My style of photograping wasn’t something I had chosen. It just happened. When I started to photograph a year ago I tried many things, many settings and many backdrops. I didn’t had many props or things back then so I just used some table sheets to create a setting. I looked at a lot of other photos to get inspired and I notices that I looked at the moody photos the most. I was fascinated by it. It gives me the feeling that I want to be part of the scene. You can tell so much with a photo and I think even more with a moody shot.
In the Netherlands, most food photos are really light. I see why, the food jumps out. But I like the challange to do the same with the dark photography. You can play more with light and that’s what I really like.
People ask me if it’s difficult to make photos like I do. I only can say: no, just practice like I did! A year ago I was nowhere and now I think I make pretty nice shots. I’m never finished learning. I learn every time I shoot.
I hope I don’t disappoint you, I’m not a technical photographer. I’m not going to throw all kind of therms to you, because in that way I’m a bit of a lazy girl. Of course I know the most important stuff, but the rest is a feeling. I just kept trying until it worked. I place all my props and sweets with a feeling in a place. Would love to explain this, but I’m sorry I can’t. It’s my creative mind that helps me I guess.
The method I’m going ro explain works for me. I didn’t read about moody photography. I just started to do something and it turned out to be moody. Like I had to go that way. I just followed my intuition. Let me say again, this method works for me. There are no “secrets”. Just a lot of information developed through trial and error.
So some facts:
- I shoot with a Nikon D5600
- The lenses I use are a 50 mm and a 17-55 mm. I don’t have full frame, so if you do, these lenses are the same as a 56 mm and a 24-70 mm I believe.
- I always shoot RAW images in Manual. So I have full control when I edit
- I always use natural light. Reason number 1: I don’t have a daylight lamp and every other light doesn’t make your photo look nicer (just try once you’ll see what I mean). Reason 2: Natural light is the most beautiful in my opinion. It takes a while to know at which moments on which place the light is the most beautiful, but when you know you’ll see that nothing can compares natural light. I prefer morning and late afternoon lightning. It’s glowing and gorgeous and allows the food to really be showed off beautifully.
- I use Adobe’s Lightroom to edit my photos. I’m not familiar with Photoshop.
You also need a dark backdrop. I’m really lucky I have a barn in the backyard with great backdrops (we bought the house this way and I didn’t noticed since I didn’t photograph back then). But there are a lot of walls with great colors and textures, old tables and even the floor is from small, blue, wooden planks that are looking old. Also there are some windows in the roof, so I mostly use that space to photograph.
I get my props mostly from flee markets and thrift shops. The prices are nice (you can buy there spoons and knifes for a couple of cents because nobody wants to eat with them anymore) but it’s so good to shoot with! The picture above I shoot on an small black tray with hints of blue/white. It was something I found for 50 cents in a thrift shop, but I use it a lot! I had put the cookie with the tray half into the light and a black background behind it. It’s sometimes really this simple! You don’t need a lot of stuf. I used this tray also for the picture below. You can see it’s not bit and not really special, but it looks so good on a photo!
You don’t need backdrops, since you can’t see the background and you don’t need any props. Just you and an ice cream! Or other food which you can hold. Maybe don’t start with ice cream. It melts really fast!
You need some light (of course), not too intense and it needs to come from the side. In my case I was sitting on the ground on my knees(i do this so I can use my other hand to handle my phone which is laying on the ground) and on my right there was a big window. When producing darker images, it is important to carve and shape the light to bring attention to your main subject. You will need to determine how you want to light your image and where you want the shadows to fall. So I tried to hold my ice cream into the light and myself a bit in the shadow. The camera was in front of me on a tripod. I first did some test shots. You don’t want too much light, because when you’re going to edit you can play with this. I used a high aperture (so a low number of your f, I used f/4). You want your food detailed, but the background, in this case my hair, chin and clavicle, not so detailed.
Before
After
