mmmm...pancakes

I recently just completed my first full fledged food photography shoot. I've been shooting a bed & breakfast here in Durango called the Leland House. One of their photos needs was the yummy breakfasts that they serve up everyday. We photographed most of the rooms and the food was their last need. They asked me if I could shoot food and of course I said, "Sure!"
Yep, it was time to figure out how to shoot food. Like I learn most of my photography skills, I opened magazines, looked at ads and started figuring out the attributes of good food photos.

The night before the shoot, I pulled out my lights and a leftover pork chop and started firing test shots. Doesn't that look tasty? You know you want to eat it.

I wasn't trying to nail a Food & Wine cover here just trying to get a basic idea of flash exposure, composition & depth of field. Once I had a rough idea of what needed to happen, I packed my gear and readied for the next morning.

At 8am, I picked up Talia and we went food shopping. The kitchen finished serving breakfast at 9 and then we could set up. We set up in the dining room next to the kitchen. We used one of the dining tables, shut the curtains, and turned out the lights. I used a two light set up, both at approx 45 degrees opposing each other. Medium soft box on one strobe and umbrella on the other. Insta-studio! I had my 1Ds with a 45 TS lens tethered to my laptop which made the process so much easier. To all the photographers that did this stuff before digital, you guys were tough! It was great to be able to shoot, immediately see the shot and make changes in seconds.

Mind you, I was nervous as hell here. I never had conducted a food shoot before. There was Kelly(cook), Talia(Leland manager), and Keith(stylist). I knew this shoot could be tedious and Kelly may have to make and remake dishes. There would be applications of various chemicals to make the food look fresh. Nerves could grow thin. I felt responsible for making everything go smooth and that everyone would stay happy through the day. I was really tense!


We ended up shooting 4 setups and it took several hours. No chemicals were necessary to make the food look fresh. In the end, Talia was ecstatic with the photos, Keith had a lot of fun, Kelly only had to make dishes once and she was happy with how we made her food look. I was pretty darn psyched with the results. Not bad for an amateur food photographer. And it was a of of fun!