food is notoriously difficult to shoot so avoid

having your images dominated by these colours until you’re

comfortable with your camera settings

• Lightroom to organise

• Photoshop to adjust if needed

• I use PS Florabella Trinity Actions

• On mobile - A colour story by ABM

• A design kit by ABM for IG stories

• For video I use Adobe PP (still learning!)

W O R K F L O W

B Y E F O R

N O W !

• Thanks so much for watching today

and a huge thank you to Aby for

inviting me to be part of this amazing

summit. I hope you’ve found my tips

useful. I have a Food Photography &

Styling Cheat Sheet for you and also a

facebook group for foodies that love

photography. I’ll also be running a

number of courses this year from the

very basics to advanced level PLUS 1:1

mentorship to help you progress from

hobby food photography to being

paid to do what you’re passionate

about. If you’re interested, do join my

waiting list and the facebook group.