My Photography Journey - SoFab U Helped Create This

I have had the great opportunity to take SoFab U's first course on food photography and boy have I come a long way, baby!

I began this journey as many fellow bloggers have. I got my DSLR camera and my pictures were automatically better than the previous point and shoot allowed, but I had no idea where to go from there. In the first of my 3 posts for this class I shared some of the photos I was proud of and what I hoped to accomplish through the 6-week class.

I was hoping to break away from my 10 am photography window, but actually learned that artificial lighting cannot beat natural light for making food look appetizing.

Of course, there are some slick ways to make that light even better. On a particularly bright day I put wax paper up in my north facing window to mute the harsh rays.

Though I usually would shoot food from the front, I was able to stretch my angles and work on vertical shots as well as really leaning in for a close-up and tilt towards the cereal bowl.

We also covered photo editing using Pixlr for a wide range of adjustments from photo sizing, tuning the levels and curves, unsharp mask, dodging and burning. My photo of the meatballs needed the most editing. The white balance was off and that was corrected easily with the levels, then I gained added detail with unsharp mask and the front meatball was dodged to lighten it up. I was very happy with the resulting finished photo.

 

One of my favorite parts of the class has been styling our food and the use of props. Anything used in the photo including the dishes and other food is a prop. For this BBQ photo I put the focus and emphasis on the steak. All the color surrounding the meat is there to show it off. For the meat itself I used a little trick of spraying it lightly with Pam to make it shine. Still edible, just looks even more juicy! ... and as the person who ate the steak afterwards, it was delicious.

From the simple background, usually out of poster board, dish cloths or fabric and natural light I watched my meals come alive with the camera. The added bonus with this course was the feedback we received every week from our classmates. Good and bad it all gave me things to think about for the next week's shots.

The last thing I took away from my food photography class was a great understanding of how my camera worked. It was one thing to play around with it on my own, but a completely different experience to learn about the features and options I have to play with. From ISO to Aperture it allowed me great control to bring my vision to the computer screen here.

The Food Photography with Sony has me dreaming about future shots I want to take and food I want to bring my readers. I am inspired to keep taking photos and keep sharing my love of food right here on my blog. I hope my photos will inspire your to get cooking in the kitchen and create some amazing magic of your own.



A big thank you to Social Fabric and to my classmates for all their encouraging words. Now I want to know what you think. This is my portfolio that I submitted as my final project. Which photo is your favorite?