After hours of planning and shopping, days of cooking and baking, your family table is ready for the big feast. Time-honored recipes will be savored and new tastes explored. A mixture of stories, laughter and even a few tears will season the meal. Some chairs will be empty and new additions celebrated.
Whether it’s an expensive digital camera, a simple point-and-shoot or iPhone in your hand, why not curate the beauty, the warmth, the intimacy of the moment?Looking back, I wish I’d captured more images of my dad drenching steaming mashed potatoes in turkey gravy, of my sister slicing her artfully crafted pecan pies, of my young daughters eyeing the mile-high plate of homemade cookies with ardent hope. I wish I’d captured my mom’s hands as they kneaded dough, my brother-in-law’s shoulders as he hunched over the fridge door looking for one more bite of cold turkey. I wish I’d photographed the warmth of candles, the sparkle of crystal, the gleam of mom’s “good china” alongside my nephew’s sippy cup.
Curating the dishes and memories of the family feast through image making will allow you and your family to celebrate and hold each other close all year long. Here are a few suggestions that may help with composition, lighting and styling, but also as you crystalize your philosophy and approach.
Location, location, location
Who said your kitchen or Thanksgiving table make the best stage for spotlighting family recipes? Be creative and carve
out a temporary “set” for your shots. Look for wood, stone, porcelain or metal surfaces. Anything with texture and an uncluttered background will work.
Who said your kitchen or Thanksgiving table make the best stage for spotlighting family recipes? Be creative and carve
out a temporary “set” for your shots. Look for wood, stone, porcelain or metal surfaces. Anything with texture and an uncluttered background will work.
Allow surface space for a few other items to dress the shot: flatware, fabric napkin or runner, heirloom salt and pepper shakers, stemware, crockery, flowers — whatever flatters the food and makes you want to grab a fork.
Prepare carefully in advance, and when it’s go time you’ll be able to work quickly. It’s essential to get those main dishes from the kitchen to your “set” and to the family table within a minute or two. No man (woman or child) waits for turkey. You and your camera will forever be exiled to the kids’ table if you’re the bottleneck that delays the feast because you wanted to get that one last shot.
Prepare carefully in advance, and when it’s go time you’ll be able to work quickly. It’s essential to get those main dishes from the kitchen to your “set” and to the family table within a minute or two. No man (woman or child) waits for turkey. You and your camera will forever be exiled to the kids’ table if you’re the bottleneck that delays the feast because you wanted to get that one last shot.
Follow the light
Ditch the overhead kitchen lights, yellowing incandescents and your camera’s harsh built-in flash. Instead, opt for the best available natural light you can find in the location where your feast will happen. A simple window will create beautifully diffused back or side light, and lighting from the side or back will create dimension and highlight the food’s texture.
Set up a small table or surface you can circumnavigate, if possible, to capture dishes from multiple angles. Smaller is better, as you’ll be capturing tight shots that feature your family’s time-honored traditions.
Wrap light around your subject by bouncing it off a piece of white foam board, a legit reflector or even a white napkin held by an assistant.
If you use an external flash — which is no crime if done with finesse — be sure to move it away from the dish and defuse it. The natural gleam of oven-fresh, steamy-hot food will create unattractive hot spots under a blast of direct light.
Enlist a runner to help transport dishes and preserve your light source. I was photographing some gorgeous pastry work recently and repeatedly had to remind admirers to step out of the light cast by a nearby window.
Simplify
Your adversary as you photograph food memories may often be “other stuff.” I find it nearly impossible to circle the crowded Thanksgiving table and photograph dishes in the way they deserve. There’s simply too much clutter to allow one dish to shine.
Creating a staging area for your shots decreases the business of extraneous objects and lets you put into the image only what will compliment the food and reignite warm memories.
Around our table, we long to see grandma’s willow ware, my sister’s eclectic collection of salt and pepper shakers, an assortment of candy corn that prompts us to share what we’re thankful for. But we only need a corner of them in the frame. Remember as you stage and crop, food needs a mere suggestion of sacred objects, recipe ingredients, candlelight, heirloom stemware or linens to tell the story.
What’s your angle?
It’s your choice of camera angle that creates a sense of depth, perspective, and scale. So make that choice purposefully, and when possible, shoot from multiple angles.
Because I typically have only seconds to photograph a dish before hungry diners dig in, I approach food photography like I’m a plane coming in for a landing. The dish is slightly below eye level so I can make the most of its “topography,” and close enough so I could reach out and taste it.
If your subject has strong geometric lines, and you have a bit more time, try photographing it from a vantage point directly overhead. Use accessories to emphasize its shapes and leading lines.
Choose your depth of field to help focus the eye, but make sure it’s still recognizable. I typically shoot the same angle with two or three aperture settings “just in case.” Also keep in mind that a food close-up is essentially a macro shot. DOF applies from side to side, not just front to back, and if your focus falls off too quickly in any direction, the image suffers.
At a recent baking workshop, I shot a beautifully crafted pie from eye level with a shallow depth of field to add intimacy. I typically know when I’ve got the right angle if, while editing, I start inhaling more deeply to catch the aroma of my subject. If I’m breathing normally, the shot probably doesn’t work.
It’s a process
Get creative ahead of time. The holiday feast starts long before your napkin is in your lap. Capture closeups of this year’s shopping list, the sliced onions and diced squash, the baking and making process, the herbs and spices, green bean casserole or stuffing ingredients, the chest that holds grandma’s silver, hands folding napkins, lighting candles, basting the turkey, slicing the ham… In my view, food photography should be so much more than the moment of presentation.
Try to capture the heat of the open oven door, the steam from a boiling kettle, the freedom of spilled flour or salt on the cutting board, the aroma of freshly baked bread and rolls. And while you’re at it, why not spotlight some of your family’s gourmet or vintage utensils and cookware?
Make it real
Your holiday spread won’t sit untouched on the table while everyone looks at it. Your images shouldn’t be full of pristine and unenjoyed food. Incorporate flatware being used, a hand reaching into the frame, a slice of cake being cut. Your images should capture the joy of sharing lovingly prepared food with family and friends.
In addition to isolated dishes, try assembling a beauty plate. Just imagine you’re photographing an episode of Chef’s Table or Iron Chef and create one perfectly assembled dish, served steaming hot and garnished with care. If you plan it right, that will be the one you take to the table and set at your place.
More than food
Since half of family feast photography is capturing the love that goes into each dish, I like to catch a piece of the baker or chef with their creation. This could mean mom’s blurred silhouette behind a spectacularly browned turkey, my niece’s small hand passing the roasted sweet potatoes, grandma’s ladle serving her famous gravy and mashed potatoes, my sister playing Food Network star chef as she garnishes the Brussels sprouts, or unscripted laughter as stories are shared at the table.
Food photography isn’t just about the food — it’s about how you feel when it’s shared with people you love.
Your family may balk a little when you pull out your camera. Again.
But they will thank you for capturing the treasured moments that can never be replaced or recreated. They’ll be the ones that bring the past back to life and enrich the future.
Wrap light around your subject by bouncing it off a piece of white foam board, a legit reflector or even a white napkin held by an assistant.
If you use an external flash — which is no crime if done with finesse — be sure to move it away from the dish and defuse it. The natural gleam of oven-fresh, steamy-hot food will create unattractive hot spots under a blast of direct light.
Enlist a runner to help transport dishes and preserve your light source. I was photographing some gorgeous pastry work recently and repeatedly had to remind admirers to step out of the light cast by a nearby window.
Simplify
Your adversary as you photograph food memories may often be “other stuff.” I find it nearly impossible to circle the crowded Thanksgiving table and photograph dishes in the way they deserve. There’s simply too much clutter to allow one dish to shine.
Creating a staging area for your shots decreases the business of extraneous objects and lets you put into the image only what will compliment the food and reignite warm memories.
Around our table, we long to see grandma’s willow ware, my sister’s eclectic collection of salt and pepper shakers, an assortment of candy corn that prompts us to share what we’re thankful for. But we only need a corner of them in the frame. Remember as you stage and crop, food needs a mere suggestion of sacred objects, recipe ingredients, candlelight, heirloom stemware or linens to tell the story.
What’s your angle?
It’s your choice of camera angle that creates a sense of depth, perspective, and scale. So make that choice purposefully, and when possible, shoot from multiple angles.
Because I typically have only seconds to photograph a dish before hungry diners dig in, I approach food photography like I’m a plane coming in for a landing. The dish is slightly below eye level so I can make the most of its “topography,” and close enough so I could reach out and taste it.
If your subject has strong geometric lines, and you have a bit more time, try photographing it from a vantage point directly overhead. Use accessories to emphasize its shapes and leading lines.
Choose your depth of field to help focus the eye, but make sure it’s still recognizable. I typically shoot the same angle with two or three aperture settings “just in case.” Also keep in mind that a food close-up is essentially a macro shot. DOF applies from side to side, not just front to back, and if your focus falls off too quickly in any direction, the image suffers.
At a recent baking workshop, I shot a beautifully crafted pie from eye level with a shallow depth of field to add intimacy. I typically know when I’ve got the right angle if, while editing, I start inhaling more deeply to catch the aroma of my subject. If I’m breathing normally, the shot probably doesn’t work.
It’s a process
Get creative ahead of time. The holiday feast starts long before your napkin is in your lap. Capture closeups of this year’s shopping list, the sliced onions and diced squash, the baking and making process, the herbs and spices, green bean casserole or stuffing ingredients, the chest that holds grandma’s silver, hands folding napkins, lighting candles, basting the turkey, slicing the ham… In my view, food photography should be so much more than the moment of presentation.
Try to capture the heat of the open oven door, the steam from a boiling kettle, the freedom of spilled flour or salt on the cutting board, the aroma of freshly baked bread and rolls. And while you’re at it, why not spotlight some of your family’s gourmet or vintage utensils and cookware?
Make it real
Your holiday spread won’t sit untouched on the table while everyone looks at it. Your images shouldn’t be full of pristine and unenjoyed food. Incorporate flatware being used, a hand reaching into the frame, a slice of cake being cut. Your images should capture the joy of sharing lovingly prepared food with family and friends.
In addition to isolated dishes, try assembling a beauty plate. Just imagine you’re photographing an episode of Chef’s Table or Iron Chef and create one perfectly assembled dish, served steaming hot and garnished with care. If you plan it right, that will be the one you take to the table and set at your place.
More than food
Since half of family feast photography is capturing the love that goes into each dish, I like to catch a piece of the baker or chef with their creation. This could mean mom’s blurred silhouette behind a spectacularly browned turkey, my niece’s small hand passing the roasted sweet potatoes, grandma’s ladle serving her famous gravy and mashed potatoes, my sister playing Food Network star chef as she garnishes the Brussels sprouts, or unscripted laughter as stories are shared at the table.
Food photography isn’t just about the food — it’s about how you feel when it’s shared with people you love.
Your family may balk a little when you pull out your camera. Again.
But they will thank you for capturing the treasured moments that can never be replaced or recreated. They’ll be the ones that bring the past back to life and enrich the future.
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