I am currently enrolled in a Food Photography and Food Styling course and am loving it. The 7 hours on Saturday have really been flying by (if you can imagine.) Anyway I thought I would share a few tips I learned during my first class (well first one behind the camera) and then give you a peek at a couple of pictures I took myself.

I use a Nikon D60 however most of the students in class use a point and shoot camera so these rules/guidelines/suggestions apply to all cameras.

1) LIGHTING! Natural light is of course the best option but indirect light is what you are really looking for. You do not want the harsh shadows of direct sunlight.

2) Light should always come from the back of the frame. This means that the eye likes to see shadows (not harsh ones as stated above) but they should be shadows coming forward, therefore the light must come from the back half of the shot.

3) Fill Cards are you best friend. If you take a picture and realize that there is a section that is not showing up in as much detail as you want try using a fill card. In class we simply use a piece of white paper, or if more light is needed, a piece of aluminium foil. (very high tech I know) The logic behind a fill card is to have the light reflect off the card and back onto your subject to brighten up the dark area.

You can see in this picture (that is not mine, I forgot to take one of fill cards so I found one online) that the photographer is using white poster board in different angles to reflect light onto the subject. You will have to play with the angles but once you get it, it makes a world of a difference.

4) Tripods are a gift from God. If you want a steady, crisp, clear picture you must use a tripod. Human are shaky, that's all there is to it, and when you get into adjusting your shutter speed you need to be as still as possible.

Of course this is not everything, just what I learned my first day behind the camera. I will post more highlights and photos from my next class. Hope this helps someone out there... I know it helped me a lot!

Now for my pics... These are all without any computer editing, when you get all the steps right (and have 7 hours to shoot) you don't need much editing.