We have seen just how much you are enjoying cooking and sharing photos of your creations so we asked our favourite foodie photographer Nick Smith for some hot tips on taking the best shots…
“I’ve worked with the lovely people at Brasserie Blanc for quite a few years now and they’ve asked me to run through a few food photography tips for everybody. So here goes…
* First tip…relax, there are no ‘rules’!
* The great thing about digital photography is that it’s free, you can take as many as you want. Experiment with angles, perspective and cropping: portrait, landscape or square can change everything. The more pictures you take, the better you get.
* Use natural light. Go outside if you can, otherwise photograph by a window. Bright sunlight itself can be tricky so try to find some shade or dappled light if you can. If you are photographing by a window use a piece of white card to reflect the light from the window back on to whatever you are photographing. It makes a massive difference, just try it and you’ll see.
* Look at your images and edit out anything that’s not working. Be your own harshest critic, photographers spend a lot of time shooting but just the same amount of time editing and selecting what has worked best and frankly what hasn’t worked at all!
* Think about what you are going the present the food on. Old plates, new plates, coloured plates, inherited plates. Big bowls, small bowls, woks or burnt baking trays, experiment and see what works. These show a few props from our BB shoot last Autumn, we come along with a box of goodies, it’s like a WI bring and buy sale!
* Now consider what you are going to put the plate or bowls ON? What’s the background? This is really just as important as the food and the plate, but often forgotten about. Ideas could include: kitchen table, wooden kitchen floor, tiles, bread board, marble cheese board, your favourite scarf or a crumpled linen cloth.
NB check what’s in the background – no one wants to see a messy draining board, an unwanted Sainsbury’s bag or kitchen roll at the back of the shot!
*Finally it’ amazing the difference a prop can make – try a folk, napkin, a glass of wine or even a hand to change the feel of the image’.
So there you have it. A few tips and tricks from our favourite foodie photographer along as well as a few examples from our Brasserie Blanc & White Brasserie shoots – we hope they offer some nice photography inspiration and we look forward to seeing more of your shots too.
