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Food Photography and Styling Workshop

I attended a Food Photography and Styling Workshop recently (during BlogHer) that was hosted by Hillshire Farm.   So if you are looking for tips and tricks from professional food photographers and stylists, keep on reading.

The three professionals offering their tips and tricks of the trade were:

William Smith: wsfoodstyle.com

Sara Remington: Sara Remington Photography

Helen Rosner: Saveur Magazine - Editor of Saveur.com

FOOD STYLING TIPS: William Smith

• Keep it Simple.  Simple background.  Simple plates.  Everything looks good on white.
• Odd numbers of food items look nicer than even.  For example: peas.
• If it's pretty food step away from it.  If it's not, get up close to it.
• If you spend too much time placing things, it will look like you did that.
• Shoot salad quickly, while it's fresh.
• Play with a plate until you are happy, then set up a brand new plate to photograph that looks the same.
• Let meat relax.  Once sliced shoot it quickly.  Meat looks good on wooden cutting boards.
• Paint on vegetable oil, then blot with a tissue so it doesn't look too slimey.  Use water instead of oil if you are getting too much reflection.
• Use smaller plates.  They make food look better and more important.  Salad size plates work well.
• Look at magazines and websites to see what you like and what you don't like.
• Experiment by putting things in the shot then taking things away one by one until you get a shot you like.
• Open up your garage door.  The light will always be good shooting into your garage.
• Shoot in daylight on dark surfaces.

TIPS FOR FOOD BLOGGERS AND WRITERS: Helen Rosner

• Think of your photo as an equal partner with your text.  When you add an image to your description it expands your language.
• Choose the right lead photo.  Use photos that serve a purpose.  Challenge the boundaries between text and image.
• Every photo in your story should serve a clear purpose.
• Show photos that demonstrate how the dish came to be.  Don't saturate your post with pictures though.  You don't need to take and post photos of every step of the dish no matter how beautiful the shots are.
• Readers can lose attention after 250-300 words so insert a picture to break it up.
• Dropping a text box in your image creates something unexpected.
• Take a picture of writing on brown paper - for example ingredients, simple steps, the name of the dish.  A wonderful example of this can be seen on Design Sponge.
• Use one table in a good light source and put different things over it ie. table cloth for one shot, paper, wood, tiles etc for future shots.

FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS: Sara Remington

• Camera recommendation: Canon Rebel XTi with a 50mm f/2.5 macro lens
• Bring bits and pieces from your kitchen such as a blue jar, or bushes outside the kitchen window into the background of your shot.
• Go pretty, simple and worn.  Stay away from new things.  Thrift shops are great places to pick up plates and other items to shoot food on.  When in doubt go rustic.  Try matte plates instead of shiny ones.  Recommendation: Heath Ceramics.
• Use the color wheel to match colors when styling.
• Use a black foamcore to create more dramatic shadows on shots.  Use white foamcore to bounce light.  Move the foamcore around until you get a shot you are happy with.
• Doorways work well for getting great light for your shot.  She has also shot food in her bathtub before.

One thing that I loved about this workshop is that each person showed us images that they had taken, and broke down exactly how they captured it, whether it was taken in 4 separate shots and edited into one, where they took the shot, and how they came up with the idea for it.  It gave us a more intimate look into how a professional photographer and stylist captures the magnificent images that they do.

I hope I've been able to share a few new tips.  I know they have helped me a great deal.

Evo Conference: A Food Workshop

One of the highlights of the EVO Conference was the fantastic 4 hour food workshop held on the Friday over lunch at Lookout Cabin.

During this workshop, we enjoyed a fabulous lunch outdoors with the most spectacular view, we then participated in a hands-on cooking class with award-winning Executive Chef John Murcko and a food photography class with amazing food photographer Helene Dujardin of Tartelette.

To get to Lookout Cabin, you need to take the orange bubble express.  It's about a 20 minute ride to the top of the mountain, but on the way back down, the view is breathtaking.

Can you see the large building in the center of the shot?  That is The Canyons resort where the conference was being held.

Once you arrived at Lookout Cabin, this is what you saw.

Why yes, I did want to sit in one of those chairs with a good book and a cocktail for the remainder of my trip.

And look at this spectacular view we enjoyed while eating lunch.

And our lunch.  It was amazing.  I even have a few recipes to share.

Shrimp on Blue Cheese & Asparagus Slaw, and Flatbread topped with baby clams and bacon.

Blue Cheese & Asparagus Slaw

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of olive oil
• 1/4 cup of lemon juice
• 2 tbs sugar
• 6 celery stalks (cut into thin long strips)
• 1 red onion (sliced thinly)
• 2 bunches asparagus (blanched, sliced thinly)
• 1 head white cabbage (sliced thinly)
• 1 bunch flat leaf parsley (chopped)
• 2 cups blue cheese dressing (see ingredients below)

Blue Cheese dressing

• 1 cup Rogue blue cheese
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

Mix all ingredients together.  Place in the refrigerator for 2 hours to cool, then serve.

Serves 4 to 6.

As part of the cooking class I had a chance to make the BBQ Dry Rub and the Honey & Chipotle Lime Marinade.  Here are the recipes for both which were used in the delicious meal (pictured above) that we enjoyed over lunch.  

BBQ Dry Rub

Ingredients:

• 1 tbs mustard powder
• 2 tbs cumin
• 2 tbs smoked paprika
• 2 tbsp dry garlic (ground)
• 1 tbs ancho chili
• 2 tbs New Mexico chili powder
• 2 tbs dry onion (chopped)
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 4 tbs sea salt
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp celery seed

Mix all ingredients, and rub on selected meat.  Can be used on beef, poultry, pork or fish.

Serves 4 to 6

Honey & Chipotle Lime Marinade

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
• 9 chipotle peppers (chopped)
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/3 cup balsamic
• 1/3 cup oil (80/20 blend of canola and olive oil)
• 6 tbs whole grain mustard
• 6 large cloves of garlic (chopped)
• 1 tbsp cumin
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup roughly chopped cilantro

Blend/Mix all the ingredients well, and add the cilantro last.  Pour over your selected meat and let marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Photograph by: Trevor Christensen

Above is a photograph taken by Trevor Christensen, with me in the center making the Dry Rub.   While I was making the Dry Rub and Marinade, the chef had others chopping vegetables, peeling shrimp and cooking the meat.

Here are a couple of Chef Murcko's tips:

1. When sharpening your knife, don't move your wrist.
2. Soak skewers in water to prevent burning
3. When squeezing limes and lemons cut the cheeks (like a mango) instead of slicing through the center.
4. To see if a lime or lemon is fresh scratch the surface with your nail, there should be a strong scent.

Moving onto the photography class.  Helene is amazing.  Just look at her blog Tartelette and you will see exactly what I mean.  She also has a new book out called Plate to Pixel.  It teaches you all about photographing food.  I will absolutely be purchasing it.

Photograph by: Justin Hackworth

Photograph by: Justin Hackworth

Here are a few of Helene's tips:

1. Blow on ice cream with a straw to create ripples
2. Keep a bottle of oil and a brush handy for dabbing on salads if they look a little dry
3. Use tweezers to move items such as lettuce to fill in holes
4. Stuff ice cream cones with paper so a scoop sits nicely on top.
5. A 99c piece of white card works great to reflect the light and prevent shadows
6. Take photographs of your food at 3 angles: directly in front, on an angle, and overhead

Here are a couple of photographs I took during the class.

 
And last but not least a photograph with one of my beautiful friends Katja Presnal.

Tips: Photographing and storing kids artwork

Today I'm back on the Creativity For Kids blog sharing simple tips that I use for photographing and storing my kids art and craft projects.  It's all about clearing the clutter.

Come by and feel free to share your own tips in the comments.  I'd love to hear what you do with your child's art and craft projects.

Disclosure:  As a Creativty For Kids Ambassador I am compensated for my posts on their blog.

The UPS Store: Printing Services

Last week, I took a solo road trip down south to San Diego to not only attend Bloggy Boot Camp which is run by the fabulous SITS Girls, but also meet up with my fellow Collective Bias friends.

On Friday, I had the privilege of attending a Collective Bias event at The UPS Store. 

The meeting and lunch took place in their training room.  The room where The UPS Store owners come in to learn the ropes, and where we had a chance to learn a little too.  The room is set up like an actual UPS store.  One particular thing that peaked my interest is the printing services offered.  I had no idea that The UPS Store print posters, business cards and flyers.  They can turn photographs into canvas works of art, print banners and signs, and the quality of the material is fantastic, especially the paper that was a little like rice paper, it was beautiful.  

Having such an accessible venue (because let's face it, UPS stores are everywhere) that I can order items such as welcome home banners for military homecomings and for turning my photographs into works of art is exciting.   Plus, there's the added benefit of being able to order on-line and pick up in a store.  So, let's say you have an event coming up that is out of state.  Instead of dragging everything along with you, you can order your signage, banners or cards on-line and pick them up at a UPS store in the area you are traveling to.  How fabulous is that.

The Collective Bias crew.

l-r: Jules (A Little Bite Of Life), Shelby (Glitterful Felt Stories), Diane (Created By Diane), me, Sarah (Super Saving Sense), Courtney (Detroit Mommies), Randi (Collective Bias), Amy (Dealusional)

The UPS Store even shipped swag home for free for Bloggy Boot Camp attendees who had flown in for the conference.  How great is that.

You can follow The UPS Store on Twitter and Facebook for the latest updates.

Do you Instagram?

The latest and greatest in iPhone apps for those who love taking photographs is Instagram.  And it's FREE.

It's as simple as: take a photograph, pick one of the great filters, share wherever you choose (see below).  Check your feed to see what your friends have been taking photographs of.

Sharing:  Connect your Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Posterous, Facebook and Foursquare accounts.

Now go and download it.  And don't forget to follow me, I'm TonyaStaab.

REI: Photography Class

I absolutely love to take photographs.  I'm very rarely seen without a camera.  Except for the time I saw a beautiful rainbow above a tunnel I was about to go through, and the time there was a vulture sitting in the grass as I dropped the twins off at preschool.  Isn't that always the way though, you leave the house for 5 minutes and something amazing happens.  And you have no camera.  And you swear you will never leave the house again without it.  But you do. 

Anyway, despite my love of photography, I have never taken a class.  It's one of those things that has been on my bucket list.  Well, unless you count the Lensbaby photo walk I did in Chicago in 2009 with thanks to the Shutter Sisters.  But seriously, I know, or should I say knew, only 3 settings on my camera: normal mode, sports mode and no flash mode.  No, I'm not kidding.  They are the only 3 settings I've been using up until this point.

So when my friend Leah snagged me a spot at an REI photography class, I was a little more than excited.   I had no idea REI even offered classes.  But they do, and they are amazing.  The photography class was 2 hours long and I now know each of the automatic modes on my camera.  I cannot wait to try all of them out.  They also covered basic manual settings, camera accessories, saving files and editing software. 

I captured this fuzzy little critter today using the macro mode. 

If you love travel and the outdoors as much as we do, I highly recommend you look into the REI Outdoor School Classes and Outings schedule.  I would love to take the Backcountry Cooking Class and the Digital Camera Field Class next. 

And just because I love the deer that roam around our neighboorhood, I thought I'd share these photos with you as well.  They were taken a couple of weeks ago from my back door.

New York City

photo taken using a Kodak EasyShare M580 - edited with Picnik

Whilst I was in New York for the BlogHer conference, Kodak hosted a bus tour of New York city.  All bloggers attending the tour were armed with a Kodak EasyShare M580 (which we got to keep, yippee) and, after a delicious lunch at Caroline's Comedy Club we boarded two buses and photographed our way around the city for 3 hours.  It was fabulous.  I had been to New York on two previous occasions.  Very brief day trips.  So I hadn't really seen a lot of the sights.  This time I did though.  

This camera has now become my everyday, live-in-my-bag camera.  The 2 main features that I love are the image stabilization, which was perfect for the bus tour, because being on a moving bus and snapping photos, the last thing we wanted was for them to be blurry.  And as it's name says, it's an 'EasyShare' camera, meaning that you can link your social media sites such as Facebook, You Tube, Flickr and your Kodak Gallery and once your camera is connected to your computer, you can automatically upload your photographs to these sites.   Perfect for us photo taking social media junkies.

Disclosure: The Kodak EasyShare M580 was provided as part of the New York City Bus Tour event, but it's now mine.  All mine.

Tutorial: Camera Strap Cover

One of those things that has been on the never ending TO DO list.

I absolutely love it.  Now to make a matching bag for my new Kodak EasyShare Camera (courtesy of Kodak - I'll be going on a bus tour of New York with them later this week) and my Flip Video Camera.

Now I will be able to tell my camera apart from my BlogHer10 room-mate Laura, who has the same one, so we discovered at a recent Bay Area BlogHer Meet-Up.  What a coincidence.

Make It and Love it have a super easy tutorial to make these.

I made it and I love it!

Optrixx Lens

I purchased this for Flynn a couple of years ago.  He loves to carry it around and pretend to take photos.  Whilst he was busy building sand castles at the beach I borrowed it.

It's like looking into a kaleidoscope.  I think I may have to borrow it more often to play with. 

Check out more Optrixx shots in the Optrixx Flickr group. 

You can purchase an Optrixx here, they are super cheap.

PHOTO BLISS

Do you remember my post from BlogHer about the awesome day I spent wandering around Chicago trying out LensBaby equipment?

Well ….

One of my photographs was featured on Photo Bliss today.

Yay!