PHOT-001: Food Photography by Sony Mid-Term

It’s hard to believe that I’m halfway through my food photography online class. During the first three weeks, we tackled learning the online platform and did a little meet ‘n greet with the other students, learned about lighting and simple styling, and learned about photo editing using Pixlr (free online photo editing program). We dealt with several technical issues that seem to come with being the first guinea pig class. Changes/adjustments are being made as we go to help insure future classes will run a bit smoother.

I’ve picked a couple of new skills and techniques for my photos. More importantly, I’ve received some valuable feedback from other students in the class. Photography is something that is personal. Not everyone agrees on what makes a picture good or bad. We all have our personal preferences on what looks best. Some people love rustic looking pictures while others enjoy a more clean, modern style. No matter what the preference, receiving constructive criticism helps me learn to have a more critical eye when it comes to my pictures, and hopefully, in turn, helps me create more pleasing pictures overall. Obviously, when certain items come up multiple times when it comes to my shots, I need to really focus on those particular areas. (I really need to pay more attention to lines, shadows, and corners as these can be distracting as is seen in the sandwich picture below.)

When it comes to pictures, I strive to not have to do lots of editing. I want the editing to just enhance the pictures and not remake the pictures. Sometimes that happens, and other times – well – not so much. lol! I’ve been enjoying the editing techniques that I’ve been learning in the class. My favorite technique, which I had not used prior to this class, is the unsharp mask. This technique is fantastic for making certain aspects of the food pop such as making the detail on the bread crust of the sandwich really come to life or making the ice crystals on the popsicle really stand out against the red of the strawberry popsicle.

Going into the second half of the course, we’re going to be learning some camera techniques to bring pictures to life and be more pleasing to the eye. I’m rather looking forward to this portion of the class. We’ll be putting all of our new skills together and creating our own food photography portfolio. We’ll continue to critique each other’s photos and encourage each other to produce high quality images. Hopefully, for our professor’s sake, the technical issues are finished, so he’s able to enjoy the class as well instead of being concerned about all the little details.

As I enter into this final half of the course, I hope to be able to stretch my skills and create pictures that will truly inspire my family, friends, readers… to want to try some of the recipes that I’m posting. The dream of actually being able to create a recipe book with beautiful food pictures is starting to seem like more of a possibility. We’ll see if that door is opened after I complete this class.