Foodista Blog » food photography

FoodSnap Photo Contest Winners

Sheri Wetherell — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:53:10 +0000

On September 18 Foodista and Keren Brown Media held FoodSnap, an all-day food photo workshop with award-winning Olympus Visionary and New York Times photojournalist, Lou Manna. What a blast we had! Lou was kind enough to be the judge of our photo contest, and we’re happy to announce the winners. Such fantastic photography from everyone (click on a winner’s name to see all their photos)!

The Grand Prize Winner of a fancy-schmancy Olympus Camera (courtesy of Olympus) is Jasmine Wilkerson for her gorgeous photo (above) of FROST Doughnuts.

The Second Place Winner of a KitchenAid Mixer (courtesy of Sur la Table) is Alice from Savory Sweet Life for her beautiful photo (below) of a Wink Cupcake.

The following winners in each category will receive a prize from the sponsor:

Wink Cupcake Category – by Elise Bauer (Simply Recipes)

Red Ticking Category – by Morry Anne Angell

Fooducopia Category -by Susmita (The Food We Eat)

Kathy Casey Category – by Peabody

Pulp Category – by Anne Livingston (Bring to Boil)

Emily’s Chocolate – Emily’s 1 by Mohini (Mango Power Girl)

Blue Bird Grain Farms – by Ashley (Not Without Salt)

Teasophy – by Askabir

Frost Doughnuts – by Jerrod Stafford

Andaluca - by Morry Anne Angell

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When Foodies and Photographers Come Together

Melissa — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:15:42 +0000

Last Friday, a group of 75 passionate food lovers, photographers, chefs and food stylists came together for FoodSnap! an event put together by Keren Brown Media and Foodista.

It didn’t matter if you only had a point and shoot camera or zero experience behind the lens, eight other photographers and food stylists were right there holding reflectors, white cards and offering tips to help you capture the best shot. Chef Wayne Johnson from Andaluca catered lunch for the event and several other vendors provided delicious offerings, including Kathy Casey who provided the attendees with two FoodSnap! signature edible cocktail gelees; pomegranate rosemary and elderberry and cucumber. The gelees were just as beautiful as they were delicious.

Here is Keren Brown holding a tray of Kathy Casey’s Pomegranate Rosemary Gelees

Guest of honor, Lou Manna, educated, entertained and inspired us all to take better pictures in general, not just of our dishes.

Pictured above is Karlyn, Sheri, Lou, Barnaby, Keren and Melissa

Lou started us off with his basic recipe for food photography (excerpted from Food Arts – July/Aug 2007 issue):

Start with a full helping of the camera manual. Lou says your camera’s manual is like a cookbook that will help you find the key ingredients of your camera.
Think grey. Your camera’s light meter is calibrated to measure grey, so using a grey card to meter the reflected light or an incident meter to meter the light falling on the subject will help give you the correct exposure.
Think white. Be aware of the White Balance setting on your camera. Do your photos often have that yellow, green or blue tint? Auto White Balance doesn’t always work; you can set it manually or take a Custom White Balance to brighten the color of your photo.
Think Right. In the Western world we read from left to right, so it makes sense that our eyes also scan a photo the same way. Lou says there are some simple rules of good composition: a spiral composition that leads your eye clockwise; and the Rule of Thirds, where you divide your frame into a tic-tac-toe design and place your subject at one of those intersecting points.
Serve with the proper resolution. Use some type of photo editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop, and as Lou puts it, “cook” your photos to enhance their “visual flavor.” Set the digital oven to 300dpi with an image size of at least 5×7 in a jpeg format. “Don’t forget to meta tag your photos, use keywords, write captions, and use a descriptive file name.”

For more information and workshops check out and join Lou’s social network DigitalFoodPhotography

If you’re looking for an excellent, informative photography book, check out Lou’s Digital Food Photography book available on Amazon.com:

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Lights Camera Action

Melissa — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:00:33 +0000

We are counting down the days to FoodSnap! an all-day food photography and food styling event happening this Friday, September 18th at George Town Studios in Seattle, Washington. The event has sold out, but you can follow along with us on Twitter the day of the event and stay tuned for a FoodSnap! round up blog post with highlighted tips and secrets we will have learned from the pros that you can implement at home with a simple point and shoot camera.

Here’s the list of food photographers and food stylists who will be sharing with us their magic bag of tricks!

Lou Manna
Lara Ferroni
Rina Jordan
Barry Wong
Charity Burggraaf
Kevin Fry
Tyler Rebman
Danielle Leavell
Jonathan Shmidt
Kathryn Barnard

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FoodSnap Food Photography Workshop

Sheri Wetherell — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:56:33 +0000

Foodsnap! – a collaboration between Foodista and Keren Brown Media – is a full-day food photography workshop lead by Lou Manna, www.LouTheMan.com, award-winning Olympus Visionary and New York Times photojournalist, commercial photographer, educator and author of Digital Food Photography with over 30 years of experience.

Lou will lead the workshop with the professional assistance of Seattle’s top food photographers, Lara Ferroni – www.platesandpacks.com and Rina Jordan – www.rinajordanphotography.com, as well as other well-known Seattle photographers and stylists.

Tickets are now available on Brown Paper Tickets. Register before it’s sold out!

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Foodista Flickr Group Over 1,000 Members

Sheri Wetherell — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 21:18:37 +0000

In September we started a Flickr Group and it has grown to over 1,000 members! Check out some of the beautiful photographs our members are taking, and if you’re not part of the group feel free to join here! We’d love to see your food photography.

www.flickr.com

11 Tips For Great Food Photography

Sheri Wetherell — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 20:06:01 +0000

‘Tis the season to take photographs of all that beautiful food you’re cooking up! Cookies, pies, legs of lamb, that Christmas goose, Grandma’s cranberry chutney. You don’t have to be a food writer, food stylist, a blogger, or even an Annie Leibovitz to take fabulous photos. If you know some simple tricks you can take gorgeous crowd-pleasing photos.

1. Use a digital camera.

It doesn’t have to be a fancy DSLR (digital single lens reflex), in fact a lot of my photography is shot with an old 6 megapixel Canon Elph, but at least 3 mp is best.

2. Don’t use a flash.

I never use a flash. Unless you’re a professional (in which case you won’t be reading this) it’s just too hard to avoid glare and a yellowish hue. I do all my photography in natural light or I’ll use a work light (about $10 from Home Depot) and diffuse that light from a wall. Even then it’s tricky, so try to stick with natural daylight.

3. Get up close.

Set your camera to the macro setting (the little flower) and get right up in there. If you press the focus button halfway down most point-and-shoot cameras will show a little square. That indicates what the main focus is on. Play around. Find that “sweet spot” to focus on. Like that lovely bit of chocolate just starting to drip from the side of your ice cream. Or the little tiny “hairs” on the stem of a tiny tomato.

4. Take a lots of shots.

Just click, click, click away! That’s the beauty of digital, you don’t have to worry about using up all your film. All too many times, when I think I got the perfect shot on the first try, I find that when enlarged it’s too grainy or blurry. Your shots always look different on your camera than when made bigger, so take a lot.

5. Style the food.

Get a paper towel or rag and wipe the edges of the plate, smudges from a glass, or any splatter, drip or drop. The littlest things you may not have notice, like a thumbprint, have an uncanny way of showing up in your photos. Also, prop up some of the ingredients to show what’s in your food. If you’re shooting a beautiful bouillabaisse arrange some of the fish and shellfish on top, but make sure it still looks natural.

6. Be aware of your background.

Sometimes we get so focused on the food that we end up finding things we would not necessarily call “desirable” in our shots. When I look through the lens to frame the shot I check out all the things that are in that little rectangle. A not-so-pretty crack in the table? Do you see your own shadow? Adjust.

7. Have a steady hand.

If you don’t have a calm hand then rest your camera on something, like the base of a tea cup, or use a small tripod. If your lighting is not ideal (like in a dimly lit bar), rest your camera on a table and set the timer.

8. Blow that steam off!

As good as it looks to have piping hot steam coming off your food it’s pretty difficult to capture since it fogs up the lens. So, I always gently blow (or have someone else) on steamy dishes as I photograph. You can also use a small fan, but this only makes the problem of eating cold food worse!

9. Take time to set up your shot.

Using colorful, antique, or just plain white dishes makes your photographs beautiful. Consider placing a napkin under or near your dish. Have an interesting utensil? Throw that in the shot. Think of how interesting shots are styled in those beautiful cookbooks. Most likely you have all you need in your cabinets to make your photography fun.

10. Look at others’ food photography.

When I was little my tennis instructor always told us students, “If you want to become a better tennis player, play with someone better than you.” I always check out sites that I admire to learn from them: how they place a dish on a table, how they style the food, the lighting they use, etc..Many of them say what camera(s) they use and their own tips and tricks.

11. What looks good and what doesn’t.

You’ll also learn what foods just don’t photograph well, regardless how good it tastes. On a trip to Mexico I took countless photos of a delicious pumpkin seed mole Barnaby had made. It looked beautiful! But every single one of my pictures looked no different than something you’d find in a newborn’s diaper. Lesson learned.

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Foodista Flickr Group

Sheri Wetherell — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 21:34:10 +0000

Foodista just created a group on Flickr that already has over 100 members. Check out some of the latest submissions below, and feel free to join us and add your food photos.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/foodista

www.flickr.com