Are you a foodie? Do you like to photograph food and share the images with your friends from your phone? Do you buy cookbooks just because they have great photos? Are you making a family cookbook? Do you have a food blog that you would like to illustrate with better photographs? Do you want to create delicious looking images that make the viewer lick their lips?

Well, if you answered yes to any of these…welcome aboard! Here are my expectations for you:

Start taking full control over your camera to get the look you want. Understand the basics of food styling and how that relates to composition and balance. Learn a lot of behind the scenes tips. Do some assignments to build confidence and proficiency. Follow the thought process of how to create a great image. Learn the basics of how to light food and drinks more effectively with your cell phone as well as a bigger camera. Learn how to do Painting With Light to enhance every image.

Our quest as food photographers is to make our subject look so yummy that the viewer can almost taste it.  I am going to go through the thought process in order of what decisions you will need to make from start to finish so you can see that there is a similar pattern of actions that can be used for every food image, as well as any other subject.

The thought process is all about creating a strong composition with good lighting. Making a beautiful image that is full of details, tells a story and creates an emotional experience. It lets us sell emotion with each image.

Working in the studio is the best teacher. You will learn a lot about how to craft the lighting and see that it is not as complicated as you thought. Observe and use a little common sense and it will work just fine, especially with a continuous light source where what you see is what you get.

You will also learn more about your camera and lenses in a controlled environment that will affect how you approach photography inside and outside the studio.

You will never finish this learning process. Photography is changing every day.

The chapter order that I have given you is my shooting workflow. It is the same workflow that I use for every image, not just for things in the studio. It is my thought process.

As you can see, a lot needs to happen before you bring the camera into the mix.

Get inspired with this straight forward and simple workflow to change your approach to your compositions and expertise in good lighting.