Composing food for food photography is no easy task! Let me take you behind the scenes to discover step-by-step how I composed this white wine-poached pear and pavlova recipe.
Now, I was almost hired to shoot a perfume campaign based on this image, which is pretty cool. We’ll discover why in this video.
This photo was part of my Seek Texture series, where I focused on photographing black and white food. It forced me to hone my lighting skills and focus on important textures within food.
Let’s dive into the composition techniques I used to compose this poached pear and meringue photo.
Desaturated Color Can be Beautiful
The first thing you might notice is that there’s not a lot of color going on in this image. I desaturated this shot. Having pale and soft color allows the viewer to focus on the texture of the food.
Isn’t it beautiful though? Don’t be afraid to desaturate your colors.
Textures – Emphasizing Ingredients
Composing this poached pear photo is all about interest, and it comes down to texture. There are two types of textures in this photo. A very textured background with crunchy textured meringue, and then we have the really soft textures of the poached pears, of the really smooth platter, and some of the syrup that goes along with the poaching liquid.
The overall feeling I wanted to invoke with this image was soft and delicate. I had to balance the gritty textures of the meringue in the background with some soft, silky props, and the very soft feeling of the poached pears.
Use White Props with Varying Features + Textures
It’s important for this shot that we had white props throughout. We have varying heights of props, but complementary, with various textures. And we have three bowls here, but one of them is different.
Where I can, I like to pair two or more different bowls just to create some more visual interest.
Ensure Lines are Pointing in Different Directions
When it comes to the cutlery, I like to make sure that they are pointing in different directions. I’ve done this with the pears as well. I don’t want to have them in the same direction.
Composing Poached Pears: Add Crumbs and Mess for Depth
When building a scene, I like to crumble up some of the food. Crumbling up some of the meringue to add some texture, but because the background is really textured, we don’t need too much. Just enough so that we can see that this is a working scene, that somebody has plated this food.
Use Dynamic Symmetry for Placement
There are a lot of elements happening in this photo. So how do you place them all? How do you make it balanced? How do we make it feel organic and harmonious?
When I’m working with a lot of subjects, I like to use the Dynamic Symmetry grid. So the idea of Dynamic Symmetry is to use powerful diagonals and other lines to help us compose a scene.
The way the grid works, we’re going to be placing elements on intersecting lines. I pop on the grid in my tethering editing software and add this overlay. I then place the subjects (not every single subject) so they are touching those intersecting lines.
Cut Subjects Off to Create Tension
Another super easy, but powerful tip is when you’re working with a lot of subjects, cut subjects off at the edges of the frame. This is going to help us create something dynamic and gives us tension within the image.
So when you think about when you’re cooking, not everything is in your field of view. Composing this poached pear show, I cut subjects off at the edge of the frame to help the viewer feel that you’re part of this scene.
Soft Lighting is Flattering to Food Photography
We touched on lighting before that it was important that this was a softly lit shot. For this image, I did use artificial light and if you notice we have very filled and soft shadows. To achieve this look, it’s really important that my light source was large and I had fill to create that soft feeling.
For this shot, I used my go-to artificial light setup, which I have a free 30-minute training for over on YouTube.
Control Colors in Editing and Retouching
Editing was the last piece of the puzzle to really bring this image together.
I had to make sure that I was using edits that provided me with clarity but a soft contrast feeling. I had to lean on color correction in multiple areas to get that really beautiful crisp white feeling.
And then I went ahead and made sure that I was desaturating the yellow colours that we have in this image to tie that soft, delicate feeling together.
And I was missing a stem on one of the pairs in the bowl and I really wanted to create the three pairs with stems to allow me to have a beautiful strong triangle between the three of them. So I used Photoshop to go ahead and retouch an extra stem onto the bottom pair.
Composition Essentials
If you got excited by all the compositional elements that we discussed today and you want to take your composition to the next level, make sure to check out my masterclass, Composition Essentials.
FAQs
Every food photographer should have the following props in their studio:
– Soft buttery linen in neutral colors
– Vintage fork and spoon
– Handmade ceramic plates and bowls with texture
– Pinch bowls in various colours
– Rustic cutting board in a small or medium size
To make a 2D photo really stand out, there are some composition tips you can use.
1. Add different textures to your image and use strong lighting to highlight them.
2. Use different heights with props and food.
3. Cut off subjects at the edge of your image.
For beautiful strong lighting, you will need to ensure you have a powerful light and a large modifier. Lighting stands help you to hold the gear in place and foam boards in both black and white can help you reflect or block light to achieve your desired look.
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