Food Photography Assignment

Let me just say right off the bat that I'm not a food photography specialist. I don't really know the first thing about 'styling' a food shoot, and don't have a studio with a wall of lights or specialist equipment. I'm just a guy, with a camera, and 25+ years experience of shooting a variety of subjects.

Coconut Pumpkin Soup with Prawn Wonton. Canon 40D with 50mm f1.8 STM lens; @f2.5, 1/200th, ISO 200

Recently, I was asked by the marketing department at Tai Poutini Polytechnic (where I work) to photograph the Tutoro Restaurant's evening service. The Tutoro is the polytech's student restaurant, and every year the chef trainees and food & beverage service students team up to run a night service open to the public. They plan, prepare, cook and serve a three course meal to those lucky enough to book a table for a night of gastronomic delight!

Waldorf with a Twist. Canon 40D with 50mm f1.8 STM; @f2.8, 1/60th, ISO 400

The brief was simple - turn up and take photos of the food once prepared - and some of the action in the kitchen. Images that can be used later on for promotional and marketing purposes, and as teaching aids for the course tutors. Sounds easy enough. But the challenge comes with trying to achieve all of this in a working kitchen, in the middle of a real service. I had a job to do - but more importantly so did they - with paying customers. So it was important that I move fast and not get in the way, but still come away with great food images!

Tai Poutini Tartlet. Canon 40D with 50mm f1.8 STM; @f2.8, 1/50th, ISO 800

I knew I was going to want to get in fairly close, use a fast lens, and create as much shallow depth of field (background blur - bokeh) as I could. As such, my newly acquired Canon 50mm f1.8 STM lens was going to be perfect for the job. Attached to the 40D it gives an equivalent fov (field of view) as a 80mm short-telephoto does on a full frame camera. And the fast f1.8 aperture - even stopped down one stop to f2.8 for a touch more sharpness, was going to give me just enough light to hand-hold the camera and work quickly.

Seared Salmon Fillet. Canon 40D with 50mm f1.8 STM lens; @f2.8, 1/50th, ISO 400

The general rule for achieving a 'sharp' image is to not use a shutter speed below the lenses focal length. With the 50mm Canon prime, this means not going below 1/50th of a second. In the artificial lights of a commecial kitchen, in the evening, at f2.8, I was there or there abouts with the shutter speed. Hovering around 1/50th and occasionally getting up into the dizzying heights of 1/100th of a second. To help with my 'keeper' rate, I shot in 'continuos low' drive mode so I could shoot a short 'burst' of shots. When you do this in low light, it's more likely that at least one of them will be in sharp focus.

Farm Raised Lamb. Canon 40D with 50mm f1.8 STM lens; @f2.8, 1/50th, ISO 640

I also set the camera in auto ISO - to range between 400 and 800. With the 40D, ISO 800 is the top number that the auto ISO will go up to, while its 'default' is apparently ISO 400. I don't use auto ISO all that regularly - preferring instead to choose the lowest ISO I can get away with. But inside, at night, under artifical lights, I was always going to have to ramp up the ISO anyway - so why not let the camera take care of it for me? One less thing to have to worry about - right?

So how is the noise at ISO 800 I hear you ask....  and it's a good question. Noise is certainly apparent at ISO 800 - and can be quite obvious in the shadows if the image is underexposed. The 40D is, after all, a 10 year old camera! But if you get your exposure right then noise isn't a major problem, and can be controlled nicely even with the basic noise controls available in Lightroom.

BTW - the Farm Raised Lamb was what I ordered at the end of the night when I was very knidly offered a meal. And it was amazing! A Rack of Lamb served with rosemary polenta, cauliflower puree and seared asparagus. Yummmm! Delicious.

Seasoning Asparagus. Canon 40D with 50mm f1.8 STM lens; @f2.8, 1/50th, ISO 640

I wasn't just there for food shots though. I took a lot of photos of the students themselves preparing, cooking and serving the meals. I obviously can't show these on my blog since I don't have model releases etc - but the above image is one of my favourites of the evening and gives some indication that it was truly a working kitchen in full service mode. I now also know where the saying "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen" comes from!  I've never sweated while taking photos so much in my life!

Fungi O'Bean. Canon 40D with 50mm f1.8 STM lens; @f2.8, 1/50th, ISO 500

Clafoutis. f2.8, 1/100th, ISO 400

As I said at the beginning of this post - I'm no Food Photography expert (far from it). But I did know the 'look' that I wanted to go for - and the steps I needed to take to get there. I had to work fast, stay out of the way, but get close in to get the shots - all in a very hot, frenetic, working kitchen environment. So yes - I'm very please with the images of the food that I was able to take with my old Canon 40D and 50mm STM Prime lens.

Panna Cotta. f2.8, 1/60th, ISO 400

The Canon STM f1.8 is a joy to use. Fast focusing, accurate, quiet and super sharp - especially stopped down to f2.8. It's because of this lens alone that I use the 40D as much as I do. A 'fast' 50mm is a lens that is missing from my micro four thirds arsenal at the moment - but this is something I hope to rectify early in the new year.. I've got my eye on the Panasonic 25mm f1.7 - the micro four thirds version of the Canon nifty fifty. The Olympus 25mm f1.8 is also a stellar lens, but just that bit more expensive.

NZ Cheese Selection. f2.8, 1/100th, ISO 400

Overall I'm very happy with the food images I captured on the evening.  Boosting the ISO, using a fast prime and shooting RAW gave me the flexability I needed to take half-decent food shots in less than ideal conditions. Perhaps more importantly - the polytech cooking tutors were also very happy with the results. Not bad for 10 year old kit and a cheap prime lens.