Saturday Snapshots Series #8 - Holding The Food

This is our Week 8 at Saturday Snapshots, a food photography series. We began clicking simple things like tomatoes, lentils, chillies etc; now time to get serious. When I say serious, I mean you must click with passion, follow the instructions, mention your camera settings in your pictures and most importantly try harder. Click with complete dedication and try to figure out what’s wrong and how can you get better.

This week’s theme is ‘Holding The Food’. Holding food also known as ‘the human touch’ is trending and is my personal favorite. All you need to do is Hold The Food- be it a cupcake, a picnic basket, a cup of coffee or just fresh vegetables.

What to do:

• Click food that are tiny in size like ice creams, cupcakes, fruits, a bowl of candies etc. These food are great to shoot when held my kids. So all you lovely mothers dress up your kids and shoot. Some great examples are here, here and here.

• Background must be perfect- For dark food like chocolate cake, coffee, pies etc look for darker or rustic background; wear something black or brown or grey like here, here, or here. Same goes with lighter coloured food, white on white;  Black and white or yellow on yellow.

• Set up the mood- Yes your image must show a mood. Shoot a glass of fresh drink in the park to depict a sunny day or click a pie  your gloves and apron on -like here or here. Wear your jackets and jumpers for a wintry/warm feel like here or here. Having a party? Click and show the mood of celebration- like here.

• Think beyond plain whites and blacks. How about wrapping food in paper like here, here and here?? Or use vintage plates and bowls like here and here.  

• Aperture is your best friend- Shoot within the range of larger aperture between f 1.4 to f 2.0. Larger aperture will only let food be in the focus and the background will be blurred-this gives a nice dramatic touch.

• Don’t go overboard- Play it simple, nice and clean. Don’t include too many colours, props or texture. Or use no props at all- just your hands like here, here and here. Keep it simple and elegant. 

• No action shots- Just hold the food; don’t move things- no action shots like pouring, spreading the frosting, kneading the dough etc are needed. (we will get to this later ;)

Holding the food is a great way to bring food alive and breathing. It also gives your blog's readers a chance to peep into your lives- be it your kitchen, your family or actions. You can find some of my (not the best) pictures on this theme here, here and here. Need more ideas and inspiration, just see this Pinterest Board.

• Please link back to the hosts (we want more people to join in). Simply copy and paste- Saturday Snapshots-food photography series hosted at Merry Tummy and Siris Food.
• Once your post is ready, use the below linky tool at the host’s page and link.
•  It is important to watermark (write your name/blog name/blog logo) on your pictures. 
• Use the logo, it helps to spread the word.
• We are active on twitter and Facebook. You can share your pictures and post link at our Facebook group. For twitter use #ss (hash tag ss)
• You don't have to do a separate blogpost for SS, just include the picture in any of your post.
• Submit your entries till 16th Feb 2015.

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Thats all folks! I hope you have fun and also learn something new.