As Inn Cuisine’s 2 year anniversary approaches, I find myself reflecting on how far I’ve come and how much I’ve grown as a blogger, both in my vision of what I want Inn Cuisine to become and my abilities to get it there. But I haven’t done it alone. Because I believe in giving credit where credit is due, I want to acknowledge some of the resources that have helped me the most during these first two years of food blogging.
In this post, I’m focusing on digital food photography & food styling—creative endeavors I’ve come to enjoy more than I ever imagined. Growing from a mom who loves to cook and take too many photos of her kids (as well as the occasional sunrise, ice-covered tree or vacation), I’ve worked diligently to overcome taking miserable food photos like this:
Inncredible Egg Casserole from the Inn Cuisine archives. Sad isn't it? Such a great-tasting recipe, but so ill-represented by my (then) lack of food photography & styling skills. Hard to believe my readers stuck with me!
To becoming a food photographer who takes mouthwatering photos like this:
After 18 months of learning, experimentation and practice, I started photographing & styling food that way I had always envisioned.
Finally...a photo of pancakes that makes you want to dive right in! The only thing more delectable than eating these Sweet Potato Pancakes was the feeling of success I experienced when viewing this shot.
How did I make that leap? By learning everything I could about my Nikon digital SLR and Nikkor lenses and studying the key resources that I’m sharing with you today.
Instead of rewriting the ton of great information that’s already out there, I’m sharing my favorite food photography & styling resources, all widely available to anyone with the tenacity and finger strength to keep Googling. To save you valuable time, I’ve compiled the best tips & tricks I’ve found into one, easy-to-search list. If you’re looking to ramp up your food photography skills, I hope you find these resources as helpful and informative as I still do!
Up next…more invaluable resources for food bloggers.
20 Invaluable Resources to Help Polish Your Food Photography & Styling Skills
- Food Styling & Photography – Still Life With
- Food Styling and Photography at BlogHer – La Tartine Gourmande
- Thoughts (and some advice) on Photography – Lucullian Delights
- Photography Tips – White on Rice Couple
- Food Photography – Wrightfood
- Food Photography for Bloggers – Vegan Yum Yum
- Tips on Food Photography – My Cooking Hut
- Our Approach to Food Photos – Smitten Kitchen
- Food Photography Tips – 101 Cookbooks
- Lighting Tips – Digital Food Photos
- Lowel EGO Lights for Food Photography – Steamy Kitchen
- Photoshop Tutorials – Food Bloggers Unite!
- Shoot First, Eat Later – Food & Wine
- A Few Food Photography Tips – Raw – Boston.com
- Food Photography Techniques and Tips – Digital Photography School
- Tasteful Food Photography – O’Reilly Digital Media
- Digital Photography Tutorials – Cambridge In Colour
- Professional Tips for Better Food Photography – Ask the Photographer
- Food Photography – Silverace
- 10 Ways to Know You Made a Good Picture – Photo Focus
Want to sharpen your food photography & styling skills even further? Here are 2 tantalizing titles for all you food blogging bookworms:
- Food Styling for Photographers: A Guide to Creating Your Own Appetizing Art
- Digital Food Photography
Any tips or resources you’d like to share? Please feel free to add them in the comment section of this post!
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
I can’t wait to browse through your links. Thank you for putting this together and, wow, you have come a long way with your food photography skills!
Thank you so much for sharing this list of food photography/blogging resources! I’ve just started a food blog, and realize how much I still have to learn. This list is just the kind of thing I’ve been looking for!
your photos have indeed come a long way. the first one’s not bad, mind you, but the others are stellar. i do doubt, however, that i’d ever find any picture of pancakes unappealing.
Well, Culinary Snapshot, of course
Also, Pioneer Woman has some wonderful food photography tips on her site, plus really great photoshop actions!
Your photography is stunning!
Thanks for sharing these tips! I need to improve, but I think I need a new digital camera first! Totally overdue for an upgrade!
thanks, Sandie, I will read every one of these suggeted sites. And hopefully, test them too. Food photography is really fun…it doesn’t whine.
Sandie you have come a long way and it has been great to watch that for the past year and a half I have enjoyed coming here and the many items you have posted, except for me trying to reducing the amount of ingredients for one. Would like to see what fruit other than cranberry for the liquor hummm that’s great!!! Keep up the good work Sandie and know you are doing so well… if one stops learning, one will stop loving and living enjoy all that you do and Thank You… you teach so very well…
Sandie…I knew you were well on your way to being an accomplished food photographer/stylist when I saw your picture of our Green Tea Blueberry Smoothie…absolutely amazing!
By the way, our family made your Hoagie in a Bowl as one of our Christmas Eve food items, and it was a HUGE hit! Being from NJ, I do miss those South Philly hoagies, but this tasted amazingly similar. Thanks for the trip back in time…haven’t yet found a place down South here that makes a good hoagie.
So helpful, Sandie! You should have linked me as “what not to do when taking food photos.”
Susan, Katie, Grace, Kristen, Aimee, Chloe, Micky, Mary Jo & Maris – Thanks to all of you for visiting and leaving your comments & kind words of support. I appreciate them both!
For those of you working on your own food photography & styling skills, savor the process—each recipe, each click of the shutter, each turn of the plate is just another opportunity to learn & enjoy. Above all, remember to experiment and have fun with it—your enthusiasm will show in your final shots!
Excellent resources and reminders! I totally hear you though … next month is five years for me, and it really pains me to go back and look at some of the earlier photos. So I don’t.
Onward and upward!
Those are great resources. I’m still learning too, and I feel like I’m never going to get it all. But then again, if I did, I’d get bored and move on.
Love your pictures.
Laura
Hard to believe it’s been two years since those late-night brainstorming emails! Congratulations; you’ve come a long way, baby.
You missed one awesome resource.
http://www.learnfoodphotography.com
What a great collection of resources! I have had a similar photography journey since I started my blog… I cringe when I go back to some of my older posts! Love your photos now, though.
Cate – Aren’t looking at our first photographs the worst? When there are more hours in a day, I plan on going back and re-shooting some of the worst. Congrats on 5 years, my friend! That’s quite an accomplishment!
Laura – Thank you. It’ hard to be a jack-of-all-trades (cook, writer, stylist, photographer) and do it all well, but that’s the part of the food-blogging challenge that I love the most! Keeps me on my toes
Lydia – Memories, eh? I know what you mean…two years…it sure has flown by. Couldn’t have kept it going without all your positivity and help—thank you!
Shawn – A great resource, to be sure. Thanks for including it!
Jen – Aww, thank you. Sometimes I think, “If I only knew then what I know now,” but you can’t really do that and keep moving ahead. In the end, it’s more important to keep moving forward, wouldn’t you agree?
This is wonderful! Thank you so much for the inspiration and sharing.