You first eat with your eyes, don’t you?
As such, when I thought of starting my food blog, I thought: I really needed to get into food photography and even photography in the first place as I knew nothing about it…
It felt overwhelming at first but, nowadays, a few months down the line, I even receive some compliments about my pictures (!!!).
I’m over the moon because I really enjoy it and in the same way that I think that anyone can cook, I’m a firm believer that if you want to take nice pictures you can… where there’s a will there’s a way :-)
Whether you want to get into food photography or if you are just curious to know how everything is happening behind the scenes at Croque-Maman, you will find below my food blogger photography tools. I have really screened the web before buying/getting each of these tools. I guess it is beginner’s kit but I love it :-)
Please do not hesitate to let me know your thoughts on it!
I received my camera about a year ago in Christmas 2012/13, one of my best present ever :-). At first I was a bit scared, all these settings…
For the first six months I shot in automatic and I even started to regret having asked for such an expensive treat… I thought that the pictures often looked worse than the ones with my small digital camera!!!
But then, during Summer 13, whilst I stayed at my dad’s house in France with the boys, I made a step change. When the boys were napping I started to read, my camera in hand, the user manual first and then a couple of books about food photography. It was time to let go the automatic mode. My pictures improved massively and I never looked back. I love my camera!
My camera came with a 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II Lens Kit but I have never used it for food photography, only for general photography. For my food photography I purchased the Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II Lens, maybe one of the cheapest lens on the market to start experimenting with low light, shallow depth of field (blurred background effect) and getting sharp results. It is amazing.
It is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a free software that allows me to retouch my photos (white balance, sharpen…) when required and to add various layers to them (texts, boxes…).
I started manipulating my pictures using a trial version of Photoshop but I could not really legitimate the cost of buying it. A friend of mine recommended GIMP to me. I found in GIMP all the functions I was using in Photoshop. It’s great. Have a go at it, it’s free :-)
I’ve learned everything I know about food photography reading books and websites, attending a food photography course and of course practicing, practicing and practicing!!! Aside from my camera manual, there is one book, which I keep going back to as my reference it is the tasty food photography e-book, by Pinch of Yum. It covers it all: technical bits (shutter speed, aperture and ISO), lightning, composition, props and set up, editing and workflow. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
- Memory Card (32GB)
Well you need space for all these pictures, don’t you?!?
I have two of those: one that I use to diffuse the light (translucent feature) and one that I use to reflect the light (silver feature). Sometimes I shoot in very funny positions as I have no assistant to hold them in the perfect place. I really need to get a cat (it sounds random but I’m always looking for a good excuse to get a cat :-)) In this instance it may be more relevant to get a reflector stand I know…
I haven’t taken my tools anywhere so far but it’s great to have a bag to put everything all together and I can just do this with this bag. I can even put my laptop in it :-)
- Letter to Santa & Other considerations
Tripod
So far I don’t own a tripod. As such, I always handhold my camera and, as I have been thought during my food photography course, the slowest shutter speed I use is 1/125. A friend of mine just lent me her tripod so as I can experiment with it. It is a Manfrotto. I haven’t had a chance to use it yet but I will let you know.
External hard-drive
I do not have an external hard-drive at this stage but I know I need to buy one as my pictures are quite big, my laptop really basic and I can feel that it is starting to slow the all thing down.
Reflector stand
Sometimes I wish I had a reflector stand but I did not take the time to properly look into this yet :-)
White balance card
My brother bought me a white balance card for Christmas but I can’t find it since we moved house and as such I haven’t had a chance to use it… As a result I continue using the feature in my editing software.
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Thanks for writing this post with all your tips. I am starting a new ‘Food Friday’ feature on my blog so these tips will be really useful for me when I want to photograph my creations! I definitely think that I need to do more research on how to use my camera as I get very confused about ISO settings, etc. But that book looks very good and the photos make me very hungry!
I have to agree that I love GIMP which I finally understand now and it’s free but looks slightly more simple than Photoshop. I really recommend a tripod, I received one for Christmas and it’s so useful. It’s actually a mini tripod which is quite annoying as it’s quite hard for outfit posts but would be great for food photos!
~Hannah xx
Welcome To My Floordrobe
I’m so glad this could be of use for you too. I think you’re right I’ll try to see if I can get a tripod for my birthday :-) Your website is really nice BTW, I love your “101 things to do” section and I can’t wait to discover your “Food Friday” feature!
ne
Like you I got a digital SLR but even after a year or so I still haven’t utilised its potential. It enabled me to get lots of pics of the dog running, but not much else. I think following your tips will be helpful – food is always a good subject too. Now that I have not been working for a year I think I now have some headspace so I should be able to concentrate and produce something.
(Particularly found you tips on lenses and software helpful. There is so much info out there it is hard to separate the hype from the helpful – and easy. To buy something way beyond my user skill!)
Good luck with your blog development.
I am really glad this is helpful to you. Many thanks for your support Liz :-) Can’t wait to see what you come up with!
[…] you have been following me you know that this book is a key component of my food blogger photography kit and that together with my short photography course and practice this is how I learnt food […]