How to plate food

[redbourn]

How to plate food.

This photo is not meant to be good bad or indifferent, and was shot on my phone just as an experiment.

Most food tutorials that I've read about plating food say to put the featured food in the foreground.

And that's what I've been doing recently.

But David Loftus says something very different.

He says to shoot the food from the same angle that you plate it.

And I just tried it.

And I think he has a very good point to make.

What do you think?

Not about my photo but about his idea.

 

[cauzimme]

I don't know if you're familiar with Pinterest but I think you could benefit a lot looking at food bloggers, most of them do not have a lot of photographic experience, they have a passion for food and it's translating into gorgeous photos. I think you should less focus on what people say, but to look at those images and try to reproduce some of the plating. I personnaly love natural or diffuse light for that type of images. The plating is important sure, you might want to look at some recipe and see how they plate it.

https://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?rs=ac&len=2&q=food+photography&term_meta[]=food|autocomplete|0&term_meta[]=photography|autocomplete|0

 

[snowbear]

Maybe.
I would promptly rotate the plate so the meat was on my right, slide the sprouts over and put the four potatoes together.

 

[dennybeall]

I like to see the main course item be the largest part of the plate and the vegetables be secondary. The main item is then in the upper left of the plate as viewed. The viewing angle would depend on the item such that a flat pork chop the angle would be higher than for a tall rack of lamb.

 

[redbourn]

This is a link to Loftus explaining his technique ..

 

[redbourn]

I don't know if you're familiar with Pinterest but I think you could benefit a lot looking at food bloggers, most of them do not have a lot of photographic experience, they have a passion for food and it's translating into gorgeous photos. I think you should less focus on what people say, but to look at those images and try to reproduce some of the plating. I personnaly love natural or diffuse light for that type of images. The plating is important sure, you might want to look at some recipe and see how they plate it.

https://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?rs=ac&len=2&q=food+photography&term_meta[]=food|autocomplete|0&term_meta[]=photography|autocomplete|0

Thanks for suggesting Pinterest and I will check out some ideas there.

I've actually been going to Shutterstock and searching for the recipe that I'm going to cook and try to get some ideas there.

I have close to 1,700 Facebook friends and followers and I often post a couple of different versions of the same meal and ask which one they prefer.

I would say that pretty much everyone prefers the version without cutlery or background objects which they find distracting.

Loftus often shoots what appear to be incredibly simple photos, but I believe they are deceptively simple.



Because I shooting the photos for a cookbook it's important to me to find out what John Q. Public like because I'm doing the book and photos for them.

 

[Designer]

You've made no sauce? Why separate the potatoes? Frankly, it is not very artistically presented.

Photo is fairly good, though.

 

[gsgary]

I don't know if you're familiar with Pinterest but I think you could benefit a lot looking at food bloggers, most of them do not have a lot of photographic experience, they have a passion for food and it's translating into gorgeous photos. I think you should less focus on what people say, but to look at those images and try to reproduce some of the plating. I personnaly love natural or diffuse light for that type of images. The plating is important sure, you might want to look at some recipe and see how they plate it.

https://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?rs=ac&len=2&q=food+photography&term_meta[]=food|autocomplete|0&term_meta[]=photography|autocomplete|0

Thanks for suggesting Pinterest and I will check out some ideas there.

I've actually been going to Shutterstock and searching for the recipe that I'm going to cook and try to get some ideas there.

I have close to 1,700 Facebook friends and followers and I often post a couple of different versions of the same meal and ask which one they prefer.

I would say that pretty much everyone prefers the version without cutlery or background objects which they find distracting.

Loftus often shoots what appear to be incredibly simple photos, but I believe they are deceptively simple.

View attachment 113777

Because I shooting the photos for a cookbook it's important to me to find out what John Q. Public like because I'm doing the book and photos for them.

I wouldn't listen to anthing anyone tells you on Facebook it's for people who don't have real friends and a life

 

[Gary A.]

I thought about food images ... but my plate is emptied by the time I get around to my camera. I think lighting is, at least, equally important to good photography as composition.

 

[redbourn]

I don't know if you're familiar with Pinterest but I think you could benefit a lot looking at food bloggers, most of them do not have a lot of photographic experience, they have a passion for food and it's translating into gorgeous photos. I think you should less focus on what people say, but to look at those images and try to reproduce some of the plating. I personnaly love natural or diffuse light for that type of images. The plating is important sure, you might want to look at some recipe and see how they plate it.

https://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?rs=ac&len=2&q=food+photography&term_meta[]=food|autocomplete|0&term_meta[]=photography|autocomplete|0

Thanks for suggesting Pinterest and I will check out some ideas there.

I've actually been going to Shutterstock and searching for the recipe that I'm going to cook and try to get some ideas there.

I have close to 1,700 Facebook friends and followers and I often post a couple of different versions of the same meal and ask which one they prefer.

I would say that pretty much everyone prefers the version without cutlery or background objects which they find distracting.

Loftus often shoots what appear to be incredibly simple photos, but I believe they are deceptively simple.

View attachment 113777

Because I shooting the photos for a cookbook it's important to me to find out what John Q. Public like because I'm doing the book and photos for them.

I wouldn't listen to anthing anyone tells you on Facebook it's for people who don't have real friends and a life

They are the kind of people that will buy.

I'm not intending to sell the book to photographers ;-)

Already have close to a hundred people on FB that want to buy the book and expect to have 5,000 FaceBook 'friends' by the time the book is ready.

Be nice to put some image and some recipes there and know that thousands will be alerted.

Social networking is a great marketing device.

Michael