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Food Photography

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The goal of a food photographer is to make even the most everyday of comfort food look irrestible. The goal of this lens is to provide inspiration and information for photographers who aspire to confecting the perfectly alluring image of nectar and ambrosia, even if all that's on the table are a chicken sandwich and glass of milk. Oops! Forgot the milk...

Contents at a Glance

Food Photographers
Food Stylists
Talking about Food Photography
Design Books & Videos for Food Photo...
Stock Photography Agencies
Digital Photographic Equipment for Food...

Already Taking a Bite out of Life

Take inspiration from some of those already snapping candid and posed shots of everything from carrot sticks to cherries jubilee.

Getting Started in Royalty-Free Digital Photography: One of the areas of concentration for this photographer is food photography, photographing food preparation as well as the finished food in a pleasing setting.
Iris Richardson, Food Photography Specialist: from the website: specialings "specializing in intricate gourmet food images prepared according to your specifications and culinary requirements."

Check out her contact page for a valuable list of things to think about before engaging in food photography.
Tasting Menu's Photographs: Tasting Menu was started to talk about food, not take photographs of food. But the folks involved decided that they needed to show what they were talking about. Now the site has an archive of foodie photos dating from 2002, readily available for browsing.
Michael Ray: from the website: specializing in "dramatically lit food images for advertising, packaging, editorial, and cookbook projects."

WARNING: this website resizes your browser window!

Food Stylists

Pickle Primpers

Is the focaccia ready for its close-up? Chances are, your food photography can benefit from a good food stylist, someone who knows how to primp the pickles for the camera.

Jacqueline Buckner: Ms. Buckner is based out of New York City and Boulder, Colorado. In addition to her food styling, she also offers classes in food styling. Her website has a small portfolio of food photos that can give an idea of how to put together a coherent and compelling photographic composition around different sorts of foods.
Greg Randall Food Styling: Based in California, Mr. Randall has done extensive work for the television and movie industry, as well as such restaurants as Ventura Grill and McDonald's.
Stephanie Rose Food & Prop Styling: from the website: "Creativity and efficiency are the key ingredients to food stylist Stephanie Rose's work. Stephanie Rose learned about her art during five years at the Television Food Network in NYC and apprenticed with top New York and Washington D.C. stylists. Prior to shifting into commercial food design, Ms. Rose studied cuisine at Peter Kumps School of Culinary Arts, in NYC, and at La Varenne Ecole de Cuisine in France. She also worked for leading chefs of America at Lespinasse and at the Watergate for Jean Louis Palladin."

Talking about Food Photography

Places to go to get your shutter clicking.

Not sure yet how to get started? Looking at a particular problem and don't know how to solve it? Browse these links for ideas.

O'Reilly Digital Media: O'Reilly is simply the premier tech-info source. This introduction to food photography covers the gamut from styling to lighting to lenses.
Digital Photography Blog on Food Photography: Loaded with links as well as its own good tips.
Silverace on Food Photography: A basic introduction to solid and enticing food photography.
101 Cookbooks on HDR Food Photography: For the clueless (like me), "HDR" stands for "high dynamic range" and even has its own Flickr group. Here the discussion turns to applying HDR to foodie subjects. Check out the Flickr modules further down that includes examples of HDR food photographs.
Food Geeks Photo Tips: A quick-and-dirty list of things to think about before clicking the shutter.
PLUS: from the website: "The Picture Licensing Universal System (PLUS) is here to make image licensing easy. A worldwide Coalition of leading companies, respected associations, and industry experts have joined this unprecedented non-profit mandate to clearly define and standardize the core aspects of image licensing and its management. Now we can all agree."
Nikas Culinaria: This blog's tagline is "Eat with your eyes." Includes commentary on "Food Photography 101," a series of posted lessons.

Design Books & Videos for Food Photographers

Especially if You Are Your Own Stylist

Stock Photography Agencies

When Your Celery Has to Sing

Many of the photographers sell stock images from their own websites while also licensing stock agencies. Here are some places to go online when you need the perfect picture of a pear.

Food Photo Library: from the website: "Food photo library is an online food picture library containing high quality stock food photographs for you to use in food packaging, design, advertising and editorial briefs. Images are competitively priced and colour corrected, ready for instant use, once downloaded. Our food pictures are downloadable directly from this site as high resolution digital food pictures and all payment are made over our highly secure, encrypted server.
Our mouth watering food photography is of the highest quality. Each of our food images have been individually checked for any flaws or defects and colour corrected, so no further adjustment is required."
iStockPhoto: iStockPhoto provides royalty-free digital stock photography on a wide range of subjects, including food.

Digital Photographic Equipment for Food Photography

Digital Cameras

Auctions of Digital Cameras, Ending Today

Check out the auctions of digital cameras at eBay for good prices on the latest equipment.

Magazines Featuring Photography

Books About Photography

HDR Food Photos

High Dynamic Range

Getting the exposure right to include the darkest darks and the brightest highlights with all the spectrum between produces striking results.

Professional Photography

General Information

Food photographers are photographers, too! Here are some more general online resources.

Selling Stock: from the website: "This online newsletter reports on the worldwide Stock Photo Industry with an emphasis on the U.S. market. The coverage is focused on issues of interest to stock photographers as well as archive owners and their employees."
Digital Photography: Expert Techniques, 2nd Edition: Read it online, or buy the paper version.