Quick Food Photo Editing for Blog Posts

Most of us food bloggers are not professional photographers or chiefs. We are usually just trying to get dinner on the table and take a decent photo of what we made.

I have a Canon Rebel xTi with a 50 mm lens, nothing fancy. I don't have a lot of time or patience for food photography, so here are my quick tips for taking and editing an OK photo of the recipe you are posting. I don't own an expensive editing program. I have a Mac and use both iPhoto and Aperture for editing my pictures.

Un-edited picture.

1) The Shot: The easiest way to have a good final photo of food is to take the picture in natural light. If you can make part of your meal earlier in the day and photograph it before the sun goes down that would be best. If what you are photographing will look OK re-heated put some aside and photographic the next day. If you can't use natural light you will need to invest in a photography light.
The other important thing to remember is to take several photos from different angles. Leave most of the plate in the picture, you can always crop it later. A common mistake is to take photos too close to the food, then people can't really identify what the food is, even though the shot might look cool.

Adjusted white balance.

2) White-Balance: Is critical for food to look sharp and clear. By either adjusting the white-balance on your camera before shooting the picture or do it in an editing program. Don't skip this step. You want white to be white and not have the color of your photo be off because of the coolness or warmth of the light the picture was taken in.

White balance with curves adjusted.

3) Curves: Adjusts tone and contrast. This is very hard to eyeball so I just select auto curves.

White balance, curves, and exposure adjusted.

4) Exposure: Up the exposure as high as you can without over-brightening the white in the picture. Food looks best in bright light.

White Balance, curves, exposure adjusted and photo cropped.

4) Crop: Get rid of extra space and distractions. Zoom into the main image, but not so closely that it becomes hard to identify it.

White balance, curves, exposure, cropped and re-touched.

5) Re-touch: Remove light spots and distracting spots or smudges on food. There was a large flake of pepper toward the bottom right of this omelet that was distracting. There also were some light spots on the plate that took away from one's focus on the food.
There are many more detailed editing things you could do to an image, but these basic ones take just a few minutes and your final picture will look great.

Weekly Menu Plan:

Sunday: Thawed left over Chili, Homemade Corn Bread and Salad Meatless Monday: Leftovers Tuesday: Fresh Fish sauteed in Butter and Old Bay Seasoning, Roasted Potatoes, and Green Beans Wednesday: Chicken Pieces Rubbed with Moroccan Seasoning (McCormacks) Brown Rice, and Peas with Mint Thursday: Seafood Risotto and a Green Salad Friday: Spaghetti and Meatballs with Green Bean Salad Saturday: Stir-Fry with Leftover Vegetables and Proteins using Trader Joe's General Tso's Sauce with White Rice
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source : www.simplelivingeating.com , www.jonygoblog.blogspot.com , www.kaemfret.blogspot.com , www.ferdinblog.blogspot.com

Posted by AGUS SUMARDI