I recently sat down wtih Aurora Hablett, who’s an amazing food photographer/graphic designer at Snow City Cafe, to get a lesson on taking better pictures. (The story airs on the Wednesday morning show and that night’s 6 o’clock report, make sure to watch Channel 2 News!) Here is are some of the photos she took, and reasons they worked, or didn’t work. Do you find yourself taking photos of food at restaurants or home? Let me see your work!
Fourth Avenue Special:
Grilled turkey with thick, honey-cured bacon, cheddar and Swiss cheeses, fresh, locally grown alfalfa sprouts from Alaska Sprouts, Roma tomatoes and herbed mayo all on toasted marbled rye from French Oven Bakery.
1. First picture, the picture has a yellowish tint, which means white balance is a little off, but that’s something we can correct fairly easily. Compositionally, I like that this shows all of the key ingredients of the sandwich and both halves. This sandwich is mostly warm colors (yellow and red) and garnished with fresh Alaska grown sprouts. I went with a green plate to contrast with the warm colors and make color of the sprouts really pop.
2. Gives a fuller view of the presentation of the sandwich, really highlights the textures of the bacon, bread, cheese and sprouts.
3. Changed angles and adjusted white balance, focus is on the front of the sandwich, I like this picture because it brings some of the colors of the restaurant in the background.
4. Experimented with the focus to see how the sandwich would look with the diagonal half in focus.
5. Changed angles to bring the salad into the frame.
6. This angle has a hint of the salad and restaurant colors, but the sprouts and tomato are really subtle. I try my best to have all of a dish’s ingredients represented and this looks more like a meat and cheese sandwich. Vegetables make this sandwich look and taste delicious!
7. A different angle, zoomed out a little more to include the entire sandwich. I feel like we’re getting close, but there still aren’t enough sprouts and I have mixed feelings about the toothpick being in the shot.
8. Moved some sprouts to the forefront of the sandwich and tried it without the toothpick, but the cheese and sprouts at the front are just a little bit too out of focus.
9. The textures of the cheese, bread, meat and sprouts are the main focus, the angle of the second sandwich adds visual interest and the sandwich feels contained by line created by the plate at the bottom. A few quick tweaks in photoshop and it’ll be ready to go!
10. Made a minor adjustment to the contrast and exposure in Photoshop with the “Curves” function to make the picture just a little brighter. Voila! The 4th Avenue Special is ready for its public.
11. 4th Avenue Special photo in action (Facebook)
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