From My Perspective - Food Photography by Sony Midterm #Cbias

Food photography should be beautiful, engaging and make your mouth water...

In order to transform my blog photos from simple to sensational I finally invested in a Canon camera and enrolled in the Food Photography by Sony course being offered by SoFab U. I briefly went over why I was interested in this course in my first of 3 posts.

Now that I am midway through this course, it is time to start showing off what I have been working on. After introductions and the first blog post, we jumped right into lighting and background for week 2.

The most flattering light, we learned, is natural and hits around mid day. This is one tip I had picked up on another blog prior to this course. I have faithfully been staging my photos near our front picture window. The course took things further though, by also asking us to reflect the light and choose a solid and simple background. I took both of the apple photos using a pop fill with black fabric draped behind.

Last week's assignment focused on props, styling and photo editing. I wanted the color from this plate of meatballs to really stand out, so I chose white props. Both the background, cloth underneath and bowl are white. I used the color from the marinara sauce and the boxwood basil to go with the green and golden brown of the meatballs.

Then using Pixlr I experimented with the levels, dodging, burning and unsharp mask tools to achieve the colors, clarity and contrast I was looking for.

I also submitted this mushroom photo and had a lot of fun styling this one.

I am currently in my 4th week and can't wait for my final blog post to show you the improvements I have made. This week is by far the most intimidating and exciting for me since we are learning the more technical side of our cameras. I still haven't decided what to use as my subject, but it will be yummy, I'm sure!

Food styling is such a fun process. I do pick up random dishes and linens when I can already, never knowing how exactly I'll use them. I am starting to have a good stash of various items. Food photos speak volumes about a blog and the personality and space a blogger is trying to create. I do love technical photos, but here I am trying to achieve the best possible presentation for practical food. What you see here on my blog is what we eat. I hate to waste anything. But, even the best tasting meals sometimes need a stylist's touch. I hope you find my photos increasingly beautiful and enticing.

I would love to hear your opinions. I am in no way a professional and have a lot of room to grow, but I do hope to bring my skill back here to the blog and all the photos I take and share daily with you.

Wish me luck in my last few weeks. The next update you read will be part of my final project. A big thank you to #Cbias for making the SoFab U courses possible.