Guest Blogging - Food Photography #6

Do you think good props make the food look good? or use of too many props in a picture make it look appetizing? Concentrating on just a bowl of food doesn't make the food look yum? Do we always need new props to enhance the ways to make food look appealing to eyes? Do you think it is always the props which make the food look yummy? If your answer is 'YES' for all the above questions, then I say you are wrong. If you scroll to read down today's post then you will know why I said so.

The guest author of today's 'Food Photography' post has mastered her food clicks with no props or minimal props with handy backgrounds. I not only like the simplicity in her writing style but also makes me drool with her appetizing food clicks. I am talking about girl with captivating smile ......Nags of Edible Garden. Nags being busy with work, projects, deadlines, trips and tours...but upon my request to make a post on food photography....she squeezed out time and came up with this gorgeous post. Thanks a ton dear Nags for making this post. Scroll down to see what nags has in store for you in her much mastered department of food photography.

I haven’t posted anything new in the food photography section in my blog in a while so Lubna actually gave me a good reason to move my lazy bones and do something about that.

Today I am going to talk about something I got very good at with of practice – ie, getting something done with minimum effort. If you notice, most of the pictures in my blog have minimum or no props. Although I’d love to say this is more my style, that’s only part of the reason. The actual reason is that although I do shop for props and have a decent collection, by the time I take a picture, its almost time for lunch and I have a hungry husband and myself to feed in a short while.

Chilli Paneer

So I have resorted to focusing more on the clarity of my pictures and the angles rather than setting up a food shot and using a tripod, etc. For the longest time, I used a simple white table as the background for all my pictures. This was mostly when I was in my old apartment, which had large windows and lots of natural light. I just placed the table wherever there was good light at that time of the day and clicked away.

Eggless Garlic Rolls

Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes

Since I moved, there’s not much natural light inside the house so I have to take the table and place it out in the corridor, which I have done in a couple of pictures below.

Blueberry Streusel Muffins

Falafel

I also do some minimum changes, like adding a cutting board as a base on top of the white table, or a sheet of craft paper that goes with the colour of the food or ingredients I am clicking, so that there’s a different colour and texture for the pictures.

Dal Panchratan

Eggless No-Bake Mango Cheesecake

This is a lot of work, bringing the table and accessories and the food in and out of the house, not to mention weird looks from the neighbours and passers-by. So nowadays, I mostly resort to taking pictures on the sofa near the living room window.

The sofa is white and textured so for a while I used that as the base of a lot of pictures using the dark wall behind as a good background.

Stir-fried Raw Papaya

Then it started getting dirty so I got a dark brown throw to protect it from dust and dirt. This throw now forms the background of almost 90% of my pictures. The light there is not good through the day, only the first half, so I try to finish most of my cooking by then and rush to the sofa corner to get shots before the light fades or I get too tired.

Banarasi Dum Aloo

Bottom line, here’re 5 things I go by while taking pictures for my blog.

1. Choose the area that has the best light in your house (or outside!).

2. Decide where and how you are going to place your dish, background, etc. I don’t use a tripod or reflecting board, or flash.

3. Take as many pictures as you can before your back breaks. This is usually my strategy. I click on an average about 80 pictures for each of my dishes (and I have a 1TB external drive that I use to dump these once I am done picking the winning shots – nothing gets deleted unless its blurred).

4. Before you go out to buy props and matching stuff for your food, get the basics – a white plate, a white bowl, a dark coloured plate and bowl and some new spoons and forks to place near the food. Second step would be coloured craft papers and napkins. I went a long time before buying those. Trust me, buying props that go with everything you ever cook is a never-ending process and very addictive!

5. Edit your pictures but don’t go overboard. I prefer simple images and don’t add frames or vignettes to it. That’s just my personal preference of course. But make sure you don’t go overboard when editing your images, just a simple increase or decrease in brightness and overall sharpness should be more than enough. I recommend www.picnik.com for a start. Its free and has pretty much everything to get you started.

5-min Chocolate Mug Cake (image entirely edited in Picnik)

You can meet Nags, the cook, photographer and writer @

Website: Edible Garden.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ediblegarden

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/nagsthecook

In case if you have missed the entries under this series, here are the links to the posts...

Guest Blogging - Food Photography #5 by Sunshinemom aka Harini Prakash of Tongue Ticklers.

Guest Blogging - Food Photography #4 by Nithi Rajasekaran of The 4th Sense Cooking.

Guest Blogging - Food Photography #3 by Nisha of Look Who's Cooking Too.

Guest Blogging - Food Photography #2 by Kulsum of Journey Kitchen.

Guest Blogging - Food Photography #1 by Namitha of Collaborative Curry.