DIY Food Photography

image courtesy Rachel Been
Bio pic rachel been seeable

Taught by Rachel Been

Rachel Been is currently the art director of Billboard.com. Previously, she was the photo director for Slashfood.com and KitchenDaily, where she photographed root vegetables, KFC’s Double Down, and headless chocolate bunnies. She has shot for CNN, Liddabit Sweets, and countless websites. You can check out her work at www.rachelbeen.com/food

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Everyone is a food critic--and when it comes to looking at pictures of food, everyone is a photo editor. Therefore, in order to make the most delicious-looking images for an audience, it’s important to learn the techniques that separate the dry-heaving pics from the lip-smacking ones. 

This class will introduce you to the basics of shooting beautiful DIY images of food. The class will start with a basic introduction to photography and lighting from a food perspective, focusing on technical aspects for both SLR and point-and-shoot cameras, as well as using natural light and additional equipment.

After the basics, we will set up a variety of shooting scenarios by photographing raw fruits/veggies and more complex plated items. The goal will be to execute a well-lit and well-focused image.

In addition to shooting, an important aspect to food photography is editing the shoot and performing basic post-production to finish with the best possible image. We will discuss basic editing and post-production techniques to give your images a professional edge.

And with your finished image in hand, we will look at the best outlets for pictures. Whether setting up a Tumblr account or joining a Flickr group, we will talk about the most effective ways to get your images out there.

What you'll need:
- A point-and-shoot or SLR camera. Digital preferred
- A computer
- A photo editing program-preferably Photoshop, Aperture, or Photoshop Elements
- Some food to shoot - it can be raw produce or more complex items (baked goods, sandwiches, etc), but make sure it's not too large.

(If you absolutely don't have these things, you can still take the class and take notes, but you'll get way more out of it by actually taking some photos!)

 

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