Food Photography 101 ~ Part 3: The Resources
By Jackie Connelly www.jackieconnelly.com/blog
August 31st, 2009
Written as Guest Blog Post for Bakergirl Creations
At this point we’ve made our way through the creative and technical tips in Part 1 and 2, now it’s time for Part 3 – the resources. If you have any resources to add to my working list below, please leave a comment with a link to your resource…the more the merrier!
- 1. Magazines. In Part 1 there were some links to a few of my favorite glossy, drool-worthy food & beverage magazines. In my opinion spending time deconstructing food shots you think are killer forces you step outside your bubble, which can be a very good thing. Here’s my drool-worthy list:
- 2. Blogs. There are so many food, food photography, and food & prop styling blogs out there it’s unbelievable. My feed reader is jammed with so many, I only wish I had time to read them all every day. Therefore, this would be a ridiculously long post if I included even a small selection of them…so this is what I suggest you do to build your own list of blogs you love:
- Google ‘food blog’, ‘food photography blog’, ‘best food blog’, whatever exactly you’re looking for. Check the blogroll/links section of each of your favourites for even more. Caution: this can become addicting and an excellent way to procrastinate.
- Build a varied list of blogs, for all aspects of food photography include prop styling, cooking & recipes, food photography you love, and those tips & tricks kind of blogs.
- Last but not least, start commenting on your favourite blogs, and even start a blog of your own! Free sites like WordPress will have your set up and blogging in minutes.
- 3. Classes. Online or offline, continuing to perfect your craft, be it hobby or professional, is a total necessity (in my opinion). Here are some exciting workshops and classes coming up around the globe:
- Workshops @ Adorama (US based)
- Want to learn from professional food stylists and a food photographer in San Diego at the end of September? Check this out.
- Marilyn Tausend seems to hold this same workshop in March, at least I’ve seen it listed for ’08 and ’09, cross your fingers for ’10 – travel and food photography in Mexico for 5 days sounds heavenly.
- Including shooting models, but also some fun sounding food experiences Red Leaf seems to have space left for their September 15-17, 2009 workshop.
- The International Conference on Food Styling & Photography, at Boston University. I’ve read the reviews; it was amazing. I’m all over this one for 2011, sadly there was nothing I could do to get away from my business this year, and it’s only held every 2 years.
- Food Styling Workshop through the Culinary Entrepreneurship Program in Los Angeles.
- Food Fanatics have some great videos on food styling techniques; these ladies are awesome!
- 4. Books.
- For those of you that live in or visit Vancouver, I highly recommend dropping by Barbara Jo’s Books to Cooks if for nothing more than to continue the drool session from your glossy magazine perusal.
- Food Photography and Styling by John Carafoli is chock-a-block full of great tips.
- Food Styling for Photographers is a great book, giving tips from both the photo and styling side of things.
- Lou Manna has written Digital Food Photography which I own, and though I don’t shoot in the same visual style as he does, and therefore not a huge fan of the photos, there are some decent lessons to be found in it.
- Earlier I mentioned Selina Maitreya’s book How To Succeed in Commercial Photography if you’re on the road to becoming a commercial photographer, but I think it could apply even if you just want to develop a more holistic approach to your photography.
I welcome any questions, comments or otherwise, please feel free to email me at info@jackieconnelly.com. Good luck!
September 2, 2009 at 4:16 am
Interesting series – thanks for posting!
September 28, 2009 at 9:57 am
This is a great post. I love shooting food and I do it at home, with natural light. I don’t retouch my food. I want my readers to see how the food looks in a home kitchen.