Friday Faves – mycameraeatsfood

Today I’m very excited about the featured Friday Fav. I stumbled upon Jessica’s blog, mycameraeatsfood, late last year and was instantly drawn in to the beautiful photographs. As a freelance photographer, she definitely knows her stuff. And how cute is that blog name! I hope you guys enjoy this post about a favorite blogger topic, food photography.

Thanks to Jen, this is my first official guest post on another blog! I run mycameraeatsfood, a small site specializing in food photography, and I am also a contributing photographer and videographer for a larger blog called Serious Eats. Today’s post was inspired by a recent post we ran on Serious Eats about food blog photography. — Jessica

If you’re a food blogger, odds are you’ve staged more than one meal for your readers. What goes into a food photograph? Props, location, and lighting are some of my most important ingredients…after the pretty food, of course.

Here are four different setups I styled and considered during a recent location scouting. Which one do you like best?

We began in the kitchen. I grabbed some leftover strudel, a shiny knife, and a wooden cutting board, and set up shop. Please note: the remaining crumbs are intentional. I often find that a few artfully chosen crumbs improve a photo tremendously. However, I did not love the kitchen lighting. Moving on…

I found a nice whitewashed brick wall next to a window, and tried a few shots here. My flatware and tableware additions improved the photo, but I was still not satisfied; the trapped brick looked too random to me.

Us food photographers love that natural window light. Upon discovering a bigger, unobstructed window with a wider windowsill, my perfect lighting search was complete. Throw in some flowers and a bird hungry for some strudel, and we’ve got our shot. Or do we…?

I tried one final shot of the strudel in a gorgeous old bowl I found in the cabinet…but that darn window vent snuck in and ruined the whole thing. This bowl would do better on a wider, unobstructed surface.

Which shot do you like best? And what are some of your favorite food styling props? Despite the prop-heavy third shot, I often find that less is more…a few crumbs can go a long way.