Camera College

Follow the tutorials on shooting food, then enter your images in a challenge

Food photography is one of the most enjoyable types of ‘home studio’ shoots you can do, as you get to eat the subject afterwards. It doesn’t require a great deal in the way of equipment, either: there’s a lot you can do with a standard kit lens and natural light, and you can really take your time to arrange your savoury or sweet still-life into the ‘perfect’ composition.

That’s not to say that food photography is a piece of cake. After all, there’s a reason why there are professional photographers and stylists who specialise in this area. Getting the best results takes time and know-how, but we all have to start somewhere.

In some respects, food photography is similar to the garden macro photography we looked at last issue: sourcing the best specimen, finding a complementary background, and using depth of field creatively to make the best feature stand out. If you’re bitten by the close-up bug, a macro lens is going to be a worthy investment: it’ll allow you to focus close enough to capture frame-filling shots of delicious details as well as finished plates of food and table arrangements. A tripod is a useful accessory to have as well, as you may end up working in relatively low light levels if you’re shooting indoors. Supporting the camera gives you more freedom when it comes to choosing exposure settings, as you won’t have to worry about getting blurred results.

Shooting near a window allows you to make the most of natural light. Bright, overcast days will deliver a soft illumination that lowers contrast, and makes it easier to capture tasty details in both the shadows and highlights. If you’re working with light that’s not quite so complimentary to the subject, consider taping some tracing paper or baking parchment to the glass.

A reflector placed on the side opposite to your light source will bounce light into the shadows for more balanced results. It can be a pain to keep a circular, collapsible reflector propped up in the right position, though. I tend to grab the nearest sheet of white card or paper – or even an envelope – then simply fold it in half and stand it in place. If you want to add more contrast and definition, use something black instead.

Crumpled kitchen foil makes for a brighter, crisper look that can suit fruit and other subjects that you want to add a feeling of freshness to.

Your choice of backdrop can make or break any photograph, but when it comes to shots of food, you don’t always need to include a lot of it in the frame. In fact, you might not even need a backdrop at all if you’re shooting a dish from directly above.

The background you choose largely depends on the look you’re going for. A vibrant piece of paper or card can suit a bright, colourful subject, but if you’re shooting ‘serious’ food, a more sombre backdrop that doesn’t compete with the subject may be a better selection.

I’d recommend that you build up a collection of portable backgrounds – card, wood, distressed baking trays – so that you can quickly erect them in spots around your house that give you the best light. I’ve even supported a plate on a cardboard box in the bath, just so I could take advantage of some particular tiles in the background.

If you don’t want the texture of the background to show through, place it some distance from the subject and choose a relatively wide aperture (a low f-number, such as f/4 or f/5.6).

Your camera may have a Food scene mode but, like all automatic exposure modes, it’s for snaps only, with very limited ways to override the settings. For total control over all three aspects of exposure – aperture, shutter speed and ISO – choose Manual mode. Set a low ISO sensitivity for the best image quality, and choose an aperture to give you the depth of field you want. You may need to use your camera’s Depth of Field Preview function to judge this effectively. Then you can simply adjust the shutter speed to change the level of brightness. You can achieve similar results by using Aperture Priority, although the camera automatically sets a shutter speed to correspond with the aperture you’ve chosen. To make a shot brighter or darker, you’ll need to use your camera’s exposure compensation control.

If you’re working handheld, activate the lens or camera’s optical image stabilisation, if present, and set the camera to Auto ISO: this way, the camera will raise the sensitivity in low light so that you can continue taking sharp pictures.

Styling the food is as crucial as setting the right exposure on your camera. You literally have to make the subject look good enough to eat, and that can come

Structuring your food shots is a bit like cooking: start with a few simple ingredients and put them together in the right order. Strip your image back to basics, and think of it in terms of fitting shapes and lines together in a satisfying way. This is easier if you’re shooting from directly overhead, where a circular or square plate will provide a natural frame.

Not all food benefits from being shot from above. Cakes, burgers and other layered dishes with a bit of height often look better when they’re photographed from a lower angle, although this may bring a background into the frame.

An odd number of elements – three or five – can help to bring balance to a shot, and it’s better to stick with just a few visual ingredients so that each one has room to breathe. Use cutlery to create lines that draw the eye into an image and provide a visual straightedged contrast to the curves of plates and food. You’ll need to watch out for your own reflection in shiny utensils, though. They’ll also catch the light, which can fool the camera into underexposing the image.

Professional food photographers often work with food stylists on commercial shoots. Food styling, which ranges from sourcing ingredients to cooking food and arranging everything on the plate (as well as choosing the plate itself), is a full-time job. Like photography, it takes dedication and experience to get the best results. But there are lots of small aspects that you can tweak to improve your own shots.

A sprinkling of bright green herbs or chopped red chillies will give brown and beige dishes a visual lift, for example, while a dusting of icing sugar can add lightness and freshness to puddings and other sweet treats. And, of course, droplets of water from a spray bottle or even simply flicked from your fingers can make fruit look juicier. If you want the drops to be longer lasting, add some glycerin to the water first. It’s small details like these that can make the subjects of your food photos look more appetising. from the addition of visual garnishes like herbs and spices or a few drops of water, or lighting the subject to bring out crumbling texture or glossiness.

Temperature is another aspect that will make your food pictures come alive. Put a drinking glass in a fridge or freezer before filling it with liquid, and the condensation that forms will give you a refreshing ice-cold look. If you’re taking pictures of a hot subject, shoot it backlit against a dark background to highlight the steam. An off-camera flashgun can help here.

Composing and framing your shots is the most satisfying part of the whole process. If you’ve set up your camera on a tripod, you’ll have time to take a step back and thoroughly check the framing and arrangement on the back of the camera.

If you’re really ambitious, you can tether your camera to a computer, and use the larger screen to assess every last detail. Alternatively, you can take a test shot then magnify the details on the rear screen, scrolling around the image to check for any flaws in the food or setting.

You’ll have to work quickly with some subjects so that they don’t melt or dry up, so it’s better to get all the other elements in place and work out the exposure before introducing the star ingredient. That being said, everything doesn’t have to be pristine. Some food looks more enticing when it’s broken open to reveal its contents, or a spoonful has been taken out of it, or it’s allowed it to hang over the edge of a dish. You can emphasise the creaminess of ice cream, for

You don’t always need a macro lens to get framefilling shots of smaller morsels. A close-up lens or diopter, which screws onto the front of a lens like a filter, is an affordable way to allow you to focus a regular lens closer than normal. They are available in a range of magnification strengths and filter thread diameters. ‘Double element’ diopters like the Canon 500 D are heavier, more expensive and better-quality.

This will give you the opportunity to assess your composition carefully and make tiny adjustments to the elements of your shot. It also means you can keep the ISO at a low setting for high-quality results. Fire the shutter using the self-timer, so you can hold a reflector in position.

Avoid loading up dishes with food; rather than being a feast for the eyes it will be overwhelming. A few elements will look more elegant and be easier to digest visually.

Build up a collection of interesting tableware you can use to bring variety to your photos. You don’t have to buy an entire dinner service – individual plates, knives and forks will allow you to add variety to a whole range of shots. Choose unfussy designs to ensure that the food is the star.

Give your props a clean before shooting, especially if you’re shooting a close-up with a macro lens. That thumbprint on the handle of a knife or the dishcloth lint on a plate might not look distracting to the naked eye, but it will be magnified in the shot.

You don’t have to show the entire plate of food. Cropping part of the dish out of the shot can help give the impression that what viewers are looking at is part of a bigger spread, when it isn’t. instance, by allowing it to melt slightly and ooze down the side of a bowl.

There are lots of industry tricks that you can try out, but many of them will render the food inedible – white glue for milk, anyone? How about shoe polish to make raw meat look flame-grilled? There are a few that you can use without any ill effect, though. Toothpicks are handy for holding towering sandwiches together, for example, while cotton wool balls, soaked in water and then microwaved, can be used to give the appearance of steaming-hot food. (Try putting a few inside a cooked chicken.)

Toothpicks, tweezers and small brushes also come in handy for rearranging crumbs and other morsels. Small details add up to make a big difference.

Pay attention to additional props. Cups, glasses, napkins and place settings can all add character, even if they’re mostly out of focus in the background. The choice of background is crucial, too. If you get level with your plate, you’re going to pull more of it in, so make sure there are no distractions in the distance. Shooting from farther away with a longer lens will reduce the amount of the background that’s on show.

This month we’re looking for your hottest (or coldest) food shots. It’s a great time of the year to try your hand at the subject, as the festive and New Year period offers a feast of food photography opportunities.

We’re looking for pictures that really capture the essence of the food, whether that’s through careful lighting, biting texture, creative composition or careful editing in software to selectively boost colours and sharpness. As with last month’s challenge, we’re looking for artistic interpretation as much as we are good technique, so the overall look and feel that your picture captures is more important than anything else.

Don’t be put off if you don’t own a macro lens or a flashgun, or even a tripod. Work with what you’ve got. Whether you’re shooting fresh ingredients, a slap-up dinner or a microwave meal for one, there is a host of creative techniques that you can use to elevate your images. How about experimenting with multiple exposures or making a panoramic image to create a food landscape? Perhaps go down the minimalist route or try a black-and-white treatment? The food photography world is indeed your oyster.

sually associated with high-end portrait retouching, frequency separation is a technique that separates images into high and low frequencies. As such, it’s useful for retouching faces without damaging skin textures. But frequency separation has other, less known uses too – it can work wonders in food photography.

Most high-end retouchers would carry out their frequency separation workflow in Photoshop just because it’s the industry standard software. However, Affinity Photo has a tool that’s arguably better than what’s on offer in Photoshop.

Frequency separation splits details into separate layers. ‘High frequency’ is fine detail, like the texture on the lemons and leaves here; ‘low frequency’ is the wider spread of tones, like the yellow and green colours. By separating them, you can edit each independently, smoothing out rough patches or fixing distracting textures while keeping the image looking natural.

With Affinity Photo’s dedicated Frequency Separation tool, it’s easier than you might think, and it’s likely to become a go-to tool for all kinds of retouching tasks…

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Start separating frequencies

Duplicate your original layer, then go to Filter > Frequency Separation. High‑frequency details will be separated from low-frequency tones and colours. A draggable split-screen shows how the split works. By separating the image, you have more control over retouching rough patches and blemishes without affecting the delicate textures in the objects.

Fix the textures

To retouch detail and textures, target the High Frequency layer. A good tool for this is the Healing Brush (make sure it’s set to sample ‘Current Layer’). As with the Clone Tool, Alt-click to sample a nearby source then paint over problem areas. Set the brush hardness to 100% to prevent smudginess around the edges of the healing. The tool lets you perfect the skin of the lemon here and remove distracting wrinkles.

Set Radius

You can control what is considered as high frequency either by using Radius, or by dragging left and right over the image. Set Radius so the texture in the fruit is visible in the grey image, while the details are blurred on the low-frequency version. It might take a little time to find the right balance. Some retouchers like to make several passes with different Radius values.

Where to clone

Part of the learning process with frequency separation is in getting a feel for where to clone and heal, and which frequency to target. In the lemon, bumps and marks can be removed by cloning the low-frequency detail, without damaging the fine texture of the lemon skin. If we wanted to fix finer distractions, like scratches on the surface of the board, we’d target the High Frequency layer with the Healing Tool instead.

High and Low frequency layers

Once the command is made, the image looks the same but you’ll see two new layers appear in your Layers Panel. The High Frequency layer is set to the Linear Light Blending Mode, which knocks out the grey areas so only the fine detail is visible. You can now grab the Clone Tool and start smoothing out the tones on the lower layer without altering the delicate textures.

Make a cloning layer

One of the best tools for tidying up the Low Frequency layer is the Clone Tool. Use it to smooth out rough tonal areas and blemishes in the image. You can edit the layer directly or, for greater control, make a new pixel layer above it, then set the tool to sample ‘Current and Below’ in the tool options. This keeps things non-destructive and allows you to erase any areas that go wrong.

DIGITAL CAMERA 79

ark1Karan’s debut photo book Pind: Portrait of a Village in Rural Punjab documents life in the photographer’s ancestral village of Bir Kalan. (‘Pind’ is Punjabi for ‘village’.) Through a collection of documentary photographs, spanning over three dedicated trips, the selfpublished book captures everyday life there for the first time, taking the reader up close and personal like never before. The collection covers a range of themes in village life, showing how people live, work, socialise, learn and go about their daily rituals.

“My own journey started over 30 years ago,” Hark1karan explains. “Growing up, I regularly visited my mother’s pind, which allowed me to build a closer and deeper connection

Hto life there. Witnessing changes over the last three decades, I realised how much Punjabi habits have informed my own existence back in England – everything from the food we eat to the music we listen to and how we speak the Punjabi language. Understanding life on both sides of the spectrum has helped me to develop a balanced perspective, which I hope comes out in the photos I captured.

“This photo was taken one evening at a brick kiln near the small town of Cheema, in the Punjab district of Sangrur. These guys were loading bricks onto a truck before taking a break. These kilns are visible all across Punjab flat farmlands.”

Pind: Portrait of a Village in Rural Punjab by Hark1Karan is available for £35 via www.hark1karan.com. The entire is project is self-funded, self-published and self-distributed by Hark1karan, a South Londonborn community photographer capturing life in

London and the experience of

Punjabis and

Sikhs in the UK. www.digitalcameraworld.com