Gorgeous, luscious, creamy and light Trophy cupcakes, in bite size – dangerously good – were served at today’s food photography workshop.

I still feel “high” after participating in this workshop with food photographer Penny De Los Santos (her web site: www.pennydelossantos.com, her blog, and @pennydelosantos on Twitter.)

The workshop was organized by Viv, a.k.a Seattle Bon Vivant at the beautiful Spring Hill restaurant in West Seattle. The food was gorgeous and amazingly delicious, as you will see in the photos.

A few notes from the workshop:

To make a good food photography, Penny says to pay attention to: light, color, composition, the food subject, and making appetizing food.

She shoots “organic” meaning the food has to be fresh and of good quality in order to be photographed well. She works only with real food, with no glue or sprays to make it look pretty, no tricks they use in commercial food photography. This means that you can eat the food after it’s been shot. Also, she says she works quickly, not using a tripod but instead focusing on working the camera settings so it works fast, and working only in natural light. It doesn’t mean that she photographs only during day time, but even at night she doesn’t use artificial lighting. Not even a light box. her favorite lens is a 24-105 F4 Canon with a zoom although she said she is not a “zoomer”.

Angles to shoot from: overhead, 3/4 angle, and side view. The 3/4 angle and side view are better when shooting “tall” food, like the salad below which was our first assignment.

   

I like these two photos below as well, shot overhead. Maybe I just got attached to the salad… It was a simply deliciously done with crunchy lettuce and radishes, and I tasted tarragon in the dressing  which I love. )I should remember to use some tarragon in my salads.)

For our second assignment we had new dishes brought. It was the first time I practiced taking photos in a full manual mode, everything has to be adjusted including the lens focus (versus the aperture setting I usually use with auto focus of the lens.)

 

The third assignment was to edit the food, to interfere with what’s on the plate, to shoot food being made (everyone immediately had a good excuse to get focused on the chefs at work), or to use props.

Here’s a plate full of goodies, a bit out of focus…but still beautiful, because the food is beautiful! The duck was perfectly cooked, the persimmon was sweet addition, and I am terribly curious to know what they put in those shaved Brussels sprouts!

All the participants got their hands busy busy busy. So much enthusiasm was in the room.

Peoples got in each other’s frames at times…

  

But overall helped each other

  And got on their hands and knees

As well as all around the chefs in the kitchen.

   

Ah, so much fun.

I know where we’re going on our next date night…

Tags : Food Photography, Penny de Los Santos, workshop
Categories : Food events, Food Photography, Seattle/Pacific NW