Plate to Pixel

by Helene Dujardin

  I also encourage people to think creatively when they’re out and about. I can never look at an item and think only of its intended use. I see votive candle holders as perfect little cups for mousse. Small bud vases make really cute drinking glass, and shot glasses are terrific for making ice cream lollipops!

  One of my favorite props is a galvanized metal tray with a set of eight planters in it. I picked it up at an antique store for less than $10. For photographs, I line the planters with parchment paper and bake cakes or souffles in them for a unique styling approach.

  Thinking creatively: Use vintage garden planters as cake tins.

  f/3.5, ISO 250, 50mm L

  When asked where to find good props, I say everywhere! If you really need to be efficient though and find something fast, I suggest starting with eclectic stores like World Market, Crate & Barrel, Pier 1. They all have relatively inexpensive items that will give you a solid foundation to work with. And I’ll add that even professional stylists shop at these places, so don’t think the hot shots in this field are spending all their time in back alley antique stores!

  But of course, if you have some time and enjoy browsing around, then antique stores and yard sales are perfect places to find one-of-a-kind items to add to your collection of photography props. For my work, I need to rotate props rather frequently, so my clients don’t all end up with photographs showing the same plates and spoons. I also need to keep things very budget friendly. So I often shop little neighborhood vintage stores to find props. I love my five-cent knives and my one dollar coffee cups.

  The Internet is also a fantastic place to find props … no matter how frequently you need new stuff or how you function as a photographer. I can pick up an entire set of vintage glasses for $10 on etsy.com and buy fun jadeite pieces on ebay.com. Google is your best friend. Trust me…

  Here is a mix of styles and prices. Can you tell which are the five-cent pieces and which items cost $10?

  f/4.0, ISO 400, 24-70mm L

  Find what works for you—your budget, your lifestyle, your space. If budget and storage are problematic, know that you can’t go wrong with timeless pieces such as white plates and basic silveware. You can always use your own tablecloth and napkins. Heck, I often borrow dishes and linens from my mother-in-law. She gets a kick from spotting her things in my pictures. Just keep your eyes and your mind open enough to recognize the possibilities in the items around you.

  Backgrounds

  No matter what props you use (if any) and how you position them, a fundamental element of your images is the background. This is a primary tool for styling a scene and showcasing your food.

  Similar to the advice I gave for propping, it’s important to think about the food first when choosing a background. Then determine whether or not the background you want to use will enhance or hide your dish. Be aware of the impact of the texture, color, pattern in the background—and even a lack of it.

  I tend to stay away from my own dining room table when taking photos, because the wood is so varnished and shiny that it gives off some glare that always ends up bugging me. As much as I’d love to, I can’t afford to buy or store extra tables—antique, metal, old or new. But I do have a couple of tricks that I don’t mind sharing. Most of them follow creative thinking and DIY concepts.

  This salad is positioned on a wood board that was painted white and slightly distressed.

  f/8, ISO 100, 24-70mm L

  Here, a pomegranate sits on a wood board that was painted dark with white accents.

  f/3.5, ISO 200, 24-70mm L

  I love using wood surfaces as backgrounds for pictures; but as I said, I would need three houses to store all the tables I love. Instead, what I do is go to a home improvement store, like Lowes or Home Depot, and I buy simple planks of wood that I stain in the color I want at that moment. Since I can use both sides of each plank, I create two different backgrounds for less than $50—and that’s if I buy fresh paint! I like to distress them a bit so they don’t have that freshly painted look, but it really depends on their intended use. (See Appendix C for a resource on how to distress wood.) The tile section at home improvement stores is also a great place to find backgrounds. Pick four to six large tiles to make a neat textured surface.

  Other backgrounds I use are things I picked up at vintage stores or found on the side of the street. I’m not kidding… My favorite background, shown in the picture on the left, is nothing more than the top of a table that someone had thrown away on the curb. It was broken in two from being deeply weathered and left to its own demise, but it actually fitted half my regular table setup, so it’s perfect dimension-wise for my work.

  Hidden treasure: This recycled tabletop was found on the street and is one of my favorite backgrounds.

  f/3.5, ISO 320, 24-70mm L

  As I always like to say, “Think outside the box.” Vintage ceiling tiles make great backgrounds for a very small monetary investment. My two favorite pieces were clearly not intended for food styling, but I just love their textured surfaces and how well they fit my style. I picked up a large distressed green metal ceiling tile at an antique store in North Carolina for less than $10 … and a tiny rusty one for about $2 a year later at the same place. Some of my best investments to date!

  Think outside the box: Vintage ceiling tiles make great backgrounds!

  f/2.8, ISO 400, 24-70mm L

  It’s not that I’m a giant pile of tricks, but since food photography is what I do everyday—and because I must keep things fresh and different—I have to do this on a budget. That means I need to be creative and resourceful; otherwise, we’d be living under a bridge!

  Surfaces and Linens

  As with props and backgrounds, it’s good to have a few timeless linens. You can’t go wrong with whites, off whites, a few solid colorful ones and pastels.

  A vintage ceiling metal tile makes the perfect rustic background for a simple soup.

  f-7.1/ ISO 250, 24-70mm L

  I wish I could tell you some universal truths—something like, large prints work better than smaller ones—but it all depends on how the cloth affects the dish to be photographed. As with anything, adding more pieces of linens to your collection of props can become costly, even if you shop the sales bin. So would you be surprised to know I have a DIY solution for that, too? I do!

  My go-to place to vary my collection of linens without drowning the family budget is the fabric store. I pick up one or two yards of the fabric I want, and I always look in the remnant bins for small pieces I might use as napkins or coasters. The beauty of a fabric store is that all sorts of textures, colors and patterns are right there in one place—from hemp linens and smooth cottons to satins and silk. Dare I say that I’ve also recycled an old apron as a set of napkins. It never ends, I tell you!

  Keep a variety of linens to showcase different colors, shape and texture.

  f/4.0, ISO 400, 24-70mm L

  Online fabric stores are also great resources, because they often feature designer fabric by the yard and offer great sales all year long. Yard sales and antique stores are good for picking up pieces for cheap. And I was also recently tuned in to painters’ canvas drop cloths. The Cream of Celery Soup pictures were shot on a painters drop cloth. They make great rustic backgrounds for little money. These run less than $10 for a five-foot square! (See Appendix C for resources.)

  A simple cutting board, painted over, provides yet another fun prop to use.

  f/3.5, ISO 800, 100mm Macro L

  This shot includes a plain cutting board that was painted white and slightly distressed.

  f/3.5, ISO 200, 100mm Macro L

  Try to keep on hand a couple extra cutting boards, too. They are easy to store and use, and they offer another way to add interest to your shots. Cutting boards don’t weigh much and they stack easily in a cupboard or against a wall. I invested in a couple of good ones—a nice rectangular one and a slate one—and then made up my own with plain cutting boards I picked up at craft stores in the wood ho
bby section.

  Since the craft store boards are completely bare and unvarnished, they provide a perfect platform to create the look you want. I stained some white, some off white and some black. I let some remain bare. They easily add a point of interest without taking away from the dish you’re styling.

  Use Height and Color to Accentuate and Complement

  As you assemble your props, linens, backgrounds and other photo elements, think about how the various heights and colors of these items might impact your image. As you set up the scene for capture, try to mix and match pieces and play with your arrangement. See if your props and their placement add to the story you’re trying to tell or distract from it.

  Heights

  When I was conceptualizing the picture on the left, I laid out most of the ingredients that would be used to make a chocolate cake. I wanted to keep the colors and tones monochromatic and use only different shades of brown and beige.

  Use props of different heights to break up a composition and add interest.

  f/3.5, ISO 100, 100mm Macro L

  I expected this composition to be a bit bland, so I placed some objects on the table. Some of these items were perched on a board to give them more height. Some were low bowls alongside tall jars. And the objects were dispersed throughout the frame, so the viewer’s eye moves from one object or ingredient to another due to the flow created by the different heights and shapes.

  Another way to use height to add interest to a very simple setup is shown in the still life of figs and pastries on the right. I started this scene by setting the plates on the table. Then I manipulated the light and shadows to add more depth to the setup. I did not diffuse the light as it was coming through the window, which created strong highlights. And I used this effect to add a feeling of open space to the scene. Yet that decision meant that strong shadows would appear.

  Instead of bouncing the light to minimize these shadows, I used them to add a more stern feel to the composition. I wanted a gender-neutral picture, so I used the strength of the highlights and shadows to balance out the more feminine flowers on the napkin and the little tea cakes. And that was nice, but it was too bland for my taste. So I placed a chair in the background to add an architectural element. Much better.

  Try using simple elements with different heights, like a chair or a bottle, to add visual impact to your composition.

  f/3.5, ISO 100, 100mm Macro L

  The last thing I did to this setup was on a whim. But since a big part of composition is trial and error, I gave it a go. I picked up a long-neck bottle that was next to me and placed it next to a fig. I thought it might add a neat effect with the light nearby. And as soon as I looked through the viewfinder, I realized that the bottle had actually become an integral part of the whole setup.

  Colors

  Having grown up surrounded by the notion of working colors, I have come to understand color pairing better and better over the years. I’m fortunate that my dad has painted watercolors as a hobby for as long as I can remember; and, a meticulous man, he’s always kept his paint tubes arranged according to the basic color wheel. Over time, my brain has registered the concept of primary and secondary colors as well as complementary and opposite pairs. As a result, my dad’s hobby helped me hone my eye for food photography. It’s so important to see, capture and flatter the colors in the food without ignoring everything around it.

  Using a color wheel to pair or contrast color can help enhance your composition.

  The color wheel identifies which colors are complementary and which are opposite. And this can help you make them work for you and the composition you’re creating. The possibilities are quite endless, so let’s look at a few basic applications.

  This smoothie image uses the hues in one specific color cone: red violet.

  f/3.5, ISO 200, 100mm Macro L

  Keep your compositions monochromatic sometimes, and play with the different hues in one particular color. Let’s say you pick red violet as your main color in a setup. This means you have nine hues of red violet to work with … along with the invariable white. So call it ten. There’s a lot of potential here!

  In the picture of the strawberry smoothie on the left, I stayed within the red violet hues except for that little touch of green on the strawberry stem. Indeed, it’s absolutely possible to stay within one set of hues when photographing food. But adding a complementary color, even a tiny speck of it, can also work well with composition.

  Take a chance and work with complementary colors, too, by using colors that are opposite one another on the wheel, such as violet and yellow … or blue and orange. One of the most frequently asked questions I get is how to style baked goods, which are usually full of browns, oranges and yellows. My advice is to use a piece of blue cloth or a blue plate—a blue anything, really—in the frame. This tends to open the scene and add a bit of relief.

  Use complementary colors, like blue and orange, to take a ho-hum composition to wow.

  f/3.5, ISO 1000, 24-70mm L

  Another thing to consider is working with analogous colors. This means using colors adjacent to one another on the color wheel, like blue and blue violet.

  The white of the ice cream in the picture on the left works as the anchor for all the other colors, and different hues of blue appear throughout the image—notice the blue-gray wood background and the baby blue napkin. The adjacent colors are the violet hues in the spoon and the bottom of the shot glasses. These complement the color palette of the composition.

  Try working with analogous color by selecting colors next to each other on the color wheel.

  f/3.5, ISO 400, 24-70mm L

  Don’t get me wrong. I don’t walk around all my setups with a color wheel in hand. But I do mentally reference it regularly. So if you’re new to styling food shots and want to learn how to improve the way you put things together, check out a color wheel every so often and use it as a guide. I keep one in a drawer to either push myself out of my comfort zone with color composition or to help me when I’m struggling on a shoot.

  Shooting Tethered

  One last consideration for planning your setup is deciding whether to shoot tethered, or connected, to your computer. I say go for it!

  The day I started shooting tethered, a new world literally opened up for me. I had heard other photographers talk about its virtues; I had seen demos. And I was curious, but for some reason I always thought it would be more of a hassle than anything else. Was I wrong!

  Tethering your camera to your computer allows you to see your composition—right away—on your computer monitor. So you can, in a few seconds, see how the picture is going to look. Viewing on a screen that’s larger than your camera LCD screen makes everything so much easier to adjust right there and then.

  Tethering works great in studio circumstances, where you don’t have to move your camera and computer much. But I do not recommend tethering for on-location shoots at events, where the risk of tripods falling and computers hitting the ground are greater.

  Be ready to shoot tethered.

  f/3.5, ISO 400, 24-70mm L

  As a professional photographer, tethering enables me to check my work almost immediately to ensure I’m meeting project specifications. For instance, if a job requires that I shoot a picture that will be cropped to a seven-inch square, I can see right away on my monitor how the composition looks with this crop. I can adjust as needed … if needed. I don’t need to photograph blindly, wondering if I’m in the right crop … to find out later, when the shoot is over and I’m downloading images, that my frame is off, the food is in a weird place and I’m going to need to re-shoot. Or, if a do-over isn’t possible … that I blew it.

  Lightroom tethering functions

  As a food stylist, tethering allows me to look at a computer screen and see areas that may need a little adjusting. I can zoom in on a particular area and check for splashes, empty areas and other potential problems. So instead of shooting fifty frames to use for examples … and not kn
owing until I download if I had enough sauce on the stir fry … I can do it with ten.

  In summary, tethering can make your work more efficient and save time in photo editing that can be applied to other jobs … or perhaps even a nap. While not all camera software lets you tether, more and more do. Lightroom does… and Aperture.

  Most software will require you to connect your camera to your computer with a USB cable to start tethering; but since all cameras, software and computers work differently, please refer to the tethering menu of your specific program for details.

  With Lightroom, for example, all you need to do to tether is connect your camera to your computer with a USB cable, turn on the camera and go to “Tethered Capture” in your “File” menu. Select “Start Tethered Capture” and the software will ask you to create a folder for your pics. Enter a name for your file, add tags and labels (see Chapter 8), press enter and start shooting. See? It always sounds more daunting than it really is.

  No matter how much or how little you wish to do in terms of composing, propping and styling, setting up your environment for capture should be fun. There are countless ways to approach the food you’re shooting. So whatever is driving you to photograph food, try to remember to “make it real.” The entire idea is to make your dish look so appetizing that people want to eat it right away. So luckily, the next chapter is all about how to style food so it screams Delicious! without you having to say so yourself.