ShafronChef: Ageless Recipes for the Modern Age
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  • Soups
    • Borscht
    • Tomato Herb Soup
    • Kapusta Soup
    • Lentil Soup
    • Minestrone Soup
    • Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup
    • Sorrel Soup
    • Tom Yum Soup
    • Chicken Vegetable Soup
    • Spanish Fish Soup with Orange
    • Broccoli Soup
  • Vegetal
    • Vegetable Curry
    • Coleslaw
    • Rosemary Potato Casserole
    • Summer Pesto
    • Mixed Vegetable Korma
    • Best Salad Dressing
    • Spicy Chipotle Rice
    • Caesar Salad
    • Kale Salad
    • Baba Ghanoush
    • Indian Cardamom Rice Pilaf
    • Vegetable Casserole - Sour Cream Top
    • Thai Marinade
    • Beetroot Dip
    • Green Smoothies
    • Eggplant Capers Dip
    • Tabbouleh
  • Seafood
    • Seafood Paella
    • Crab Cakes
    • Salmon Artichoke Pasta
    • Garlic Prawns
    • Cioppino Seafood Stew
    • Vietnamese Style Fish Stew
    • Simple Ahi Poke
    • Fish Tacos, Salsa & Guacamole
    • Fish and Zucchini Casserole
    • Gumbo
    • Fish and Chips
    • Tamar's Sushi Rolls
    • Coconut Fish Curry
  • Poultry
    • Lemongrass Chicken Stir Fry
    • Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce
    • Chicken Red Curry
    • Coq au Vin
    • Chicken Tikka Masala
    • Sweet & Sour Mandarin Chicken
    • Karen's Quails
    • Ridgy-Didge Chicken Curry
    • Turkey Schnitzl
    • Marinated Chicken Wings
    • Golden Lotus Chicken Stir Fry
    • Roast Chicken with Lemons and Onions
    • Duck L'Orange
    • Lemon Sage Chicken Wings
  • Carne
    • Lamb Curry
    • Pelmenis
    • Beef Wellington
    • Lamb Kebabs & Creamy Mint Sauce
    • Gus's Thai Pork
    • Steak Diane
    • Carnitas Augusto
    • Spinach and Bacon Quiche
    • Beef & Broccoli
    • Spinach Pies
    • Pop's Chili
    • Beef Stroganoff
    • Cabbage Rolls
    • Meat Loaf
    • Supreme Hamburgers
    • Lamb Shanks
    • Bahn Mis with Pork Belly
    • Citrus Pork Steaks
    • Korean BBQ Short Ribs
  • Italian
    • Spaghetti Amatriciana
    • Pasta Carbonara
    • Spaghetti Bolognese
    • Momma's Pizza
    • Cannelloni Two Ways
    • Garlic bread
    • Pasta alla Norma
    • Spaghetti and Meatballs
    • Bruschetta
  • Sweets
    • Mother's Banana Cake
    • Honey Jumbles
    • Berry Crumble Cake
    • Pavlova
    • Aussie Anzac Biscuits
    • Pecan Pie
    • Blueberry Muffins
    • Russian Pear Cake
    • Beverley's Double Chocolate Brownies
    • HiSpice Pumpkin Pie
    • Cranberry Orange Cup Cakes
    • Blueberry Sour Cream Cake
    • Lemon Meringue Cheesecake
    • Baklava
    • Crunchy Almond Topped Cake
    • College Cookies
    • Extra Lemony Lemon Slice
    • Hummingbird Cake
    • Fudge
    • Caramel Bananas
    • Peter's Christmas Fruit Cake
    • Stollen
  • Breakfast
    • Groovy Granola
    • Scrambled Eggs
    • Spanish Tortilla Omelets 2 Ways
    • Hot Cross Buns
    • Pikelets
    • Poached Eggs
    • Zucchini Slice
    • Crepe Pankakes
  • Preserves
    • Dill Pickles
    • Father's Jalapenos
    • Bubbies Pickles
    • Balsamic Eggplant
    • Tomatoes Canned & Dried
    • Pickled Beets
    • Sambal Oelek Chili Paste
  • Mexican
  • Cocktails
  • Draft Recipes
    • Recipe Template
    • Salmon Parcels
    • Roast Turkey
    • Turkey Pie
    • Eggplant Mousaka (Vegetarian)
    • Shepherd's Pie Two Ways
  • OurJane
Comments
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Food Photography

Interested in taking better photos of your food?  There really isn't much to it - and most of what you need you can glean by looking carefully at other people's images.  But to break it down, here are our nine tips on taking better food photos: photo lighting, image composition, ingredients and best plates, including old family photographs, white balancing, photographing the process, getting up close and accessorizing.

1. Photo Lighting

We almost always use available natural light for our images. And we don't always follow the old rule of having the light source at our back.
Picture
Here we shot into the window and the result is just fine.

What is most important is to ensure that your camera is properly white balanced (see below)

2. Image Composition

Picture
Look for repeating patterns in your food photography. Or get in close to find interest.

Diminishing lines (items disappearing into the distance) are another effect to watch out for.

Always consider your foreground and your background - make deliberate choices for both.

3. Snap the Ingredients!

Good food is all about your ingredients - so take a few photos of them!

If you are like me, you are apt to forget exactly what brand or quantities you bought that you liked - so I make a record.
Picture
Labels can be pretty cool in and of themselves - they deserve some attention from your camera!

4. White Plates = Best

Picture
We actually use all kinds of plates in our food photographs.  But if in doubt, use a nice white plate to set off the colors of the recipe.

But like any good rule, it was made to be broken so take out the Lenox or the Portmeirion too.
Picture

5. Include Old Photos

Depending on where you plan to display your food photographs - maybe you will make your own Weebly website (like this), maybe you will collect them into folders, maybe you will print them out and stick them into your own recipe book - you can easily include old restored or repaired photos that put the recipe into your particular family's special context.
Picture
Here we have Dad who was a keen gardener.  We repaired and restored this old photo and used it in our recipe for tomato soup.
Don't be put off if the old photo is scuffed or discolored.  Even scratched and torn photos can be repaired.  And hey, it's an old photo so no one can expect perfection.

Either do the restoration yourself or use a professional photo restoration service. Full disclosure: this photo repair site is actually one of ours!

6. White Balance

Do you remember when you could buy "daylight balanced film" and "tungsten balanced film"? The reason is that your light source has color (inside lights are a bit yellow; daylight a bit blue).

These days you get the right "white balance" either by trusting your digital camera's "auto" settings; or better yet, you set your camera's white balance manually. With a digital SLR this is normally done by taking a picture of a white piece of paper under the prevailing light conditions then setting it as white in your menu settings.

7. Photograph
the Process

Picture
It helps to have some help here taking the photos. 

But the recipes I have always liked the most have lots and lots of pictures and plenty of pictures of the actual process...
Picture
Things that you may take for granted might not be obvious to someone else - except in a photo.

8. Up Close and Personal

Almost any image can be improved by cropping - cutting away some of the background so your audience's attention is directed at the important parts.
Picture
So, you can crop during the editing process - or you can just move in a bit closer at the time you take the photograph.

Be careful though - hot steam and spitting fat may coat your camera lens!

Accessorize!

You can accessorize with other food items, or side dishes, or with crockery, or even greenery.
Picture
Be judicious though - you don't want to shift the spotlight off the food.
Picture

All Recipes Index

Soups
Old Europe
Seafood
Curries
Smoothies

Asian
Italian & Simple
Carne
Confections
Poultry


Salads & Vegetarian
Breakfast
Barbecue
Tapas & Latin
Preserves
© COPYRIGHT 2020. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Food Photography
    • Comments
  • Soups
    • Borscht
    • Tomato Herb Soup
    • Kapusta Soup
    • Lentil Soup
    • Minestrone Soup
    • Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup
    • Sorrel Soup
    • Tom Yum Soup
    • Chicken Vegetable Soup
    • Spanish Fish Soup with Orange
    • Broccoli Soup
  • Vegetal
    • Vegetable Curry
    • Coleslaw
    • Rosemary Potato Casserole
    • Summer Pesto
    • Mixed Vegetable Korma
    • Best Salad Dressing
    • Spicy Chipotle Rice
    • Caesar Salad
    • Kale Salad
    • Baba Ghanoush
    • Indian Cardamom Rice Pilaf
    • Vegetable Casserole - Sour Cream Top
    • Thai Marinade
    • Beetroot Dip
    • Green Smoothies
    • Eggplant Capers Dip
    • Tabbouleh
  • Seafood
    • Seafood Paella
    • Crab Cakes
    • Salmon Artichoke Pasta
    • Garlic Prawns
    • Cioppino Seafood Stew
    • Vietnamese Style Fish Stew
    • Simple Ahi Poke
    • Fish Tacos, Salsa & Guacamole
    • Fish and Zucchini Casserole
    • Gumbo
    • Fish and Chips
    • Tamar's Sushi Rolls
    • Coconut Fish Curry
  • Poultry
    • Lemongrass Chicken Stir Fry
    • Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce
    • Chicken Red Curry
    • Coq au Vin
    • Chicken Tikka Masala
    • Sweet & Sour Mandarin Chicken
    • Karen's Quails
    • Ridgy-Didge Chicken Curry
    • Turkey Schnitzl
    • Marinated Chicken Wings
    • Golden Lotus Chicken Stir Fry
    • Roast Chicken with Lemons and Onions
    • Duck L'Orange
    • Lemon Sage Chicken Wings
  • Carne
    • Lamb Curry
    • Pelmenis
    • Beef Wellington
    • Lamb Kebabs & Creamy Mint Sauce
    • Gus's Thai Pork
    • Steak Diane
    • Carnitas Augusto
    • Spinach and Bacon Quiche
    • Beef & Broccoli
    • Spinach Pies
    • Pop's Chili
    • Beef Stroganoff
    • Cabbage Rolls
    • Meat Loaf
    • Supreme Hamburgers
    • Lamb Shanks
    • Bahn Mis with Pork Belly
    • Citrus Pork Steaks
    • Korean BBQ Short Ribs
  • Italian
    • Spaghetti Amatriciana
    • Pasta Carbonara
    • Spaghetti Bolognese
    • Momma's Pizza
    • Cannelloni Two Ways
    • Garlic bread
    • Pasta alla Norma
    • Spaghetti and Meatballs
    • Bruschetta
  • Sweets
    • Mother's Banana Cake
    • Honey Jumbles
    • Berry Crumble Cake
    • Pavlova
    • Aussie Anzac Biscuits
    • Pecan Pie
    • Blueberry Muffins
    • Russian Pear Cake
    • Beverley's Double Chocolate Brownies
    • HiSpice Pumpkin Pie
    • Cranberry Orange Cup Cakes
    • Blueberry Sour Cream Cake
    • Lemon Meringue Cheesecake
    • Baklava
    • Crunchy Almond Topped Cake
    • College Cookies
    • Extra Lemony Lemon Slice
    • Hummingbird Cake
    • Fudge
    • Caramel Bananas
    • Peter's Christmas Fruit Cake
    • Stollen
  • Breakfast
    • Groovy Granola
    • Scrambled Eggs
    • Spanish Tortilla Omelets 2 Ways
    • Hot Cross Buns
    • Pikelets
    • Poached Eggs
    • Zucchini Slice
    • Crepe Pankakes
  • Preserves
    • Dill Pickles
    • Father's Jalapenos
    • Bubbies Pickles
    • Balsamic Eggplant
    • Tomatoes Canned & Dried
    • Pickled Beets
    • Sambal Oelek Chili Paste
  • Mexican
  • Cocktails
  • Draft Recipes
    • Recipe Template
    • Salmon Parcels
    • Roast Turkey
    • Turkey Pie
    • Eggplant Mousaka (Vegetarian)
    • Shepherd's Pie Two Ways
  • OurJane