Table of Contents
1 What Gear Do You Need? 3
Which Camera? 4
Which Lens? 5
Using a Tripod 8
Remote Shutter Release 8
Artificial Sources of Light 8
White Balance Using a Gray Card 9
Memory Cards 10
Hard Drives 10
Image-Processing Software 11
Cell Phones 11
2 Basics 15
Farewell, Auto-Hello, M Mode 16
Setting the Aperture 17
Setting the Exposure Time 19
ISO Sensitivity 21
Putting It All Together 22
RAW vs, JPEG 23
White Balance 23
3 Lighting 27
Main and Fill Light 28
Daylight 28
Artificial Light 30
Flash 30
Continuous Light 39
Reflectors, Flags, and Other Light Shapers 42
Hard and Soft Light 49
Light-to-Subject Distance 50
Angles of Incidence 50
Light Direction 52
Light at Different Times of Day 54
Preventing Unwanted Reflections 54
4 Image Design and Composition 57
Start Slowly 58
Portrait or Landscape Format? 58
Shooting Angles 59
Framing 62
Positioning the Star of the Show 63
Focus 66
Steering the Viewer's Gaze 68
Composing with Color 70
Adding Texture 72
Capturing a Mood 74
Creating a Feeling of Depth 75
Practicing Image Composition 76
5 Styling 79
Styling Concepts 80
Becoming a Storyteller 80
Choosing a Theme for Your Project 81
Props 83
Starter Kit: 13 Must-Have Food Photo Props 87
Sample Styling Kit 88
Working with Dummies 89
Styling Tips 90
Including People in Your Images 97
6 Five Food Photography Projects 99
Salads 100
Soups 110
Main Dishes 120
Desserts 130
Drinks 138
Summary 147
7 Image Processing with Lightroom 151
About Lightroom 152
Setting Up a Workflow 152
Importing Image Files 153
Processing Your Images 162
Working with Presets 174
Getting Organized 178
Backups 184
8 Tips and Tricks 187
Simulating Condensation 188
Combating Burned-Out Reflections 189
Stabilizing Styrofoam Reflectors 189
The "Full Dish" Trick 190
Salt in Your Beer 190
Gelatin Soup 190
Building Blocks as Placeholders 191
Cardboard Backgrounds 192
Four Eyes Are Better Than Two 192
Making Notes 193
9 Homemade Props 195
Trick Milk Bottle 196
Tongue-and-Groove Background 197
Plywood Background 199
Two-in-One Reflector and Flag 201
Universal Soup Can 202
Decorated Teacup 203
Five-Second Mini Cake Stand 205
10 How to Boost Your Creativity 207
Get Out of Your Comfort Zone 208
Imitate Your Role Models 208
Learning to "Read" a Photo 208
How to Find and Use Sources of Inspiration 209
Brainstorming 210
Developing Your Own Visual Style 210
Don't Be Afraid to Experiment 210
11 Now it's Your Turn 213
Exercises 214
Quick Test 217
Image sources 221
Index 222
