Photography

I receive a lot of questions about how I approach the photography aspect of food blogging and hope that this little section provides you with some insight. The biggest ally in photographing food is a lot of natural light. Whenever possible, I take photos next to a set of double French doors that lead out to my deck. This is the area of the kitchen where the most light shines through, which makes it the best place to take food photos. I don’t use any artificial lights or flashes, which can cast some unfavorable shadows and hues onto the food.

Sometimes the food looks great straight from the camera, but sometimes it can use a little bit of editing. I try to get the photos right in the frame so that I don’t have to do much adjusting later. I do the majority of my photo editing in Adobe Lightroom and sometimes use Adobe Photoshop as an additional tool.

I receive many emails regarding the type of camera and lenses I use, so I put together a list of my equipment below. Please note that I don’t use any type of external flashes, bounces or extra photography equipment.

Brown Eyed Baker Photo Equipment

The biggest piece of advice I can give to anyone with questions on food photography is to read as much as you can and then practice, practice, practice. The more familiar you are with your camera and its functions, the better you understand how the light affects the resulting photos, and more comfortable you become adjusting setting on the fly, the better your photos will become. It takes time and practice. Find some photos in magazines or on websites that you like, and try to recreate them, giving yourself little assignments. The more you shoot, the better! Most importantly, have fun!

[Updated October 2012]