Food and photography are two of my passions.  Actually, Chris and I share these two interests and as a result, we are able to spend a lot of time together doing these two things we enjoy.  We have different skills and interests in the kitchen and behind the camera and we complement each other very well.  While we both like to cook, Chris is more interested in the technical aspects of photography, while I gravitate towards food plating and styling.  As you’ve read in previous blog entries, our Cuisinart ice cream maker is in constant use.  This week alone, we’ve made three batches of ice cream.  Our challenge with it is not in the creation or consumption, but in photographing it.  Unlike professional food photo shoots where mashed potatoes or frosting whipped with powdered sugar stand in for the real thing, we photograph real, edible ice cream.   This means that we have about 5 minutes before the ice cream melts and drips and looks more like a mess than a delicious icy treat.  It does not help that it is the middle of summer and our house does not have air conditioning.  I spend a good amount of time planning the photo with a stand-in bowl or plate and then replace it with the real thing at the last possible moment. Chris sets up the camera and takes test shots before I bring out the “models.”  It’s usually a blitz of activity for a few minutes before the ice cream starts to melt and then the clean-up starts.  We usually get a few shots we like that I share with all of you.

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One of the first photography techniques we learned is how to use aperture settings to take more creative photographs.  You probably noticed that many of our food photographs are close-ups of with a blurry background (photograph above on the left).  That technique uses a wide aperture setting to create a narrow depth of field.  We also tend not to pay too much attention to lighting techniques, partly because we didn’t know much about it and partly due to the fact that the food we were photographing was our meal that was getting cold.

I ran across this amazing blog from Taylor, a food photographer living in Charlotte, NC, who shares food photography tips and tricks.  His tutorial on Light Quality and Shadow Contrast helped us to clearly understand those two basic factors regarding the impact of lighting on photography.

We set out to create a mini-studio in our dinning room using materials we had on hand to try to replicate the techniques described in Taylor’s tutorial.  We taped parchment paper to the glass in our french door to diffuse the natural sunlight coming in (affecting the light quality) and used a white foam board to reflect light from the opposite direction (to control shadow contrast).  The result is the photograph above on the right.  We were pleased with the outcome and with our new found photo techniques.  We hope you like it too.