I’ve been reading a lot about food photography for bloggers lately, and it’s clear that the lighting here in my apartment just isn’t going to cut it. I’ve got the nice camera, but this cloudy time of year when the sun says sayonara at 5pm, the problems isn’t the capture device… it’s relearning how I think about light.
I thought I would share a series of links that I’ve found valuable when it comes to learning the art of food porn creation. When shooting for a blog/cookbook/whathaveyou, you want people to drool like Pavlov’s dogs. These folks will turn you into the next dinnertime da Vinci.
Tips on Food Photography for Bloggers
(or, Photography for Food Bloggers)
- Matt at Wright Food has a series of great photography tutorials, including how to use a DSLE and a point and shoot.
- Matt also recounts his workshop experience with Penny de los Santos.
- Lolo’s photo advice for home food bloggers on VeganYumYum.
- Heidi’s advice on how to take professional-looking food photos, from 101 Cookbooks.
- Diane and Todd at White on Rice have launched a whole series on how to improve your food photos.
- WDDLU – What Does David Lebovitz Use?
- About HDR, an advanced photography technique that looks cool, but is a royal pain in the ass.
- An introduction to food photography, from Digital Photography School.
- Jaden’s primer on a cheap set of lights that will drastically improve your food photos.
- Elise Bauer of Simply Recipes talks about her own food photography journey.
- Food styling tricks of the trade.
- Even YouTube has food photography tutorials.
- Dianne Jacob recently posted some great links and books on food photography.
Examples of good food photography:
- Charity Lynn Photography
- Matt Armendariz
- Adriana Mullen
- Lara Ferroni
- Food Beam
- MegaNom
- FoodGawker
- Still Life with…
- FoodPornDaily
- TasteSpotting
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
thanks for this. It should help a lot.
Now if I could just get access to some of the good photos to add to my content and show off my cookware and bakeware products. I never seem to have enough.
Jesus, people are doing HDR food photos? That seems like huge overkill to me. As for now, I’m just wanting to get a cheap light-with-stand and a piece of gray backdrop paper so I can create a little area to take good shots. Half my blog is iPhone shots these days, which makes me cry a little.
Thanks for this Stephanie. My shots are great during the summer, but I get so frustrated come winter when the light is dull, even at noon, and gone before supper.
Yogiwan, sometimes I search through Flickr for nice photos and then ask the photographers if I can use their work if I give them credit. They’re usually very helpful and excited that someone is interested in their work.
Charmain & George, what do you think of those Lowel light? I’m considering them, but money is tight these days. Still, though, they seem to look REALLY nice for under $100.
Interesting list. There are many many other links that I have found very useful. I like articles which give basics for food bloggers.
Steph,
I have not used Lowel lights and I think it still helps a lot of it is just to get a natural light source (like daylight bulb). It works perfectly fine for me and just costs about $10 or so.